MusicMan

In fairness I can pretty safely guarantee it's much more fun than having breakfast though isn't it?! ?

Haha.. it can get like that at times ? Would be really interesting to hear your thoughts on how they both compare.

I grabbed the Lowdown as it sounds quite different to any of the others I have from them and I really like the sound. I also stumbled across a review about Wave Alchemy Bass Pedals which is a Kontakt library and that sounded really good too, so I might even pick that up at some stage for another option.

They actually explain it quite well in their forum and why they feel it's not false advertising. Like I mentioned though, I do agree their advertising copy could be improved and they could've handled the situation better after Dan's video. Instead of being focused on artifacts found in old gear, we focused on the original work that went into voicing the EQ at the time. As mentioned above the 32C EQ predated "parametric EQs" and it was very difficult to make that EQ do a lot of work with just the two knobs per band. The feel of the knobs, the depth of the proportional -Q action, the speed of the filters relative to the knobs etc. etc. etc. was a serious trial by error. Those refined circuit designs (yes resistors, capacitors, transistors etc.) are what we included in the mathematical model. Also note, that the distortion and noise measurements of those original consoles (WHEN THEY WERE NEW) were extremely low and virtually unaffected even with the EQ in circuit. The entire point back when there were ONLY analog consoles was to make them as clean, with the lowest possible noise and distortion, lowest possible cross-talk, and as phase coherent as possible. Harrison was not alone. Every analog console manufacturer was after the same thing/s. Distortion, noise, cross-talk, phase issues etc. etc. were all the enemy. We spent many man years tweaking those console circuit designs for optimum performance. All of that... is what we built into the mathematical model of the Mixbus32C EQ and now the 32C Channel EQ. As with the original console EQ design, this was no easy task. It caused a lot of headaches and issues here because the mathematical model was built on the knob resistor values to get the tapers and behaviors correct rather than using off-the-shelf Bi-quad math. But we digress, this is a post about Bertom, so this should really be under a Harrison post, or PM ? Analog Obsession make some great plugins too though and super generous for free. I don't use them much these days, but I might have to make a point to go through some of them again. In particular the Harqules, as I don't remember that one, so thanks for sharing it!

They both sound good, but from this video alone, wow... That Moog Taurus III sounds insanely good and quite a step ahead! So warm and thick sounding.. love those bass tones from it ?

100% agreed ? The Harrison thing I think has been a little blown out of proportion though and as much as I love Dan Worrall's reviews, walk throughs and tutorials, in that particular case I think he really missed the most critical point of distinction in painting the full picture. The Channel was never intended to be non linear and have an analogue vibe, it was more just about tone from the EQ curves, compression and shaping. All the saturation and that goodness comes from the next stage in their DAW which are the busses, where you can use the Drive dial to introduce harmonics, etc to taste. Their modelling apparently was to model the curve, taking into account the analogue components for their model only from that perspective. Do I think they could've been more transparent with their marketing? Sure do! Do I think a vast proportion of developers we all like also oversell some of those analogue saturation and vibe buzzwords. Absolutely! Do I think Dan could've also been more transparent in sharing the full story and not omitting that major point? Definitely! In a nutshell I don't think either Harrison, or Dan handled that one particular well, but it did get everyone talking and I do love things like these plugins to be able to check that stuff out for ourselves. It did also send a clear message to other developers to make sure they can explain, or backup their marketing and I love that from it too ?

That's right, I do use the generous demo too. Although I think if you're getting enough use out of Plugin Doctor then for the convenience it's still worth buying it.

While Plugin Doctor has more features (and is an excellent tool), I use this frequently as a drop in alternative for DDMF's for checking out the actual EQ curves in a lot of channel strips and boutique EQs and yes it measures phase as well. Plugin Doctor is more comprehensive, but not necessarily a lot more features that everyone will use, so for many people it for sure is a free alternative IMO. This coupled with most DAWs having signal generators and oscilloscopes covers a lot of what Plugin Doctor does. For the alias police it's not and attack and decay curves for compressors and those things it won't. Although for compression there's also the free Compressor Measurement Toolbox too. I'd definitely recommend people testing this one first and seeing if there's anything extra they will regularly use beyond that and then just buy Plugin Doctor if needed.

Great sounding synth. Jump on it! ?

If that's the case he probably deserves it. This is a good free alternative to Plugin Doctor and his de-noise and other free plugins are pretty decent too.

I think most of the current freebies are all reruns and getting stale.. I get that companies don't want to give away all of their plugins which is totally fair and expected, but they do lose the benefits in that it's no new exposure for them, they don't see new usage of their other plugins and for the reseller, there's really little to no incentive to buy from them based on the freebie. This will be a surplus copy for me too.. That said.. it's not a bad plugin ?

For me I look at it two ways.. while my DAW can still use VST2 now, given that Steinberg has already dropped VST2 support for Mac and are dropping it for Windows, I like the most chance of being able to open projects on the next versions ahead and not having any plugins/instruments that could hold it back should I want to upgrade. But on top of that, I think they will do a similar thing like with Minimonsta2 and provide VST3 support, but with extra features like they added polyphony with Monsta. They were good extras, although paid so it likely makes sense to pay $10 more on intro on Imposcar3 or wait for a sale, than a higher price of this plus $25+ upgrade.

Think I might wait until they release a VST3 version with this one. I suspect it's a good one though ?

That's only a modest 1919.19% increase to go to their regular monthly price... sounds reasonable... ?

I don't think they even updated Loom II to VST3 did they, let alone Loom? I've basically come to the conclusion that any of my Air synths like this are abandonware.. I can't see myself buying any of their products again really.

I own FX3 and MS20 and my price is $69. It's not a terrible price, but I think I'll skip this round. I'd rather cherry pick a few other plugins that are best in breed instead of just completing the suite of effects. Those Overloud GEMs are really good and I would say better than Arturia in general and on par with the UAD ones I've tried. I do quite like some of the Arturia ones too though, but Overloud has surprised me.

But I must know what I'm missing out on! Haha.. Besides.. by my calculations, surely Lars must be very close to finding another pricing error for us all by now ?

Well that one does inspire me to spend less this month.. haha..

But the YouTube shows FX Col 2 ?

I wish it was only their 10 year anniversary.. these sales will otherwise track with inflation each year and get progressively worse ?

I'm not 100% certain it's a typo.. all of the press clippings and what's new say V4 as well.. first I've heard anything about a new release though.. Everything else does look a lot like V3 however! That would almost seem like a stuff up by Arturia rather than JRR.

They seemed to have removed the bundle pricing/ codes they used to have for these on JRR.

And that's how they get ya! Haha.. I have been thinking of skipping a bunch of sub $25 plugins and instead buying some of the more premium ones instead as it all adds up.. but it's stuff like this that makes me question that ? I don't really need the layering side of this, but I did like the tone of it in parts and I have been liking more and more modular stuff..

I'm trying to buy less plugins and synths this year.. you people are not making that any easier ?

That's a really good free tape plugin too. Deep controls and even more versatile than many paid ones. Price aside, I wouldn't be surprised if this one from Impact is good too, but I'd definitely recommend putting the free one through its paces first to see if it's needed before buying.