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Post by Quint on May 18, 2024 14:00:39 GMT -6
I saw this a couple days ago, looks excellent except for the word 'VALVE" in a bright yellow box in slanted 80s style, ART pedal board-ish vibe kill. For me, i'd have to cover it. Yes such bad taste compared to the rest of the range. I don’t know why you need to automate such basic controls. I don't know if it's so much for automation as it is for recall purposes, from one song to the next, not that you couldn't do automation with this too. I'm with you on the faceplate though. The "Valve" is ugly.
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Post by Quint on May 18, 2024 11:23:28 GMT -6
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Post by Quint on May 18, 2024 11:16:34 GMT -6
I feel like I keep hearing people talk about this plug in the context of using it on mix buss. I'm curious if anyone is using it on individual channels?
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Post by Quint on May 18, 2024 0:56:25 GMT -6
Misaligned knobs are not shipping related. Improperly attached transformers (your repair tech told me he had already been making recommendations to you to start using Loctite on the mounting bolts for transformers, among other things) are not shipping related. Misaligned PCBs are not shipping related. Stripped out mounting screws on the lid are not shipping related (you guys also wanted me to initially try to fix it with glue...) I'm not trying to relitigate this here either. But it's also not like I've forgotten how things went down. Yes they were but we are not going to agree, let’s leave it at rest. This thread is not about Stam. Let’s move on. As I previously said, I wasn't trying to relitigate this in this thread. But, nevertheless, I'm also free to offer my thoughts on history, and offer an opinion on where I see Stam fitting into thr clone pecking order. Matter of fact, I've had quite the restraint on this subject. This thread is, by far, the most I've ever spoken publicly about QA/QC issues with your products. So I'm sorry if posting about this in this one thread is inconvenient for you. I could have been all over the forums dogging on Stam build quality, but I didn't.
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Post by Quint on May 17, 2024 20:23:09 GMT -6
I'm not trying to make this thread into a referendum on Stam build quality. I'll just leave it at this. None of the issues I experienced had anything to do with shipping. They went in the box that way. And it's been a while, but I wanna say that I remember at least some of the packages arriving in a condition that aligns with what others are saying about it being well packed. But that sort of proves my point about them going in the box in an already defective manner. It wasn't the shipping. They went in the box that way. I kind of just moved on, and didn't bother even contacting Stam about some of these defects (I did contact Stam about repair on the worst defects) because it just wasn't worth it to me to deal with the hassle and run around, not to mention that I had some tragedies going on in my personal life at the time, so I didn't exactly have the bandwidth to get in an argument about repairs. But they were absolutely pre-shipping defects. No two ways about it. No they didn't go in the box that way but we already had that debate and it was many years ago, it's pointless to have it again. All the issues you had aside from the 609 were shipping related. I am glad you moved on. Misaligned knobs are not shipping related (I can't turn the freq selector without it dragging the concentric gain knob along with it). Improperly attached transformers (your repair tech told me he had already been making recommendations to you to start using Loctite on the mounting bolts for transformers, among other things) are not shipping related. Misaligned PCBs are not shipping related (the SA609 PCB and/or case was incorrectly designed or built, and 2 of the 5 standoffs underneath don't align with the screw holes on the PCB, but you guys just stuck with it rather than redesign or rebuild a properly mounted PCB). Plastic knobs on the SA609, which can't handle the torque necessary to turn the underlying switch without stripping the plastic knobs off of the switch, are not shipping related. Stripped out mounting screws on the lid are not shipping related (you guys also wanted me to initially try to fix it with glue?!?...) I'm not trying to relitigate this here either. But it's also not like I've forgotten how things went down. Facts are facts.
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Post by Quint on May 17, 2024 17:27:29 GMT -6
Why do these require their own rack?
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Post by Quint on May 17, 2024 17:10:40 GMT -6
Hey - I had an awful experience with Aurora Audio...and will never buy again. But others seem to love theirs... You're not the only one I've heard say this about Aurora. They seem to be having some problems over there.
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Post by Quint on May 17, 2024 16:29:28 GMT -6
John has a custom Sterling desk with fans built in to cool off his 17 Sta-Levels. I assumed he had the room for gear because he emptied all of the gold bars out of his bank vault and moved his studio in there.
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Post by Quint on May 17, 2024 16:16:57 GMT -6
I'm not trying to make this thread into a referendum on Stam build quality. I'll just leave it at this. None of the issues I experienced had anything to do with shipping. They went in the box that way.
And it's been a while, but I wanna say that I remember at least some of the packages arriving in a condition that aligns with what others are saying about it being well packed. But that sort of proves my point about them going in the box in an already defective manner. It wasn't the shipping. They went in the box that way.
I kind of just moved on, and didn't bother even contacting Stam about some of these defects (I did contact Stam about repair on the worst defects) because it just wasn't worth it to me to deal with the hassle and run around, not to mention that I had some tragedies going on in my personal life at the time, so I didn't exactly have the bandwidth to get in an argument about repairs. But they were absolutely pre-shipping defects. No two ways about it.
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Post by Quint on May 17, 2024 13:29:55 GMT -6
To a large extent, I think the answer is, yes, when it comes to equivalent (different, but not better or worse) sound quality. But what you're not necessarily going to get with those cheaper prices are build quality, longevity of components, or customer support, to whatever extent that matters. Maybe my above statement isn't as applicable for the first tier stuff like Warm/KT/Behringer, where they cheap out on the design and leave out things like interstage transformers or use lower quality transformers, where these sort of cost saving measures do actually have a negative impact on the sound quality itself. But stuff above that, in the sort of second tier of clones, like Heritage and what not, I mostly don't think about it on a sound quality level. It's just the longevity, build quality and customer service that I maybe wonder about. And then the third tier clone stuff, like Audioscape and others like them, I don't worry about on any level at all. It's as good as the original in every way. Stam I would sort of put somewhere between tier 2 and tier 3 because, despite how it may sound, it is a pain in the ass to deal with on a customer service level and, personally speaking, I've had QA/QC issues with every single item I've ever ordered from them. Their typical response has been that they make "artisan" products, insinuating that I should just accept a certain level of fuck ups and not complain, to which I respond with "did you sell me cheese?". They do sound good, but I doubt I'll ever buy anything from Stam again. There have been QC issues with a couple of my older Stam buys, but never had issues with some of the later stuff. That being said - every single Stam product I’ve had sounds fantastic. That ADG is the thickest FET comp I’ve ever used. Both 1073 variants I’ve had have been as good as the BAE stuff I compared it to. Anyway - I really think the stuff sounds great - but yes - we all know the waits are a bit untenable. The sound is definitely there. I just had issues with knobs on my pair of 1073EQs, issues with the lid and transformer mounting (they were very loose) on my pair of 76ADGs, and issues with a knob and a PCB standoff on my 609. That, plus the wait times we're all aware of, and I'm pretty reluctant to do it again. This is why I kind of considered Stam somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd tier in my previous post. The sound is great, but some of the other issues keep them from being at the same level as Audioscape, in my opinion.
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Post by Quint on May 17, 2024 11:20:26 GMT -6
To a large extent, I think the answer is, yes, when it comes to equivalent (different, but not better or worse) sound quality. But what you're not necessarily going to get with those cheaper prices are build quality, longevity of components, or customer support, to whatever extent that matters.
Maybe my above statement isn't as applicable for the first tier stuff like Warm/KT/Behringer, where they cheap out on the design and leave out things like interstage transformers or use lower quality transformers, where these sort of cost saving measures do actually have a negative impact on the sound quality itself.
But stuff above that, in the sort of second tier of clones, like Heritage and what not, I mostly don't think about it on a sound quality level. It's just the longevity, build quality and customer service that I maybe wonder about.
And then the third tier clone stuff, like Audioscape and others like them, I don't worry about on any level at all. It's as good as the original in every way.
Stam I would sort of put somewhere between tier 2 and tier 3 because, despite how it may sound, it is a pain in the ass to deal with on a customer service level and, personally speaking, I've had QA/QC issues with every single item I've ever ordered from them. Their typical response has been that they make "artisan" products, insinuating that I should just accept a certain level of fuck ups and not complain, to which I respond with "did you sell me cheese?". They do sound good, but I doubt I'll ever buy anything from Stam again.
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Post by Quint on May 16, 2024 13:33:29 GMT -6
I thought Behringer doesn't participate in such things? I can't tell if you're being facetious or serious . Either way, I have no clue. Not being facetious. I feel like I read somewhere recently that Behringer actually doesn't participate in the early bird review thing. The implication being that, if anyone wants to do a review, it's up to them to buy and review it when it becomes publicly available. It was a discussion about synth clones that Behringer has been releasing, and why you don't see early bird reviews of Behringer clone synths which haven't yet been released, but are about to be.
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Post by Quint on May 16, 2024 11:59:38 GMT -6
Ok, I've had close to 10 people now ask me to do a review on this. Should I reach out to Behringer? I thought Behringer doesn't participate in such things?
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Post by Quint on May 16, 2024 7:18:53 GMT -6
My biggest worry with this would maybe be the noise. Diode bridges are a little noisier to begin with, and I could see that maybe being an issue with this Behringer box.
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Post by Quint on May 12, 2024 11:40:57 GMT -6
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Post by Quint on May 10, 2024 15:46:51 GMT -6
UA finally made resizable GUIs a reality in April. Took forever, like everything else they do, but it did finally happen last month. MacOS only though... All the native plugs are resizable on PC.. but not the DSP ones? All that hubbub about upgrading to VST3 and they're still not resizable. I mostly use the native stuff I have these days anyway, but a weird move on their end. Correct. Only for Mac OS, for now. UA claims it's because "it's harder to develop for PC". They still charge PC users the same amount of money though. Seems to me that PC users are within their rights to expect equal treatment and speed/level of development as that which has occured for Mac OS, but that's not how it's been. I'll keep saying it. UA either needs to shit or get off the pot when it comes to supporting and developing PC. So either do it for real or just stop marketing/selling to PC users altogether.
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Post by Quint on May 10, 2024 6:44:26 GMT -6
I'll probably only grab this if they ever update it to native or at least a newer version with a resizable GUI. I tried to demo it some months back and the plugin window was teeny tiny on my 1440p monitor. Is this thing made for ants? UA finally made resizable GUIs a reality in April. Took forever, like everything else they do, but it did finally happen last month. MacOS only though...
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Post by Quint on May 8, 2024 12:51:00 GMT -6
Just yesterday night I was creating a big playlist with the best Albini records as a reference. WTF. I wish I knew more about his life. He had a ton of anecdotes. I hope someone writes a biography. Can you share that playlist here when you’re done? Been listening to this playlist for the last couple of hours.
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Post by Quint on May 8, 2024 10:53:10 GMT -6
Shit.....
I know he could be divisive, and some people didn't like him (I was personally squarely in the pro Albini camp), but I always thought really highly of him, and his general "fuck the man" approach to life. I always cracked a smile when certain people would take offense at things that Steve said. Hell, there were whole threads on GS about such things. A lot of the music that he was involved in cuts a path right thru the heart of my formative years.
This hits hard. He will be sorely missed.
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Post by Quint on May 8, 2024 2:19:30 GMT -6
I have a Drawmer 1978… amazing stereo FET compressor with a very flexible side chain that’s awesome. Would the AS 1178 be kinda redundant? It never occurred to me until this very moment that the Drawmer 1978 might be trying, to one degree or another, to emulate the 1178. Now my curiosity is piqued.
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Post by Quint on May 7, 2024 14:36:59 GMT -6
I swore off all things Acustica a while back. However, I checked in recently to see what this new Ultra stuff was about. In a nutshell, the Ultra line of plugins are maybe supposed to be working a little better (not as buggy or laggy), but at the expense of not sounding as good as the older stuff. Which is a big letdown and kind of defeats the purpose of using Acustica in the first place, which is for sonic reasons. And it sounds like Acustica is kind of quietly abandoning (not updating) a lot of the older plugins either. Ultra is the way forward, it seems. Throw in all of the other usual Acustica shenanigans and plugin bugginess, plus Zaphod's usual ego trip stuff, and I think I'm gonna continue to stay away. Plus, I don't use Nebula, but it seems like it's maybe kind of getting slowly abandoned as well? I bought the clipper and it’s Ultra. It’s pretty killer. The last time I compared a couple of their plugs, there were a few I did think might sound a little better, but they’re just so clunky. Fire the Clip? That one? I can't keep it all straight. There is such an endless stream of new releases from Acustica. If it's Fire, I believe that plugin is actually a departure from the usual convolution thing that Acustica does, and is all or at least partially algorithmic.
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Post by Quint on May 7, 2024 13:34:07 GMT -6
I swore off all things Acustica a while back. However, I checked in recently to see what this new Ultra stuff was about. In a nutshell, the Ultra line of plugins are maybe supposed to be working a little better (not as buggy or laggy), but at the expense of not sounding as good as the older stuff (cleaner, less vibey).
Which is a big letdown and kind of defeats the purpose of using Acustica in the first place, which is for sonic reasons. And it sounds like Acustica is kind of quietly abandoning (not updating) a lot of the older plugins either. Ultra is the way forward, it seems. Throw in all of the other usual Acustica shenanigans and plugin bugginess, plus Zaphod's usual ego trip stuff, and I think I'm gonna continue to stay away. Plus, I don't use Nebula, but it seems like it's maybe kind of getting slowly abandoned as well?
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Post by Quint on May 7, 2024 11:40:11 GMT -6
Ive never had the pleasure of working on a heider desk, but I did spend a couple years at a studio that had a four pack of heider 312s racked up and ooooooh boy they were sweet🤩 Is the Heider desk you guys are talking the DiMedio? Yes
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Post by Quint on May 7, 2024 6:51:38 GMT -6
“ If you want access to the full library, DSP will continue to be the only way to go. That said, I do think a new Apollo has to be around the corner. We'll see if UA finally upgrades the chips to ARM or something. If they release a new Apollo without an upgraded FPGA and DSP chips, I'm gonna have to really think about my continued investment in UA. I mean, I already am, but that might be another nail in the coffin.” I agree with all your points and never thought UA would port all plugs ins, for the reasons you stated. The next gen Apollo will be a real harbinger of whether UA is at all serious about addressing the chip performance/ price inequalities inherent in its platform. The current ua environment works for those who value its workflow, but there are definitely other games in town, we’ll see whether UA steps up its processing/price game. The workflow is the only thing that keeps me around. But even the workflow isn't without it's problems. The limited routing on the Apollos is kinda shit. It's the number one thing I want to see improved in the next gen Apollo, even more than the DSP chips. The current FPGA is a real bottleneck for routing. But some more higher powered DSP would be welcome too.
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Post by Quint on May 7, 2024 6:09:39 GMT -6
That’s interesting, so in a way it is backing away from its subscription plan so it will not include all plug ins, forcing people to keep on buying old design sharc chip devices, if they want more ua plug ins. wonder when there will be a new Apollo or new satellites, cards with chips with higher processing capacity? “The SHARC processor portfolio currently consists of four generations of products providing code-compatible solutions ranging from entry-level products priced at less than $10 to the highest performance products offering fixed- and floating-point computational power to 450 MHz/2700 MFLOPs.” Well they were never gonna port the 3rd party stuff, and that's like half the catalog or something. Which leaves about a 100 or so DSP plugins that UA directly developed, 50 or so of which have already been ported to native. I guess UA sees the remaining ~50 as less important to port, because they get used less. Also, there a significant number of those remaining plugins that are either pretty old, are plugins like those in the Precision line (and therefore not in high demand to be ported), or are otherwise stunted by licensing issues, such as what is going on with thr Neve and SSL stuff. So, realistically, there's probably a fairly short list (<20) of UA developed plugins that remain which are both desirable for UA to port and which they actually even have the ability to port. Hence the slowdown. Sounds like we'll maybe see a trickle trickle of a DSP port to native every few months, at best, going forward and, even then, there just isn't that much worthwhile and available low hanging fruit left for UA to port. If you want access to the full library, DSP will continue to be the only way to go. That said, I do think a new Apollo has to be around the corner. We'll see if UA finally upgrades the chips to ARM or something. If they release a new Apollo without an upgraded FPGA and DSP chips, I'm gonna have to really think about my continued investment in UA. I mean, I already am, but that might be another nail in the coffin.
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