Favorite Aqua Plugins

[adam79]

Originally Posted by the19thbear

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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I've passed on trying the diamond stuff cuz it mentions how it was made for electronic music and I'm all rock n blues. Unless that's what you're using it for.. electronic stuff. Either way, I'll have to check it out.

Everythind that I've read about El Rey has been great, but something came up during my trial, so I never got to try it properly, if at all. I've been meaning to ask AA for an extension.

I kinda feel the same about a decent amount of their lineup being nothing special. I like the free Titanium strip for bass boost.. it's made me wanna try the full plugin.

I've actually been debating on whether to get n Acqua or Fabfilter; it seems like everything FF makes is amazing. What do u have besides FF n Valhalla? Just curious since u seem to only buy quality stuff and aren't a pig at the plugin troth.

[the19thbear]

Hehe. Piggy piggy.
I use stock pro tools plugins. (Use space a lot).
And I have NI komplete. That gives me guitar rig (with many other things), which gives me lots of delays and echos, including their IR reverb (reflektor) which has some great springs in it. NI konplete also gives me reaktor, which has so many amazing effects. I mostly use 3rd party stuff.
Valhalla vintage verb.
Valhalla space modulator.
Will be getting his delay also some day. But I don’t even want to spend 50 dollars unless I need to. Not because I hate spending money, but because I hate to have things I don’t use.
Fabfilter comps/eqs/desser
Klanghelms sddr saturation.
El Rey, diamond eq.
Antares autotune (light version).

That’s pretty much it. (Might have forgotten something obvious).
I make a living doing sound design and music for computer games/tv shows/commercials etc. both electronic music and normal “acoustic” music (many genres, but you know, acoustic, as in real instruments).
I’m a 2 times emmy nominee. Not that i want to go “WOW, worship me”, but just to show that I actually do this professionally.

About AA. Some things I think are way better than normal algo plugins. And I think I would have bought more of their plugins, but only do it if I’m extremely wowed and really need it for a current project.
I have tested their pultecs as well and almost bought them. Especially one of their units sounded incredible in the hi freq area as well. And could do things diamond couldn’t. But I de-gas’ed, and decided that I wanted to stay with what I have and get to know it.
I would say fabfilter is for surgical, clean stuff and AA for dirty stuff (along with sddr and reaktor stuff).

:)



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[xrekcor]

Originally Posted by adam79

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.

Which I bet only included a small portion in the scheme of things of mostly disgruntled with Avid users... and those even willing to engage in that discussion. Overwhelming in that thread maybe.

[adam79]

Originally Posted by the19thbear

Hehe. Piggy piggy.
I use stock pro tools plugins. (Use space a lot).
And I have NI komplete. That gives me guitar rig (with many other things), which gives me lots of delays and echos, including their IR reverb (reflektor) which has some great springs in it. NI konplete also gives me reaktor, which has so many amazing effects. I mostly use 3rd party stuff.
Valhalla vintage verb.
Valhalla space modulator.
Will be getting his delay also some day. But I don’t even want to spend 50 dollars unless I need to. Not because I hate spending money, but because I hate to have things I don’t use.
Fabfilter comps/eqs/desser
Klanghelms sddr saturation.
El Rey, diamond eq.
Antares autotune (light version).

That’s pretty much it. (Might have forgotten something obvious).
I make a living doing sound design and music for computer games/tv shows/commercials etc. both electronic music and normal “acoustic” music (many genres, but you know, acoustic, as in real instruments).
I’m a 2 times emmy nominee. Not that i want to go “WOW, worship me”, but just to show that I actually do this professionally.

About AA. Some things I think are way better than normal algo plugins. And I think I would have bought more of their plugins, but only do it if I’m extremely wowed and really need it for a current project.
I have tested their pultecs as well and almost bought them. Especially one of their units sounded incredible in the hi freq area as well. And could do things diamond couldn’t. But I de-gas’ed, and decided that I wanted to stay with what I have and get to know it.
I would say fabfilter is for surgical, clean stuff and AA for dirty stuff (along with sddr and reaktor stuff).

I'm honestly not surprised as your success with minimal plugins. As long as the sample rates and bit rates are there (well as long as something meets a certain criteria) and if you know what you're doing, i.e. put in your 10k hrs, have an ear for frequency, know how to make space for all the instruments, understand verb n delay to give the mix depth, know how to tweak parameters to get what you hear in your head onto tape/hard drive, blah blah blah.. you're gonna be successful with mainly stock plugins.

That being said, which is the AA plug that has the kick ass high end? Haha.

[Eric Lambert]

Some of their plugins sound excellent and some are merely good. The price difference between something like El Rey (a great compressor) and another company's heavy tube character compressor in no way puts El Rey off the table if you're a working professional. We're talking about a $50-100 difference for something you may use every day. It is among the best-sounding plugin for that genre. That said, I find myself using it less and less as time goes by. Not so much because of its sound but because of its CPU usage and insane delay. And because I've found a few others in 2019 that make El Rey less essential (Kush AR-1, for instance).

As an aside, I find the company to be overly convoluted and obscure and their product line follows suit. You want a certain type of EQ or compressor? Good luck telling them apart based upon product descriptions. I've gone to their site three separate times recently and expected to leave with a new plug. I gave up quickly and went home empty-handed, each time. I also didn't want to deal with the installation and authorization scheme.

But, in general, their products do sound great.

[the19thbear]

Agreed:) they are a bit weird but getting better each year.
Nebula was a mess ( a beautiful sounding one). Their registration was horrible. But now the have Aquarius. They updated their website recently etc. they are learning. I really do believe they soon will be a real problem for UAD.

I mostly use AA plugins on busses or 2 track so delay and cpu use is no problem for me. I also just freeze/commit. But I get your complaint.
But I would much rather have a hi quality, with much cpu use-scenario than the opposite.
That being said, I have often been very impressed with UBK stuff (as you mentioned)


To OP: I don’t remember which pultec eq was the “magic one”. Use your ears:).
Or go for the diamond eq. It’s great.



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[Gemylon]

I bought few AA plugins during their last sale - 70 % off !
And I bought Navy2 recently with an intro price of 59 €.
Navy 2 is a fantastic tool btw.

Sound wise a lot of the AA stuff is up there with UAD.
(Btw, I use UAD a lot. Waves not so much.)

But unfortunately, AA is still not running too smooth in Pro Tools.
Even though there have been a lot of progress last year.
I also just found out about using Patchwork with Pro Tools,
but haven't had time to look into it yet.

AA is not like any other company, and I like their way of doing things.
And over at FB, you have quite a special community,
where you can talk directly to the developers. I visit daily.
You got to be a member though.


Cheers.

BTW ...
When it comes to Reaper, I've tried to get into it, but no go.
It can never replace Pro Tools in my setup.

[adam79]

Originally Posted by the19thbear

To OP: I don’t remember which pultec eq was the “magic one”. Use your ears:).
Or go for the diamond eq. It’s great.

Oh, right on.. so it's one of the Pultec emus. Any idea of a few companies I should check out to narrow it down a bir? There'ee just so damn many out there that make em. Thanks.

[the19thbear]

It’s the one made by AA


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