Pulsar Modular P455 MDN Sidecar Review

[@DanBires]

I think they got it damn close to the API summing console. Clean glued low end all the way to the mid saturation width sounds spot on to me. I am impressed.

[@LosFicosMusic]

They did… Even if you throw it on and don’t touch anything it still sounds 🔥 if it’s too thick u can always gain stage “command shift” on input and output simultaneously! Amazing stuff.. kinda heavy on cpu but worth it!!!

[@MultiFreddy34]

Way more informed than the snak oil guy. I think he has been drinking his own snake oil too long actually

[@jamesjames77777]

That review was largely good. He just missed the auto gain feature because it wasn’t obvious to him.

[@ramspencer5492]

Snake oil guy is awesome... He doesn't really do deep dives into plugins very often at all, though. Not really good thing. He's got great ears however... And even his going in blind is always somewhat informative. It's also informative to just hear what every knob does all the way through It's paces... I always like knowing what something does all along the way and not just when dialed in just so

[@ramspencer5492]

Snake oil guy is awesome... He doesn't really do deep dives into plugins very often at all, though. Not really his thing. He's got great ears however... And even his going in blind is always somewhat informative. It's also informative to just hear what every knob does all the way through It's paces... I always like knowing what something does all along the way and not just when dialed in just so

[@FromTheHipp]

hes horrible. he doesnt actually demo anything. he toys around with them with no context for 5 mins and makes a decision. hes a fraud.

[@jamesjames77777]

@@FromTheHipp actually, he just very factual and doesn’t babysit people through what he’s thinking. He reacts to whether or not a product does what it says it does. He doesn’t then try and sell it to you because he knows that everything is subjective, so generally leaves commenting with something like: “so if you’re in the market for something with these features, then I can/can’t recommend”.

[@nichttuntun3364]

Awesome video. The way you present and explain things is so pleasant and different, it´s a joy. Thank you. The Song and its basic sonic quality as well as your studio are great also. Bonus-Points: Nature and Dog. 😍

[@MillSounds]

Dusty's always looking out for me! Damn squirrels! 🤣

[@nichttuntun3364]

@@MillSounds It must be awesome to work in such an environment and with such a friend on your side. 😁

[@sylvestersimons2289]

The plugin is great but I love the dog chilling on your couch…

[@HerrNox]

The plugin also has 2 puppies though

[@adijames]

Firstly, what a wonderful video production and relaxed style you have that instantly allowed me to enjoy this exploration. Second, what a beautiful track and mix. Third, you really showed how to use that thing, subtle, tasteful and full of musicality. Bravo all round. Subbed.

[@MillSounds]

Thanks, glad it was helpful!

[@ronson795]

What a great overall presentation!

[@paulfelz6729]

A great song and the production sounds great!

[@robshrock-shirakbari1862]

They're all really close... but that last 10% of sparkle magic life is apparent in the Box/527 combo. It's a feeling thing; it just feels more open and satisfying. Again... just like 10%. No one usually hears things in an A/B setting, so great job Pulsar Modular. But don't cry over your hardware purchase, either; because that still wins in a close race.

[@MillSounds]

It's a lot closer to my Box/527 combo if you go for the 2 channel summing and turn off Line Amp, then push a little bit. My modern box console can't get close to the thickness and color in the 8 channel mode though. I've been playing around with putting the plugin on the 8 Channel Summing in a cleaner setting and putting that over the stereo stems going to my API Console, some pretty great color combinations there if you want to go a bit old school!

[@musicbrum1]

For me more than 10%

[@soundtoys795]

stellar demonstration as always!

[@peterbondmusic]

Nicely put together video once again. Really like the song & production.

[@puresoundstudios]

I have 14 analog stereo busses and thinking this might sit very well on each of those. A touch of saturation, line amp, 2-buss setting and can use the converters program-dependent. Thanks for doing this very good walk-through.

[@brianwynn10]

Thanks for this , too dope,The best comparison out , We need more real comparison and less of these fake promotions one

[@MillSounds]

Don't forget to subscribe to my OnlyFans! DM for the deets! 😘😘😘

[@Martinez_productions]

thank you for the info, excellent , but my favourite bit is when you said at 5:26 it gets really dirty and the the dog is licking it really dirty hahaha

[@Tyrell_Corp2019]

Great presentation. I can clearly hear the difference in the first example. The console "won" hands down. But for a plugin, it definitely can hang. I have quite a few digital consoles from API, SSL, Neve, Helios, etc. And it is astonishing what can be done at home.

[@MillSounds]

That was my experience as well when I did a deep dive comparing my API hardware to the UAD Software and some other plugins. There's definitely things I like more about the hardware at times, but it's not a massive difference a lot of the time. You're right, we're really lucky these days to have stuff like this!

[@Truth565]

The 8 channel mode actually does a good job at emulating analog summing.

[@JohnSk82]

MDN is the only plugin you need on your bus along with G comp and limiter .If you do your job correctly with your mix those things will help your mix shine.

[@elmolewis9123]

Very well explained and excellent presentation.

[@ramspencer5492]

Good mix.... Like the plug-in the mix is also very good without it though. Definitely warms up and soothes hard edges

[@Dddlllfff]

what's the demo song? sounds awesome

[@MillSounds]

I use my own music for a lot of the demo's so I don't have to worry about copyright issues in the future.

[@Dddlllfff]

@@MillSounds Nice. Has this been released?

[@MillSounds]

@@Dddlllfff No, it may or may not get officially spit out at some point 🤣. I just do my own music for fun, so reviews are a good excuse to spend some time on them...

[@Dddlllfff]

@@MillSounds I'm in a similar boat. The process is the fun part!

[@Uuuuyyyyuuu]

the chorus section of the demo here really surprised me, love it! @@MillSounds

[@ramspencer5492]

First off... That's a really, really cool song! Great vocals too... How can you sum 8 channels with color, when the DAW's architecture doesn't let you actually do that? I don't mean to sound critical... This does seem like a really cool plugin! Can you switch the chain to do compression before EQ? It does sound really good... Not quite as much subtle "life" maybe... as your hardware...(in the first example anyway) But very close... It can hang.

[@silveramateur571]

Hi man great content, what fx do you use to make that vocal sound that open and ambience

[@johndugan3798]

Really enjoyed your review, Glad I found your channel. I also really liked the song and mix - If I may ask, what is the reverb on the vox? Sounds like a dense (140?) plate reverb... Man, It's lush. Sought the band (The GOBI's) out on here on YT, will keep an eye out for this release.

[@MillSounds]

Good guess on the reverb. I used SoundToys Little Plate kind of subtly, but kicked in the UAD EP-34 Tape Delay pretty heavily on the Choruses. The Little Plate plugin is amazing, their new Super Plate version takes it to another level. The band is just me, I generally use my own music for all the videos to avoid copyright issues. It also gives me an excuse to work on my stuff outside of it just being "fun". I don't get around to really releasing anything very often, but I've got enough backlogged at this point where I might put together another smaller EP or something soon. We'll see, thanks!

[@sekritskworl-sekrit_studios]

I don't understand, how do you route multiple channels to it... is it a sidechain style function?

[@MillSounds]

It's recreating the cumulative effect of the color you get from going through multiple stages. I've hear this as well using the groups on larger, modern API consoles. You don't have to route anything as it's not trying to actually mimc "summing", but the color you get from stacking multiple channels. The results I'm hearing on the 8 Channel mode on the plugin line up ith my real world experience from stacking API color throughout the mix process. If you have access to UA's Luna DAW, I would encourage you to compare it to their Luna summing that you can apply to groups and the master to "stack" things. I prefer the 8 Channel Summing option on this plugin by a long shot.

[@duel5071]

Love it

[@OttoOreh]

I feel Berthelsen Interface of this is unnecessary clumsy. Would like to see some features like: - a toogle switch for auto gain - mode switch on the UV-meters to se gain reduction - option to bypass the saturation

[@ramspencer5492]

If kind sounded like the difference between a well mixed track and a very slightly, but tastefully mastered version of it

[@SeemoreDunkan]

Great video as usual! What mics were used for the recording? Plz tell me the Type L was used :)

[@MillSounds]

This was a demo I recorded WAY at the beginning of COVID years ago. I can’t remember what I used, it’s been sitting around forever and I never really finished it.

[@SianTube]

It is possible to have the name of the track please ? :)

[@MillSounds]

It's one of my songs, I think I called it "COVID Waltz"

[@martenthielges1179]

API summing + 527 all the way! the mix gets muddy with the plugin and impact and low end punch is lost. To be fair: the MDN is not trying to emulate an API bus compressor and that may just be what I am hearing and liking here. Also the fact that you mixed this "into" the hardware chain, the result may have been different if you had mixed into the plugin and then replaced that with analog.

[@MillSounds]

I actually mixed into the plugin, the hardware was an afterthought. There's obviously difference (especially the API part as there's quite a bit going on in Marc's sidecar vs my cleaner/modern API Box), but a lot of the things you're pointing out that you didn't like, are things I leaned into on the plugin. The kick drum was kind of a bit over the top and there was a lot of hard panned information in the mix. Hitting the 8 Channel summing on the Sidecar Plugin glued everything together better (to me at least) and gave the low end a bit more character and rounded it off nicely. It's just preference though, I would agree with everything you're hearing. Only difference is that I liked those parts of the plugin for this song.

[@martenthielges1179]

@@MillSounds thanks so much for clearing this up, it really surprised me to hear the hardware was an afterthought. In the end it’s all subjective, but I’ve been lately finding myself looking for more clarity and separation in my mixes with a bigger soundstage. I’ve modded an API summing card (CAPI) into my Studer console which I haven’t used in years, maybe time to fire it up again, haha.. anyways, keep up the great work, really enjoy watching your videos, you are getting great sounds and I respect your opinion!

[@Uuuuyyyyuuu]

exactly. Ironically, this video is the reason I've decided NOT to get the Pulsar MDN sidecar. The difference is huge. The hardware API summing version sounds INCREDIBLE, way more depth and transients in the low end - it's actually 3d to my ears. The plugin didn't have a chance against that- even though I think it sounds very analog. I have multiple Acustica, Softube, kush, etc that can do the exact same thing. And none of them were 200 bucks.

[@martenthielges1179]

to be honest I feel the marketing for this being a summing plugin is very misleading. They COULD have gone all the way in putting R&D into finding out what actually happens in analog summing and made a plugin that grabs audio from your busses and feeds into a master summing module that bypasses the internal DAW summing and simulates an actual (API) console summing. A bit like the (analog) summing in APB-16 from McDSP, which I find very intriguing... @@Uuuuyyyyuuu

[@MariJu1ce]

Very similar, feel like the analog version sustains a bit more, and a bit more relaxed/effortless sounding. not as scooped as the plugin, but plugin sounds great, alot more controlled , but a bit Zingy top end which i dont like about it. maybe a different setting would work

[@MillSounds]

That 8 channel summing option on the plugin though... It's pure vintage API, a lot different than my console. It's good to have choices!

[@johnisrael5183]

Yeah...Im hearing that to.......

[@ctatrains]

I put the demo on my master bus and within 15 minutes of running it on a new. Instant buy. This thing seemed to come out of nowhere.

[@MillSounds]

I've been loving it on buses inside my DAW as well, hit them with a little bit of flavor before sending those groups out to my analog API console gives me a bit more of a vintage flavor!

[@igelhaft]

Great video. If you’re going to be checking out other Pulsar Modular plugins might I suggest starting with P42 Climax? It’s a fun comparison with the CA-70S plugin.

[@MillSounds]

I'm going to check out one of the transformer plugins this week.

[@LosFicosMusic]

THEY NEEED TO DO THE SHELFORD NEXT!!

[@thegroove2000]

What circuits?

[@MillSounds]

Mostly summing from a vintage API sidecar. There's also a lot more going on under the hood when you activate Line Amp, as that's a combination of a lot of tube and transformer color from Marc's analog chain.

[@alemarrena8792]

The analog summing is much bigger, punchier, and has better separation. It's just much better. The plugin is pretty good for what it is though.

[@LesonDeson]

That's quite strange to have the same logo and almost the same name as Pulsar

[@pulsarmodular]

Especially when Pulsar Modular released P900 Soft Synth 3 years before the other company entered the market.

[@jimmygigga6819]

This plugin is a serious resource hog! I have had to freeze nearly all other plugins in order to use it. Did you have the same experience?

[@MillSounds]

I upgraded to a really nice mac studio last year, so my experience wouldn't really be fair (it's been fine for me...).

[@jimmygigga6819]

Which one did you get? M1, M2? How many instantiations of that plugin can you get before it gives up. @@MillSounds

[@MillSounds]

@@jimmygigga6819I’ve got an M2 Ultra (more for the video work side of things). Again, I’ve not really noticed a hiccup on any mixes, I’ve even left it on a 32 buffer on accident a few times. I’m just not paying attention to the CPU, the point of blowing all that money was to stop thinking about it for a while 😂

[@jimmygigga6819]

Rock on! @@MillSounds

[@laorejaestudio]

Hice una mezcla completa usando solamente Sidecar todos los canales, buses y master. No noté que gastara muchos recursos de mi pc y tengo una pc básica Intel i3 generación 12, en Studio One.

[@johnisrael5183]

its close...but the plugin...destroys the stero imaging

[@MillSounds]

It just depends on the settings. I've found imaging does weird stuff when you start to hit analog stuff a little harder, I got the same kind of interaction on the plugin (especially in the 8 channel mode). "Wider" isn't always better, sometimes having a bit of "glue" to bring everything in a bit and feel more "together" is a good thing. I got a wider image when I switched the plugin to the 2 channel mode and changed to the cleaner converter option, but I liked it better when things glued together a bit more pushing the 8 channel summing and more colorful converter option. The song already has most of the interesting stuff in it hard panned left and right, sacrificing a bit of the stereo image for that character was a good tradeoff to me. Just a preference thing, and you've got plenty of options on the plugin to bring that back if you prefer.

[@georginikolov1141]

The hw sounds astonigishly better and not hecause is analog but because is Api there is a lot of shit hardware which sounds horrible.This plugins are all sound kind of the same.The Api emulations i like are the lindell audio or Lsr audio as they do give me this soft but punchy Api Sound.