if you are looking at buying the aphex plugin bundle, also the complete bundle...

[TNM]

Do it!

I wanted this bundle for so many years... and there's no free trial it seems, I could never find once, only a paid one..

Now with the $99 price tag rather than 500 bucks (!) I finally went for it...A total gamble..

I am really quite impressed!

Look, the high frequency exciter is good.. but most of us already have the waves one that has been sold a million times at $29 on special and sounds similar.. I wanted this for the bottom.. and it sounds H U G E (that said, the high end definitely added something sweet just by being inserted and I'm going to spend more time with it and comparing it to the waves in the near future).

It's going to be very interesting working with the BBP in a mix as it's just so BIG that the key here I feel will be judicious use of it dialled way back.

What I like about it most so far is that it sounds completely different to all the other bottom end enhancers I have tried over the years. I don't think (and i could be wrong), that it's actually adding harmonics to the signal at all. It also sounds quite different to the resonant high pass trick to my ears (which I have used many times over the years).
What I am liking is that unlike ren bass, you can add a ton of weight without increasing the peak volume..With the waves bottom end enhancers, I have to dial the output volume back so much that half the time you end up just hearing bottom end with all the top of it washed away..
There's definitely a lot of compression going on though in the aphex though. so I don't know how it would fair on already heavily compressed material..
Anyway, so far my favourite use is on bass where it can really give it some edge and depth. Drums sounded great too..

Good fun! I like having something that is PT only...

BTW, there was a year of the avid complete plugin bundle waiting to be activated in my account.. I have no idea why or when that happened.. so I did.. and the avid pro series plugins are superb and yet another thing I love having that is PT exclusive :)

You can do almost anything you need with just the one bundle.. Sometimes I wonder why I waste so much money on plugins when you can get so much for so little.. All you need is this bundle, Pro Q3 off course, maybe a couple specialty plugins and you're rockin'. There is a subharmonic enhancer there that sounds different to the Aphex and I think this one IS adding harmonics (again I could be wrong).. The expander/compressor/limiter are all great.. There's a ton of useful pluggies in there though besides the pro series.. I really quite like some of Avid's older compressors like Smack for example.
There's some really lovely reverbs in there as well and it's a worthwhile package..And even some useful stomp boxes.. The reel tape suite is something I am not sure of yet but so far I will admit I don't like it much, but will definitely investigate further.. the problem is that the tape plugin itself is average at best, and the flanger sounds great but the sync options are so limited.. no long sweeps over bars.. and the delay doesn't all that good when feedback is driven hard (unlike say the Logic tape delay).. But that aside, even a couple of the old Bomb Factory plugins have some use.. The purple audio 76 is a bit of fun indeed..I also really like the sansamp.

Adding Heat and the Aphex to it would make it a no brainer for everyone really and be a great business decision, but for the ultra cheap sub price (PLEASE don't increase this too Avid), it's a solid investment regardless.. Don't forget the full X Form is included as well which means you can stretch drums without ruining transients (by the way i worked out what is wrong with x form offline in EA.. they are using the poly fast algorithm instead of the full poly..).

BTW the aphex is perpetual.. no subs there.. for $99 i really think it's worth it!

[JFreak]

Aphex has been great since 80's

[TNM]

Originally Posted by JFreak

Aphex has been great since 80's

I had never used any aphex plugin but i DID once have an aural excited hardware, just did the high end.. It was fun enough.. I actually think this plugin sounds better than the unit I had all those years back :)

It poos on maxx bass. :)