View Single Post
Old 05-15-2012, 08:30 AM   #79
Banned
Human being with feelings
 
Banned's Avatar
 
Join Date: Mar 2008
Location: Unwired (probably in the proximity of Amsterdam)
Posts: 4,868
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mercado_Negro View Post
Sorry Banned, I can't help you there. I've never heard/used the UAD Moog Multimode Filter. While Nebula does a great job on the saturation and harmonic enrichment department, it doesn't handle distortion too well (nor abrupt dynamic changes). If you're looking for a good equalizer for instruments or vocals, then it's the best you can buy nowadays but if you want to be creative with filters and whatnot, then don't spend your time, look somewhere else.
I want to be creative with all my plugins. That's what I have them for.

I think we probably use classifications/labels like "eq", "filter", "saturation" and "distortion" much the same way in day-to-day use, and I think I get your point, but still, for the sake of argument, isn't an eq basically the same as a (set of) filter(s), and isn't "distortion" much the same as "saturation"? (i.e., we want to use musically pleasing types of distortion, which is typically a matter of saturation and harmonic enrichment.) Wouldn't you agree that the major difference between such classifications is in the way we use them, and that basically they are different user interfaces to the same underlying technical processes? (Much like "reverb", "delay", "chorus", "flanger" etc. are all delay-based effects on a more general level, from a technical point of view)

Then to me it seems that if one filter can not handle abrupt dynamic changes, while the other can, the first is simply not better than the second, but worse. Labeling it as "filter" or "eq" doesn't change that as far as I can see. And the same goes for saturation/distortion/overdrive: if it is only usable at subtle settings, but breaks down on dynamic changes, it is simply inferior. I *can* see that there are use cases where you don't need any creative tweaking, nor the ability to handle different types of source material, so that such limitations aren't a practical problem. But that doesn't make it a better tool, only one much more specific for certain types of use.

Quote:
Originally Posted by Mercado_Negro View Post
Andrew Simpler will release a filter very soon and it sounds amazing, I'd dare to say it is the best filter I've heard so far (for creative stuff). You can hear some audio demos (or read about it), here: https://cytomic.com/cytomic-announce...-filter-plugin
Hey, almost a year since that announcement! We can almost start calling it "vaporware".

More seriously, I'm confident that Andy will not let us down, and I expect it to be comparable to u-he's Diva filters. The aspect that apparently explains the great sonic qualities of these filters is the use of zero-delay feedback algorithms. Which is exactly what that UAD Moog filter uses as well, and that was released 3 years before Diva. Which is why it seems to be a very good frame of reference for filters and saturation/distortion/overdrive.

So I'm still wondering whether Nebula can stand up to (or even surpass) that level of sonic quality, even regardless of any other concerns such as realtime tweaking or CPU usage. Your answer makes me doubt it, I must say. But of course I should not judge it until hearing it for myself. Which makes me even more curious.
__________________
˙lɐd 'ʎɐʍ ƃuoɹʍ ǝɥʇ ǝɔıʌǝp ʇɐɥʇ ƃuıploɥ ǝɹ,noʎ
Banned is offline   Reply With Quote