I'M TRYING TO STAY POSITIVE... - Acustica Audio Taupe

[@annekedebruyn7797]

Being a bitch about someone on KZbin reviewing your poorly designed product will make me stay away even if they manage to 100% clone tape digitally.

[@JamesMaximilianJason]

Poorly designed product ? Call it CPU-heavy, call it hard to use (not for beginners or lazy people who use presets) but they're not poorly designed. You can dislike their vintage, hardware-like design but, again, surely the GUI is anything but poor.

[@JamesMaximilianJason]

@Vinyl Eye cancer really ? You're arguably too sensitive ;)

[@JamesMaximilianJason]

I make more distinction than you between how something looks and how it works, don't worry. I never said this is the best plugin ever. I said it's not poorly designed for sure. I don't fiddle with any knob unless I think they can help my mix and my workflow. If something doesn't, I stay away from it. This is not my fave plugin and I rarely use that but it's not the crap you're talking about anyway. That's my opinion and in this case I disagree with WST.

[@71dhwand]

@Vinyl Yep, the GUI is ugly as HELL !!!!

[@skriptico]

@Anneke de Bruyn Nope, if it sounds good then its good, even if the coders are not so likeable and the ui is horrible :P

[@andrianosmalls]

We don't want you to stay positive... we want you to be real

[@Whiteseastudio]

It's real ;-)

[@williessandwhich9725]

I agree with this, this is why I watch your snake oil vids. I want to know what is actually.. SNAKE OIL. so many so called reviews are actually just commercials disguised as reviews. keep doing these and being yourself... 'for real'

[@evoltap]

Willie's Sandwhich I agree. It’s just an opinion anyways, people get too butthurt about opinions that are different than their’s these days.

[@riddellthomas2185]

Yes same here.. I watch snake oil because unlike a lot of the others he's not falling for the hype of some of these plugin companies.. I'd like to hear what it sounds like on individual instruments to see its effect on a mix then.. yes keep it real mr snake oil ✌

[@brunobauche]

@@Whiteseastudio Done become coward because they troll you don't review them again don't be afraid.

[@TrevBarnes]

You should totally review the Harrison Mixbus! I feel like there’s no good honest reviews of that DAW

[@stefhan8013]

check out MG the future channel on Harrison Mixbus

[@talkbackbutton]

Yes, be a man! Review Mixbus 32C

[@notuern]

Glenn Fricker did a really good one

[@Geedygeedy]

It has a great sound but the functionality sucks and makes it unusable to me. If they add a freeze option it would save it..

[@annekedebruyn7797]

32c is killer. But I don't like the DAW part. I just use it for mixing really.

[@MrDifferentTV]

Just Remeber don't unlist the videos after you upload them. Just keep them up if you get hate so what. If you know you are being 100% then that's all that matter forget the hate because you got those that care about your videos and the time you put into them.

[@stansteez]

I think it's pretty shady to shit on the followers and commentators who criticized him for the way he approached his Decapitator review JUST AFTER HE APOLOGIZED to the same people in the community for deleting/unlisting the video!!! Criticism is not "hate" and it also was not a "shitstorm" - we just put him in check! The fact he deleted/unlisted the video just proofs that he was completely wrong trashing that plugin like that.

[@heavymetalmixer91]

@@stansteez No, it doesn't prove anything, it just means that you people are really annoying.

[@hinkleyhanley1577]

The issue is, he doesn't know he is being 100% some of the time. Sometimes he gets things wrong. Maybe bases a review on his incorrect use of a plugin, or deems a piece of hardware as useless because it doesn't emulate a compressor revision it wasn't aiming to emulate. No need to remove videos. Maybe just set the record straight.

[@heavymetalmixer91]

@@hinkleyhanley1577 That's exactly the charm of these "reviews", that he does them the same way we would try a plugin the first time. For fully informed reviews there are many other channels.

[@hinkleyhanley1577]

@@heavymetalmixer91 That's fine, until he starts putting "Useless. Don't Buy This" in the title for a perfectly good piece of hardware. You've only to look at the comments for the 76-KT. Multiple followers have been mislead by this inaccurate review. He was 100% WRONG there, and still hasn't even acknowledged this. Regarding the "Snake Oil" reviews, if your going to open a plugin for the first time and "review it" at least make sure you're using it properly, otherwise you might as well give studio monitors a bad review because they don't make good microphones.

[@steveng.4468]

From the "unofficial list's" description for Taupe "Taupe (13) - The tape collection with some EQs/compressors thrown in the mix. EQ A - MCI JH-500 EQ B - MCI JH-600 EQ C - Studer 900 Compressor/Limiter: Studer 900 The Tape Machines (thank you, Tsykhra) Usage suggestions thanks to Le Man. Group A 0 - Ampex MM1200, 15 IPS mono (great for rock and pop music) 1 - Ampex MM1200, 30 IPS mono (great for rock and pop music) 2 - Ampex 351, 15 IPS Stereo (tube pre, no tape) 3 - Ampex 351, 30 IPS Stereo (tube pre, no tape) 4 - EMI TR-50, Stereo 15 IPS 5 - EMI TR-50, Dual Mono 15 IPS 6 - EMI TR-50, Stereo 30 IPS 7 - EMI TR-50, dual mono 30 IPS 8 - MCI JH-110, Stereo 15 IPS 9 - MCI JH-110, Stereo 30 IPS Group B 0 - MCI JH-110, Dual Mono at 15 IPS 1 - MCI JH-110, Dual Mono at 30 IPS 2 - MCI JH-24, mono at 15 IPS (useful on rap, dance and club music) 3 - MCI JH-24, mono at 30 IPS (useful on rap, dance and club music) 4 - MCI JH-110 (8 track), mono at 15 IPS (NAB) 5 - MCI JH-110 (8 track), mono at 15 IPS (IEC) 6 - MCI JH-110 (8 track), mono at 30 IPS (IEC) 7 - Otari MTR-90, mono at 15 IPS (go to for pop and R&B genres) 8 - Otari MTR-90, mono at 30 IPS (go to for pop and R&B genres) 9 - Otari MTR-100, mono at 15 IPS Group C 0 - Otari MTR-100, mono at 30 IPS 1 - Studer A820, stereo at 15 IPS (C1 to C4 are great all around mix down choices) 2 - Studer A820, stereo at 30 IPS 3 - Studer A820, dual mono at 15 IPS 4 - Studer A820, dual mono at 30 IPS 5 - Soundcraft Saturn 824, mono at 15 IPS 6 - Soundcraft Saturn 824, mono at 30 IPS 7 - ReVox A77, stereo at 7.5 IPS (IEC) 8 - ReVox A77, dual mono at 7.5 IPS (IEC) 9 - ReVox A77, dual mono at 7.5 IPS (NAB) (lots of home studio musicians used A77 machines over the years) Group D 0 - ReVox A700, dual mono at 15 IPS (semi pro tape machine of choice) 1 - ReVox PR900, stereo at 15 IPS 2 - Nagra IV, stereo (no speed given) 3 - Aiwa AD-F850, stereo cassette 4 - Aiwa Excelia XK-009, stereo cassette (perhaps the best cassette machine ever made) 5 - TEAC A-860, stereo cassette 6 - Wollensak (3M), stereo cassette deck. (No tape) 7 - AKAI 1710 (reel to reel, no tape) 8 - Sony PCM-7040 (digital, no tape) 9 - Alesis ADAT-XT20 (20-bit digital, no tape) Pro tip: Click the ECONO button to preserve transients. This is very useful on electronic mixes." So it's definitely for gear nerds. :) Keep up the good work. Don't lose your passion for what you do here. It's always good stuff!

[@mikehunt576]

sound matters, even with one knob

[@EarleHolder]

If you load the Taupe Tape plugin by itself without the EQ and compressor modules, the preset lists all the different machine names and you are able to just click and choose without using the buttons. When you did the review you opened the full strip and that is why it listed actual presets. I like your reviews but sometimes you jump to conclusions too fast and throw folks off. If you are going to be a source of information at least be accurate. There is enough misleading information surrounding us.

[@KultureUK]

yeh reviewing products without any kind of understanding of how they work is an odd style. If I spend money on something I'll read the manaul. I always take White Sea with a massive pinch of salt. In fact, I'm probably just going to stop watching them.

[@JakeJacobMusic]

I love Acustica Audio gear, including Taupe. I also really love Acustica Audio interfaces, but maybe that's because I'm old school and like hardware, knobs, dials, switches, meters, paint, metal etc.

[@mikehunt576]

have you tried sky-blue, brown, clown, sh1t color names?

[@AlexEinnorStudios]

@@mikehunt576 😂

[@spockstudio]

This product is ridiculously good as far as tape emulation. A google search will inform the user of which presets accurately represent which tape machine models. Heck, don't like the looks? I can't hear the display....

[@andrewlevinsounds]

convolution isn't sample based. it's when you take the recording of how a sound behaves when it's put through a room or component, and then digitally replicate that behavior, for example how the reverb in a room would react to any given noise or how a guitar might sound through a given tube.

[@PharaohLawLess1]

Me personally loves the Acustica Audio plug-ins. I’ve purchased 6 of them and use them in every project. El Rey on vocals and bass can’t be matched anywhere

[@riloh58]

PharaohLawLess1 - plus 1 on El Rey. I love it.

[@bighousemusic628]

Sand let me forget about ssl real gears and just stay in the box

[@najinelson6742]

Nothing will ever replace the plugins I have on e-bass and it's not AA, it's Waves

[@justin473]

@@najinelson6742 who cares cool I have both and they are both amazing plugins

[@ΝίκοςΠιτλόγλου]

Once again, that was a clear and honest review. (I own almost all Acustica Audio products and I would never hate you, even if I was a little bit sad from your videos about Viridian). Cheers my friend!!

[@dylanschiavonecomposer9116]

Veridian is awesome. Hard to believe someone would accuse that of sounding bad. One of my favorites (for a certain flavor).

[@vanceerickson2538]

I confess I've bought quite a lot of Acustica software, but I remain puzzled by the brand. I think the interfaces are impressive but very difficult to use unless you have broad experience with the related analog gear, which I don't. About three quarters of the time when I try to dial in something with one of their plugins I just can't hear any difference at all in the sound. I started a thread in the Reaper forum about Acustica software, and got a very wide mix of replies. Some people have come to the same conclusion as White Sea, and others tell me that Acustica is all they ever use. I find myself doing things like null experiments with some of their products to see if anything is happening at all. And I have to ask myself, "If I have to do that, is this really the product I want to use." I'm sort of hoping that some day the scales will dramatically fall from my eyes, and I will just love all the Acustica stuff. But not yet.

[@Hotdogjackson]

You have a personality not a disorder....... We love you for it :) and most of us love your great/helpful reviews too .

[@acableguy6749]

I'm a doctor. You're fine, you can make more snake-oil videos.

[@KeepTheGates]

Are you actually a doctor?

[@esdavidmartin]

​@@KeepTheGates are you actually ​ Benjamin Haworth ?

[@caspermaster-com]

Totally agree, its awesome and i bought it in pre-order in spite of the user interface, thing is for me, i only use the more linear vanilla and just drives it for warmth and glue, subtle but it really adds vibe and subtle "long term" interest in the sounds, more alive sounding

[@chinnarciso]

Companies should take insight on other peoples perspectives instead of just taking it as hate. It helps them and you as a consumer. Nice video. 👌

[@aLoudSi1ence]

Depends how reliable the consumer is.

[@mountwestmusic]

Right? Lashing out with personal attacks don't really display professionalism ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[@prodbymeton]

the taupe compressor is crazy

[@IntenseCity]

“They make proper snake oil” 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@paulnaraboth4774]

I use Taupe as a clipper : you can easily cut 5 or 6 db in a very musical way and without artifact by pushing that input knob and obtain a kind of fatter crushed transient. My preference goes to A0 + A1 or D0 for the job. One of the best solution for clipping, I was surprised beacause this is finaly a go-to clipper especialy for snare, or vocal peaks. For a more "tape feel" I vastely prefer IK Tapes, it generate some movements and breath I would say. Taupe is totally "static" in comparaison, and don't really sounds like a tape machine.

[@jacobsmith1877]

I tested Taupe on a drum bus a couple of nights ago and was blown away by how easy it was to get the exact warmth and punch I was looking for. I also love the lofi effects. The preset management is kind of terrible and I completely agree with what you said about the interface. It is too clunky and non intuitive. The tape sounds overall are amazing and I will use it just for that.

[@mwintersteinsmith]

Freedom of speech and detailed (honest) reviews is what makes me watch your videos. Keep it up Wytse 😎👍

[@battleofwills7189]

What tape/vinyl saturation plugins do people recommend? I've used Waves Abbey Road Vinyl, Abbey Road J37 Tape and Kramer Master Tape recently and I liked them.

[@Whiteseastudio]

I would recommend the airwindows one!

[@don_barbour]

@@Whiteseastudio You should listen to the dent/byome one. Those 4 guys really know their stuff, the unfiltered audio people.

[@memoraphile3623]

don't know how accurate it is, but i love the sound and vibe of the J37 regardless of it's authenticity

[@benjaminjoeBF3]

Taupe

[@DarthPreamp]

Good Review, and good for you to not listening to us fanboys! Keep going and being honest. here's what the settings are

[@BullFunkZoo]

I love your honest, praticalit and logical approach dude. don't ever change your videos have been very helpful with an honest approach. Everybody is trying to sell shit all the time and you just say it the way it is. Kepp on rockin!

[@b4lasers]

If you want specifically tape you need to use the Taupe Tape plugin and that will make it much easier for you..and that's when tape presets show up try it all bro acoustica audio comes with many plugins in one plugin

[@metadaat5791]

You're totally right about the screws. I mean, it could fall down at any moment.

[@dirtyharry1881]

a comment on 3:28 ; I don't know where this guy was in the 90s, but the studios he's describing indeed had their own sound, recording on tape and all, and it was C.R.A.P . I still have my old demos. They sound like shit compared to what I record now in my home studio. This is just romanticizing the past.

[@johnpenguin9188]

dirty harry1881 just listen to most early 90s hip-hop, it’s rough.

[@letssee9]

@dirty Harry very interst8ng comment! I agree with you on the studios hav8ng their own sound. You say crap, that's what is 8nteresting to me. I've been recording since 80s. I can listen to recordings and hear the 'sound of the era" in the sound quality. That said, when I'm working on a particular piece I can go for the 'sound character' of that era. That is what I love about the acustica audio stuff. I love taupe for what it is but I do not use it the way it is used in this video. First of all, I would not record an entire composition onto 1 track and expect drastic changes in the sound or unless, for instance, I wanted that. Composition to sound as if I recorded it on cassette tape for effect. The secret to using the acustica audio stuff is to go old school and do a tracking session for each individual instrument. Example, rock drums have been recorded. Bass drum track through API (pink) preamp through API mixer channel (pink) then to Taupe, print that track and now I have that drum TRACKED and ready for mixing. Do all the drums and final drum performance sounds like it was recorded through API. to tape. Now go mix with sand (ssl). Lol, a lot of the old records were TRACKED at 1 place and mixed in another on different equipment. It takes l9nger to do it this way but the old school sessions took a long. time too. The results are amazing. Acustica has lots of options for achieving sounds of eras. Once I've done my "tracking sessions" and printed my results, I have all my cup back and can use soundtoys and all my "plugin sounding" plugins and start mixing with better sounding source files. Try it! With the acustica stuff, it's a matter of knowing what to use where if you already know, their stuff is not very 'experiment friendly'. Lol good luck.

[@letssee9]

@John penguin the roughness of the 90s hip hop is part of the character of the music and the context of the vibe, it is supposed to sound rough. A friend of mine introduced me to brutal death metal and I thought it sounded like total trash. I did NOT like the sound quality and I could not stand all that grunting and growling. He gave me a lyric sheet to a particular sound. It was about fighting to the last breath against a hypocritical, evil, very powerful entity. Then he said "ok, now imagine if the band played nicely and the singer used a pretty voice". We both cracked the F up! Lol, it's part of the character.

[@dirtyharry1881]

@@letssee9 I will assume in this post that you don't have any affiliation with Acustica Audio. If you have, it's not a problem, but it should be disclosed so that we have an honest conversation. I tested many MANY of their stuff and tbh never had great success with them. Another thing: they're really expensive, some of them EXTREMELY so! Once they sold a compressor plug-in for... wait for it... 349 if I remember correctly. But there's a misunderstanding: when I was talking about romanticizing the past, I didn't mean the studios or the consoles of CLA or Bob Clearmountain, I meant things in the exact same context described in the video: poor studios for small productions which barely used any computers. When I listen to those productions nowadays the only think to envy is sometimes, not always, the absence of the loudness-wars effect, i.e. dynamics.

[@letssee9]

@dirty harry 1881 no man, i dont have any affiliation with acustica audio other than having some of their stuff. I started with nebula. I've been a noise junky and a plugin chaser for many years. What i noticed a while back was a lot of my ither plugins function like the gear they emulate but didn't 'sound' like the gear. For me, the nebula stuff sounded like the gear but didn't function like it. So now I'm at the acua stuff and I'm getting hood results. I DO have to add steps to my process and freeze or bouncr tracks. But i like a lot of their stuff, not all but pink, amber, sand and lime are good for me as well as a few others.

[@thesaint7380]

Whats the track ? Great groove !

[@joshuazaborowski9256]

"Subtle and on spot" is actually the biggest compliment possible. They claim to accurately model the sound of the sampled devices, not so create super flexible plugins.

[@theoriginaltommysteward]

Hate + personal attacks usually = anger at someone making a good point.

[@frederickstone1142]

what is the amazing song playing ?

[@JanAidGuitars]

For me this is one of my favourite AA plugins ever.Not exatcly like a "real" tape but I really love it. Yes, I can take this special taste and add it to some drum tracks and other instruments. I really love it. Thanks for this review!!!!Have a nice young man!!!

[@KS0stli]

"Have a nice young man!” Kinky :-D

[@AndreasR86]

I'm not sure if I agree on your opinion of convolution being better than modeling. The thing with convolution, as I understand it, is that it can only capture certain aspects of a thing, mostly time and changes in pitch. This makes it great for, for instance, reverb. But I don't think it can really capture dynamics. What's nice about analog gear is how the signal is altered when you choose to really drive it (or not). A good modeling of analog gear would capture this where convolution would not. Of course doing modeling well is much harder as like you said, there's more influence than just the circuits that needs to be programmed in. Point is, both are good at certain things, but neither is necessarily better.

[@johnisrael5183]

Man...Im using this to master my Album...and I can tell you, your off on this one...this is hands down the best tape plugin.....just gota have 32gb of ram with i7 on an SSD......you just change from A, B,C,D and choose different numbers in between and it even has a drop down box....if you wanna search for options the other way...dude...this a very easy plugin to use.....and sound the best in the DAW as far as Tape...that even sounds better than UAD and IK Media tapes......the saturation is smoother and more stable....

[@cachelesssociety5187]

I'm still on the fence about getting into Acustica stuff. I mostly do performance / recording. I dread having issues with latency, especially if my DAW doesn't do a good job compensating with other plugins. The other day I was writing support and the company acknowledged that their latency info provided to the DAW isn't working right. Arghhh! Anyway, I also can't figure out, if you get a N4 3rd party plugin used, is there a license transfer fee?

[@davidperez909]

Each plugin has a low latency version (say 100 samples), but it's going to crush your CPU. The thing to remember is that this is a sampler wrapped in a plugin; it's gonna take time to bring up the samples. Should not be a problem for mixing. In terms of the transfer fee there is nothing on the user end. Some good deals on N4 right now.

[@intelligenceservices]

channel strip with tape simulation pre? whaaat?

[@riloh58]

I love my Acustica plugs but that doesn’t mean I’m gonna hate on anyone who doesn’t like them. Always interested to hear what you have to say. I don’t have taupe by the way.

[@robowen66]

Only truth receives hate. That's why hate is good. People that don't get hate have nothing meaningful to say. Keep on giving your opinions with honesty, it's wonderful to watch, no matter what.

[@JimGramze]

Here’s my understanding of how Acustica Audio plugins work overall. They take an impulse response of each incremental setting, of each combination of incremental settings, and every time you change something even a tiny bit a whole new impulse response of the new total combination is loaded. This gets you as close as possible to the real unit modeled/sampled/whatever. Everyone else comes up with a complex formula instead, which allows for smoothly sweeping through parameters with approximations instead of hitting what the unit really does at any specific combination of settings. Changing a setting on an AA plug normally means there is a brief delay while, effectively, a new plugin is loaded (a new impulse response). Combine this with high storage, RAM, and CPU demands and many people reject AA in spite of their superior dead-on analog sound.

[@sideast]

So basically there borderline unusable as a result of Sucking the life out the computers CPU

[@JimGramze]

If you don’t know how to freeze tracks, or just know what you are doing and bounce after treating a track, then you have no use for highest end virtual instruments or plugin effects. I use Acustica plugins all the time without the slightest issue because unlike some I know what I am doing.

[@bighousemusic628]

Yes they were meant to use like the real analog gear like use buses and send because you can't take the real thing and put in your daw you have to use patchbays and interface routings

[@dancegod1691]

@@sideast So basically they actually sound very close to analog gear

[@ilikeflxwers]

Hi Whitesea! I think it would be very interesting to see your opinion on the t-racks collection. Hope you can do that :) Greetings from Germany!

[@amirazimi3820]

Please keep being honest and never change your personality, keep calm man, We Got Your BACKKKKKKK

[@slash196]

If Acustica made quick user interfaces I think the plugin would break. They're basically loading a ton of convolutions as far as I understand, and if you were to really quickly toggle between settings I think it would just collapse.

[@niklassilen4313]

Unfortunate that you didn't try the EQ. It's excellent. Agree that the interface could always be better. It's one of the main drawbacks of their plugins. They are extremely stubborn in this regard.

[@sub-jec-tiv]

Yeah i like the new Philips desk one but the interface is flashy. And terrible.

[@bumbleflea1157]

White Sea, I own a lot of Acustica plugins (including Taupe) and I agree with your approach of looking at each plugin separately on it's merit. They are ALL very different. FYI, you should try the EQ and compressor sections of Taupe, they're pretty nice, IMO. I agreed with your opinions on both Taupe and Viridian. My faves are Taupe, Cream, Water, Pink, Ciel, White, Sand, and Amethyst, plus Ebony and Lemon for verb/delay. Green is excellent for bringing out snare in a mix, but is overdue for an update. The others IMO range from 'meh' (Navy, Coral) to terrible (Magenta, El Rey). They are high CPU and better suited on busses, and if you buss a track with an Acustica plugin into another track with an Acustica plugin, you will get serious CPU drain. Also IMO, their technology works better on EQ, FX, and Saturation than it does on compression. At least you get try them all for 30 days and pick and choose what you want, and upgrades are free. All in all, I'm a fan of the company, though not of each individual product.

[@hodshonf]

love Navy after guitar amp sims.

[@hodshonf]

i've been demo-ing most of the Core 13 and Core 14 AA plugins. i have Taupe, Sand 3, Diamond 3 (intro pricing), got Navy at 30% off Pink is top of my list next - Cream and Water were nice surprises

[@AboveEmAllProduction]

yay a new video

[@edisun_1239]

Review the FL studio plugins, lmao I'd love to see what you think of those like the fruity Compressor, Maximus and the EQ

[@shane775]

I have used them and they are great, just too CPU hungry . the highs are lovely and their impulse response idea works really well its just a shame that if you have a channel strip or the new ELRay compressor over 6 instances your processor will leap out of the box and run away ..

[@francismcfadden3305]

Just freeze the track and keep the orginal in case you change your mind. That's what I do.

[@shane775]

@@francismcfadden3305 Yeh thats how i was using them in the end. Just interrupts the work flow a bit .. probably worth it though ..

[@francismcfadden3305]

@@shane775 I ussually do like a quick sort of "stem master" (kinda wouldn't consider it that because I don't do alot) for my mixes and I throw it on different tracks during that and freeze them. Sounds fantastic. During the meat of the mixing process if I use it at all during that I just freeze and commit at the beginning and never look back.

[@DavidRosario69]

I agree with your UI assessment. There are no physical limitations when creating a UI, so why use unintuitive square buttons labeled with a letter?

[@XzessTool]

Because it looks cool.

[@vujadejunky]

Haha, wondering what you'll think of their latest product: Sounda. :)

[@gammakeraulophon]

Hey.. good to get confirmation about the sound. Assuming it is possible to switch off the moody sunset photos (wtf - only the Italians could dream this up!!).. then I'd buy into it aswell.

[@nullzwomusik8478]

Where can I find this track called SENSOR?

[@drampadreg1386]

Egg cartons do burn, but I started studying acoustics around 1980 and the first thing I learned is that egg cartons destroy your rooms frequency response by throwing it out of balance absorbing only a narrow band in the high end so every thing sounds too bass-mid and there is no air at all. Just thought you might want to know that. And yes, your insurance company would have an out if you used them and your studio burned to the ground, you would get zip for it. Their private motto is "we insure against accidents, not stupidity." I actually heard a few insurance adjusters say that to customers. And thanks for the information, it's good to see someone use this gear live during a review so we can actually hear it. And even though you use Sand Storm most of the time, that only gives me a reference I can relate to so good job. And wash your hands, and stay inside!

[@mayzter8765]

A bit late to the party, but I love it. The problem is that they can't use the names of the machines they emulated, but online you can find the list. Studers, Ampex etc..

[@matbell1514]

Also.....Although expensive....would like to see your views on the neve 542's!

[@nickestvorace]

Love your snake oil videos, do you plan to review Arturia's compressors and preamps ? They do a really good job on modeling vintage synths, so it might be a good experience

[@vincentizghra6144]

You're doing what we all need to do. We need to stay critical and evaluate products from what they add to our toolboxes, how they fit into our workflows. Very good review yet again!

[@MellowXBrew]

Just to tell you, your opinion is the reason behind your channel. Keep at it because your approach to being true to YOUR ears and understanding is unique and not filtered. People can actually come here and get an observational understanding of what you're covering. Whether your opinion matters or not is for everybody else to think for themselves but AT LEAST you have an opinion and you attempt to make an honest critique. Everybody has the intellect (least I hope) to judge the product themselves. Keep at it son!

[@M0S3ST0NE]

smart honest guy. I'm looking at the Acustica Audio Nebula 4 plugin, what's your take brother ?

[@kodakeller6353]

I’m not a fan of acustica plugins, I 99% of the time advocate against them... but I can’t lie and say taupe isn’t a great plugin. Maybe shouldn’t be commenting before I watch the video... but just wanted to say I’m a big fan of taupe... now time to watch the video lol.

[@clivesaunders5576]

all settings are there you just needed to read the manual

[@davidkellymitchell4747]

UI's are definetly user preference. I like UA's plugs because they look like the old hardware that I used for so many years. I personally owned most of the UREI and Teletronix hardware devices so the UI may be snake oil but I like it. The cool thing about plugins is you can use so many instances on different tracks and the hardware is one device per track. Wonderful world audio engineers live in today.

[@aleksanderdjuran8010]

Dude you need to do a video about the Midas 500 module series!

[@MixedByDotRob]

Totally agree! Acustica does a great job pushing the IR-sampling of gear, but they should make their UIs easier to use. I'm using some of their plug-ins and everytime I open them, I can't remember what button did what ;)

[@martijnvandongen]

It is a nice tape machine but I don't like the controls. It is also pretty expansive. I have some stuff from A.A. but I use it less and less. This is also because of the CPU rape :/ or otherwise I need to bounce/freeze a lot of my tracks. They make nice stuff those, the Water EQ and Cobalt are really cool. The cobalt EQ is the first digital EQ I used which really changes the with of certain frequencies when boosting them. Maybe you can take a peak at that one too?

[@SuperSaiyanScandinavian]

sure maybe it's not the nicest looking GUI but it's not awful and it's reasonably intuitive imo. I own the Studer and Ampex emulation from Universal Audio, and although I love them and they are far more tweakable, there's just something very very special about the Ampex emulation in Taupe. It just seems more analog sounding to me. I just feel like it does a better job at making it sound like your music truly is ending up on tape at the end. I'm simply just talking about using it on the master bus though. I think if you have the DSP to pull it off, use the UAD Studer emulation as the first effect on all your tracks, or as you track, and then the Ampex emulation on Taupe for the master. Don't get me wrong the UAD ampex is great, but somehow with that I feel like I'm always using different settings that suit the song better, which is totally fine, but there's something about the Taupe emulation that just sounds right for every song, and I can't seem to get that exact sound with the UAD Ampex. I'll be honest, it's a subtle difference, but once you hear it and get used to it, it's not so subtle anymore and suddenly feels like it's essential. So I guess you could say Taupe is sorta set it and forget it. I really just use 2 of it's presets and slightly manipulate them, the rest I don't really care for. If I wanna get really creative then I'm going to use the UAD emulations, but for just a straight up buttery tape sound on the master, Taupe wins my heart. Can't say it's better, just better for me.

[@TheGurner1]

Just got Taupe in a %70 off sale, downloading now! The genuine oil of the snake, looking forward to it ;-) The clean tape sound for my stereo out

[@Boissinova]

YO, RIGHT??? I'm stressing right now haha - are they only letting 1,000 coupons be used??? What is the sale exactly? I just bought El Rey - but this is the other one I would buy, but I'm so broke... haha - what are your thoughts??

[@TheGurner1]

@@Boissinova It seems nice, there's a lot going on with this plugin, I need to really test it out when I have time. I don't know what the sale is about, just got an email from them announcing it and I believe it's been extended

[@TheGurner1]

@@Boissinova strangercode100 (the coupon code)

[@TheGurner1]

@@Boissinova One thing I've noticed already with Taupe, and I'm agreeing with Wytse, is it sounds great when you drive it a bit! Taupe should buy him a beer, as I wouldn't have bought it without his 'quite positive really' review. And he's right, the GUI is a bit 'whimsical' but what I've found already is 6 great tape sounds, so it's liveable with and actually a bit decorative, if you like that kind of thing ;-)

[@MusicZeroOne]

Great video as usual. Thorough and straight to the point. These GUI's always make me think, what are you trying to distract me from or make be 'believe' is happening... when it's not.

[@sabhinesh8332]

can you review consumer grade snakeoil stull., like ones that say Sony makes.

[@nicknolin]

Do a video on magix sequoia

[@elianmusic7452]

my apologies, you called it subtle in the correct way, which i agree with totally, in fact i used the same words to describe it to a friend. I had only been to minute 8:30 before writing the previous comment :) I appreciate that you said good things about the sound. Cheers

[@MikeVlcek]

Taupe is amazing, I love the sound of the emulations, use it in every mix. However, I must agree that the user interface sucks. I hate the presets buttons the way they are. It could've been so much better. What I did is search on forums for the correspondent models for each letter-number combination, and then saved my favourite ones. A PITA, but it works.

[@elianmusic7452]

Hello! Big fan mr. white sea studio :) Didn't catch your name even though i've been through most videos you've uploaded! I just want to point out a few thoughts of mine over your review of Acustica plugins and the nature of human behavior and cognition Disclaimer: some of this might sound totally presumptuous and pretentious and shitty but i really don't mean it, just pointing out a few facts of behavior! You've cultivated a personality around critiquing, and seriously critiquing plugins, which is great, in fact its why i watch a lot of your videos, to make sure the plugins are authentic. It is the case that people have attitudes, explicit and implicit, and the implicit attitudes are created so lightning fast upon experiencing something, we dont even consciously notice it. These attitudes are driven and shaped by our pre conceived beliefs and already existing attitudes. Now watching your videos, i've noticed that you definitely do have an existing explicit attitude of "if a company has a lot of mumbo jumbo written, there is a chance they are more snake oil-y than plugins with simple gui and aren't trying to hard to sell you the product" ... and then there is the behavioral pattern of "once a few things go bad, its hard to look at this plugin in a positive light" -- thats just human behavior. Its hard to genuinely feel good and bad about something all at once. i'm at minute 8:56 right now, and i'm being genuinely honest, i've never heard such good tape emulation in my life, and what im observing from you is displeasure because the numbers aren't labels, because it will be hard to remember the tape names, and how the plugin is taking up too much real estate. Also with the Viridian video, something similar happened, because of the crazy CPU hogging, you were very visibly put off, and you were put off even before that by the mumbo jumbo on the website and the screen real estate. In fact, human behavior and opinion is so frail that waking up on the wrong side of the bed can be the difference between a lovely opinion of something and a negative one. I totally respect you and your videos, i look up to your degree of attention to detail. I really do think you maybe felt bad about these plugins too quickly and too hastily decided they are snake oil .. i genuinely mean it when i say i have never heard a compressor work as well on the digital realm as the ones on Amethyst 3 & Pink 2. I really truly mean this, it makes a bit sad to see you shit on this company when they really do outperform so so many other big names. The compression and eq sound so very ... dare i say .. analog. Incredible responsiveness. Yes, slow and choppy GUI, but what comes out of the speakers from Acustica, to me, is really something else. I have no reason to defend them except my absolute awe at how they sound, at least amethyst 3 and pink 2, and from this video, Taupe as well. I invite you to re-examine and perhaps do A/B comparisons between their saturation and channel strip models and other companies'. Perhaps you will change your attitude. Attitudes are real and they are quick and they drive us way more than we like to believe. We are much more emotionally driven than we like to think, and i'd be pretty pissed off as well if i was making a video critiquing a plugin and the button would only respond to my mouse click 2 second later lol. Cheers from cairo x

[@Scotlanz]

Can I get a Waves Vocal Rider Snake Oil review please?

[@skylarcarlson7745]

It works well. Pretty basic plugin. Don't think their is any snake oil there.

[@Scotlanz]

I have it but it doesn't seem to do much. I can see it working but I don't really hear anything. I get much better results boosting volumes for even the tiniest clips. And my understanding is that the whole point of the Snake Oil videos is not to rubbish products, but merely to give an opinion as to whether plugins actually do what they claim. I concede that calling the videos Snake Oil is a bit confusing. They should be called either "Snake Oil?" or "Snake Oil or not".

[@Scotlanz]

Apologies. I just saw another video titled Snake Oil?

[@SBPRA]

You are doing fine honesty is what it is supposed to be if a company has to defend it self or even lash out that doesn't say much about customer service it sounds more like arrogance

[@gagamoola]

can you say something about "pro vla II compressor ? rack mounted hardware by "ART"? THANKS

[@matbell1514]

Dude....45k subs! good work my friend!

[@JasonGeraldG]

VVKT is what Acustica uses to sample the gear. Diagonal Volterra series, Volterra kernel, etc. technology is evidently more completely able to represent gear than more common methods of convolution.

[@peterbrandt7911]

Thanks Wytse. One thing: How was it on your CPU? I have three of their plugins, one cheap, back in the days and two for free. They sound alright, but not better than those by other companies. The huge difference is, that all of those three are cpu hogs, so that I never use them in a mix.

[@Whiteseastudio]

I have a huge CPU, so I didn’t see any hogging 😊

[@peterbrandt7911]

@@Whiteseastudio It's not, that mine is that weak, but maybe you share the impact in percent?

[@erestube]

Wasn't in the mood for one of these videos, but the title made me bite. Glad to see you're trying to be positive in the middle of a sandstorm. On the other hand, when it comes to reviews, check your biases at the door and review from the perspective of what these things can do for your audience. You are the knowledgable one, so teach.

[@meskisable]

There is complete preset list... Just press preset button. It’s under Taupe name.

[@davidsynge7030]

I mean, this is basic, right?

[@martina1774]

I still don’t know whether I should watch your reviews or not, whether we have the same hearing and taste and concept of music or not. But I know one thing for sure. What they called a "personality disorder" is that you look like a person who speaks his mind. The only reason it could be considered a "disorder" is that when I say maybe one person of a thousand people has this trait, I’m super optimistic. You have power. Keep it like that.

[@chaimewhhuguinssh2771]

Usefulness of plugins tends to be inversely correlated to how much was spent on the graphic design. Same principle holds true for movies vs movie titles.

[@roddymacaudio]

Love your Snake Oil vids - bloody excellent that someone is out there cutting through some of the bullshit and hyperbole. I'd love to see a list of all the plugs that you DON'T consider to be Snake Oil - I think it would be a great resource for potential buyers to check out. Keep up the good work Wytse!

[@jaffasplaffa1]

The interfaces are all 3d renders made in Octane, this has been up in the group, they told the users a little bit about it. I dont think so much it is the program, but the guy who makes them. He has some pretty good skills. But yeah, this one is not the best, but Pink3 and Gold2 looks awesome, imo.

[@hotsince84]

@5:48 lol, I love this guy! 🤣 Keep up the good work!

[@jpgv8090]

you need two Mac Pro fully equipped to run acustic audio plugins in a mix ... I try them and in a complex mix works very well but consumes all computing capabilities making them useless in small production studios

[@gwugluud]

9:35 That's it, I'm subscribing.

[@TheKule1]

Hi, I appreciate your hard work first of all. You keep saying that you don’t care for the plug GUI but you have to try and look at it from a different perspective. Remember we are heading to doing everything in the box? How else can you get a virtual mixing experience without making it look like the real hardware? As for as Acoustica audio? I feel they are one the best plugin developers on the market period! Can their plugins deliver? Yes! That being said, for me nothing in the digital world can truly sound like analog, the day I accepted that I was able to appreciate mixing in the box. Acoustica audio is wonderful company and I don’t even own any of their products but I’ve done extensive research on them over the years and everything has been positive. As soon as my studio is ready I will be purchasing their products!!!!

[@miss.antidote]

You only get hate because you speak the truth and what you think is right. Keep doing that. Every companies only aim is to take our money. Its nice to have people like you that tell us if the product has any actually value.

[@Xusticiero]

he's also advertising them for free, making great reviews, and as a human being has his personal opinion, you dont have to agree him. i still dont know why do brands like this hate on him

[@69vrana]

I don't think this guy is really the reference you want to follow. Some stuff i heard him say, does not infer much confidence on my part... That being said - ofc there are bad products out there, call them snake oil if you want. But if he spends more time on plugin GUI's and them being "too realistic", then on actual sound (maybe watch him use compressor), then he is snake oil as well.

[@Key.Fantasy]

@@69vrana he just tests plugins and tells HIS Honest opinion. He shouldnt be the only reference but in a worold where everybody just wants to sell you shit, when they test it, its just nice, even thogh if his honest opinion is ridiculous

[@miss.antidote]

@@69vrana you should use multiple reference sources to come to a conclusion. I watch a lot of KZbin to learn about music production and its ridiculous the amount of marketing that is involved. Every Company wants you to buy the newest latest must have plugin that will make you a super producer. But its all bullshit most of the time. They just need a new product to SELL you every 6 months. Just take waves for example

[@69vrana]

@@miss.antidote I agree, they are business after all. I am not disputing the fact that EVERY company is in it for the money, after all, that is what they do. I am just saying that this guy seems like a hobby producer (at best) and makes his living by reviewing (poorly) new gear. Not that he is not right most of the time, but I highly doubt his expertise and experience.

[@orangevst]

First couple of videos I thought “this guy is a hater” and thought it was really annoying, but the I understood the logical perspective of the reviews and how objective you are with most of the stuff... shortly after I got hooked on the channel. Keep it up, accent and all, you provide a lot of value.

[@Fluxwithit]

It's not screwed in and could fall out the screen at any moment lol!

[@74goldenjet]

I don't always agree with you, but I love your honesty. Subscribed :)

[@davidkrishtul739]

Why is your mic distorting?

[@alessandroproverbio3411]

Sorry, but from 4:40 on you're saying a lot of incorrect things. 1) Sampling is NOT convolution: these two things are completely different. Convolution is a mathematical procedure, when a signal enters a LTI system it's convolved with the response of the system itself, and the result is the signal processed by the system. This works with LTI system, where L stands for LINEAR (TI, Time Invariant), so it's completely useless (and impossible) to do this kind of work with NON-Linear systems (like mainly every electronic equipment, guitar amps, compressor, pres etc...). On the other hand, it's used to capture the reverb of a room for example: in this case a signal (impulse, sine sweep, MLS etc...) is reproduced and recorded in the room, then DE-CONVOLVED, and the result is the so-called "Impulse Response", so the response of the system when the input is an impulse (Delta of Dirac). Then, when you convolve your signal with this IR you get the same result as you were playing that signal in that room. This works also with guitar cabs for example, but NOT for non-linear system. "Sampling" is usually referred to the operation of recording some notes played by an instrument (like a violin, a piano etc..) and then play them with MIDI instruments (this is a very fast explanation obviously there's more). The sound of MIDI instruments can be achieved in this way or with analog modeling, in which you model all the physical components of the instruments (string, bridge, wood etc...) and you compute the sound according to the physical laws that describe that particular instrument. In the case of AA plugin, "sampling" is not as I previously described. They are talking about a procedure based on Volterra Series, a powerful mathematical tool that can model non-linearity. A Volterra serie can include in itself a non linear transfer function, and when it's applied to a signal what you get is exactly the non-linear response you were looking for. They extended this theory, as I can read, and it's definitely not an easy task (and it's very smart from my point of view, as a Computer Science Engineer). For example I think that the Kemper (the famous guitar amp profiler) works with this kind of principles, and NOT with IR and Convolution. Also when you talk about "noises" that goes through the equipment during the measurements, I think you are referring to something like MLS, maximum length signal, and it's not noise, it a very special signal, used in the last decades for acoustic measurements (now we use Sine Sweep, it has a lot of advantages), and again it has nothing to do with non linear analog modeling . 2) Analog modeling through circuit simulation: yes, you can do that, but it's not so easy, and there are a lot of different ways to do. It can be extremely hard (have you ever seen the schematic of a huge studio compressor or a tube guitar amp? they're pretty complicated), and each component is, obviously, not "ideal". A resistor in the real world is not a simple resistor, but has parasitic capacities and inductances, intrinsic noise, it reacts to temperature etc... It's extremely difficult to deal with all the things that happens in a real circuit, nearly impossibile. With approximations you can get very good results, indeed. I am currently working and researching on non-linear analog modeling, and I believe in this approach, but on the other hand I find not so bad the AA work. Maybe the perfect result can be obtained with both techniques together, circuit simulation and Volterra modeling, I will investigate further. 3) convolution is heavier on the CPU wrt circuit simulation: NO, absolutely no! a good convolution algorithm can perform optimal convolution in zero time, it's a procedure with O(mn) complexity (m length block of samples, n IR length) (I will not explain that here, is not the right place). You can have many convolution going on at the same time on a normal PC, without any problem at all. But, as I said, here we are not talking about convolution, because we are talking about NON-linear systems, and the procedure described on the AA website (with vectors in a tree structure etc....) is definitely not an easy task for a CPU. Usually it involves matrices operations, and trust me, these kind of computations are heavy (just to invert a matrix is O(n^3) in the worst case ...). So for these reasons plugins based on Volterra and similar algorithms will always be heavier than a simple convolution. In the case of circuit simulation for years programmers have used the so-called Multi-Dimensional Newton Raphson Algorithm, a recursive way to solve the differential equations that describe a circuit with multiple non-linearities (like diodes, valve, transistor etc...). Again, this kind of operations are not easy, and people at UA have moved these computations on the dedicated outboard DSP for this reason (some people hate UA plugins because they run on the external DSP, but this is a great idea, without any doubt). So, to wrap up, analog modeling made with circuit simulation or Volterra is heavier than simple convolution. 4) convolution is better: no, convolution is very good for other things like reverbs, as already explained. The correct question may be: is better to simulate the circuit or profile it with Volterra Series or similar ways? There's no answer here, is like asking; is better the Kemper or the AXE FX (for guitarists)? there are advantages and disadvantages in both world, for example circuit simulation can be extremely versatile, and you can create circuits that don't even exist as an experiment! Profiling can be a little bit more accurate (not always) but it's less versatile and very hard to do well (using again the Kemper as an example: make your own profile is not so easy, to make very very very good profile you need not only great hardware, but also lot of knowledge in the filed of audio recording a processing) 5) magnetic radiation? This is something definitely useless in this field, maybe you were talking about the interaction between components? Because in a circuit each component behavior influence the others, in many different ways (with some techniques you can simulate also the interaction, not easy but not impossible). In conclusion, please, if you are not sure about something, don't talk about it, or ask someone who knows it better than you to come to your channel and make a small explanation. You have 50k subs, so when you say something incorrect lot o people will hear that, and lot of them will take it for real, and that's not good. in addition to this, I don't think it's a great idea to test a plugin 5 minutes after you have downloaded. Use it for a month or two, make serious tests, comparisons, learn how to use it in a proper way, and THEN make a video about it.

[@Lalaland.001]

Hands down the best comment here in this entire thread, the guy doesn't even want to read a manual. So clearly he's not giving the emulator the time of day. You can't just wave away a manual like that, there's a reason why it was written in the first place. It would be the same as to get a hardware sampler and looking for a record button, play on the thing for 5 min. not gettin g a sound out of it and calling it snake oil, cause you can't get it to work. Thank you for having some common sense. the guy has 50k+ subs and a lot of people just eat up what he says.

[@lwinhtoophaw7839]

Yep, the only comment that isn't snake oil.

[@musicproductionstreams8021]

You're literally an ENGINEER/ TECHNICIAN arent you???? It's an impressive comment and one of the best technical comments i have ever read related to audio engineering! Thank you for your useful information and knowledge!

[@alessandroproverbio3411]

@@musicproductionstreams8021 Oh it's been a while, but yes, computer science engineer with a master in digital audio, signal processing and (electro) acoustic and now I work in the audio field for automotive industry. Thank you for your appreciation!

[@alexsikkicat756]

Where u from ,bro?

[@jmoemorris4133]

You will be hated for exposing these products cause the marketing industry sales a lot of smoke (shows up but not obtainable a lot of times)just keep doing what you do, you are the truth through data and experimenting!

[@iantanner7579]

ToTape5, IronOxide5/Classic and FromTape are all the tape simulators i'll ever need... - fair play for remaining honest, a rare thing among such channels -

[@r.fernandezasdancasdesalao1398]

hi! big airwindows fan here! btw, there's a very cool "snake oil" review from totape5 (thats how I discover this channel). and, GUESS WHAT?!?! no bad things/comments AT ALL!!! hope you enjoy!!! kzbin.info/www/bejne/a3eWaZ-Vn5ephrs

[@don_barbour]

The owners are pretty nice, but yeah, bit mad, very passionate. I thought the pink eq was really very good, apart from that, no comments. it's more advanced version of convolution.

[@josefk5659]

For "subtle", we don't pronounce the b in english. It's like this : [sʌɾɫ̩] or [sʌˈtɫ̩]. [ɾ] being a 'tap' like a British person saying the /t/ in /water/. It almost sounds like a /d/. The /l/ becomes syllabic and the vowel is deleted [ʌ] is like the /u/ in /butt/. Nice video.

[@Mefistofy]

Convolution is just the operation you use for FIR (linear phase) filters. In this case I suppose they actually say: we use linear phase equalizers. There is other stuff you can do but one thing you can't: model any kind of non-linearities like tape saturation.

[@sb848]

They use the Volterra sequence which I believe is a form of Dynamic convolution.. which I think means they can model non linearities .. I think ?? Anyway feel free to correct me..