Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

Hey, I'm curious what your favorite Aqua plugins are.. in general and also for specific insturments. I'm thinking about buying one or two, but there are so many to choose from.

Re: Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

It's spelled Acqua and the plugins are from Acustica Audio for those that don't know.

But to answer your question:
None. They're over-priced compared to other developer's wares. But there are a group of people over on Gearslutz that think they're the greatest thing since sliced bread. Say bad things about AA plugins there and you'll rue the day you made that comment. They do have interesting gui's though :rolleyes:

Re: Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

I haven't been able to run any of their plugins on Windows without hiccups and the install system made me give up completely. I haven't tried the new free Bax eq but I don't think they sound any better than other companies with the same number of products

Re: Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

I really tried to like these Plugins and Nebula... But this is a Bug Hell...
All based on impulse responses is nice, but static... I am not a fan, but other people say, this plugins area the holy grail in sound...

Re: Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

Ya, I'm familiar with that group on gearslutz. Is it just the prices that turn you off the the Acqua line? I've only demoed a few of em, and I like what I've tried.. one example would be Ultramarine 4 (their Fairchild emu); it sounded great on the 2bus.They do absolutely murder the CPU, but I've read that it has alot to do with running the AAX versions on Pro Tools. I'm planning on installing Reaper soon so I can try the VST versions. They supposedly run pretty smooth on that setup.

Re: Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

Adam, Adam, Adam - you've been on this forum long enough to know you don't need another daw to run vst plugins. For that there's Blue Cat Patchwork. Also didn't you read what TrackerLe wrote about them being static impulse response based (and not really computational)?

Besides do you really want to learn another daw just so you can run some plugins that aren't all that great to begin with? Want a decent Fairchild 670/660 emulation that won't break the bank and runs just fine in PT? Try the Puigchild 670 that Waves has - and if you jump on it today (Sunday) you can still get in on Waves's get a second $29 plugin for an additional $1.

Re: Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

Ya, I'm familiar with wrappers..DDMF also makes a decent one called Metaplugin. In my last post I was referring to their performance on Reaper, not just VST. That why I ended the post with, "They supposedly run pretty smooth on that setup." That setup being Reaper.


I've probably said it a million times on here already, but I'm a musician who enjoys recording and messing around with the mixing process. Don't get me wrong, I want to get better at recording/mixing, but I just don't have the patience for it. I'm saying all this because switching to Reaper won't be a big deal with the lack of knowledge I have on the ins n outs of PT.


The thing that will actually suck more than anything is re-downloading all my plugins.. I only install the AAX format to save hard drive space, so I'll need to go back and get the VST versions.


Plus, everyone I know that's made the switch to Reaper hasn't looked back and highly recommends me switching. I think I might have a post on here about this (PT vs. Reaper) and it's overwhelmingly for Reaper.

Oh ya, I have the UAD Fairchild 670 and like it alot. I never gave the Waves on a second thought because of this. I'm gonna A/B the UAD and Acqua sometime today; I'm surprised I haven't already..

Re: Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

You don't save all that much space just installing the aax version - probably less than a meg which in the scheme of things means nothing. Period. If you still have the installers just re-run them. If not when you download the installers save them off to a safe space on an external drive so you have them for when you need them. Don't laugh - that can happen more than you think.

Patchwork and DDMF are NOT wrappers but hosts. Avid outlawed wrappers a few years back. Huge difference between the two schemes. Wrappers can change the code of the plugin being used and hosts do just that - they host the plugin with NO changes.

If you applied yourself and stopped thinking of yourself as 'just a musician' you could easily learn the ins and outs of PT. You'll be wasting time learning Reaper instead of just learning PT. You'd be throwing away what you learned with PT for what seems like greener pastures. Notice I said 'greener' because they may at first seem that way and when you step into a meadow muffin you'll wonder why you went down that path. All daws have their idiosyncracies and PT's aren't any better or worse than others.

There's one advantage to Reaper - it's cheap and could be free if you don't mind the nag screen every time you start up. And you know what they say about free - it's worth what you paid for it :rolleyes:

Re: Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

And I thought I was being so smart just installing the AAX version!! Haha. Oh well. It'll actually probably end up being a good thing cuz my plugin screen is so cluttered with ******** that it'll give me an excuse to change it.
Before I even do any of that tho, I'm gonna try a couple Aqua plugs to see if the performance increase is really that drastic.



While Reaper is free to try for X amount of days, they do have a pay version.. it's a $60 flat fee. After the hundreds of dollars that I invested in PT, they really F'd me in the A a while back. I mistakenly let my annual upgrade subscription lapse for literally two or three days and they wouldn't cut me a bit of slack. Now what would have been $100 or $150 turned into $350! I refuse to pay on principle alone, not to mention that I don't judt have n extra $200 floating around! So I've been stuck at version 12.4 ever since.



When I say I'm a musician more than an engineer, I just mean that I get insane ADD when I'm trying to mix a sound that I've finished. My brain want to keep writing songs instead of fiddling knobs. It really is driving me nuts, cuz I really do wanna learn how to be a good mixer. I guess that's just one of many aspects of my insanity!

Favorite Aqua Plugins
 

I really really like diamond eq and el Rey.
The diamond eq can do things I have never heard before. It’s not always what I need, but it’s hi freq band, coupled with the transformers can really do magic stuff very often.
The trans will steal some low bottom end though, so it’s not for every situation.

El Rey can be amazing on vocals and 2 bus. Again, not always. It can steal a bit of hi freq focus, and soften things up. That’s both good and bad, depending on the situation.
There are many of their plugins that are kind of “meh” to me. Especially compared to other plugins, but I really love these 2. As in REALLY.
I think that very often in the digital domain, high freq content can end up sound flat when boosted. The diamond eq, to me, does this really really well. Generally AA plugins do this well, I think.
I am by no means a AA snob, and almost never ever buy plugins. Only when I am very impressed.
I own plugins from fabfilter, Valhalla dsp and others.
I used to use UAD stuff as well, and AA certainly has just as much color. And you lose the dsp dongle (dsp card/satellite).
I miss some uad plugins (the api channel strips and 610 strips)


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