Good points. I just started using their stuff, and have add quite a bit of AA plugins. Waiting for UAD spark to come to PC. Why did you remove all the AA stuff?

I love the AA look of their plugins. But truthfully that it’s petty but the names of their plugins get confusing. Also am I missing something for the money should we not be able to resize the gui. I’m new to AA so sorry if u can and I just can’t seem to figure out how to do this.

long story in a nutshell I kept asking for information regarding what systems AA tested on and what was the optimum DAW/OS to run their plugins . I never got a proper answer , in fact i got conflicting answers.

I was at the point of buying a new DAW for the studio and basically just wanted to know where to spend my money so i could use AA plugins to their max. I never got a proper answer. Also they don't support windows 11 as I went with a new windows machine so that then meant i had no recall with support for various issues :(

i was doing my own testing and in the end gave up.

I've replaced most insert FX with Plugin alliance and softube. I still have some send FX from nebula I love and Silver .


M

Is win11 so different? Usually win is pretty good with compatibility. Anyone here with win 11 and AA?

no, but if you have an issue with AA plugins they say straight away windows 11 isn't supported!!


M

p.s. windows is probably the best OS for backwards compatibility, so it's doubly annoying when these things take so long to become officially supported.

it seems AA are heading toward becoming very Mac centric...... which I'd have no issue with if they would tell me AA works best on OSX whatever and apple silicone... I would have switched..........

Mac centric would be interesting. Not a good look I think. Especially since UAD have Spark now, and have the PC version of their plugins coming the fall. Eventually everything they make will be ported over to it.

why is spark supposed to be special? the only thing i see 'special' is for UAD to charge you every month to run THEIR 'native' plugins lol i would like to know who coded the spark plugins and if they are convolution based

I can say that HWMC has run without issue for a couple hundred hours on w11/Ryzen 4700g. I use it with virtual audio bus to have some control over the playback of YouTube, ESPN, ect. I've tried about va dozen in Samplitude Pro x5 without issue on that machine, but about only 20 min or so each, trying to familiarize myself with them.

--

With regard to w11, Ive not seen any audio centric tests for Intel 12 gen comparing w10 vs w11. In most other benchmarks I can recall the difference was nill.

One has the option to run w10 on the latest Intel stuff until all their software is supported officially if they are concerned about that.

I've not noticed any of the emails I've received from plugin makers about updates like oeksound or liquidsonics or fabfilter mention w11 compatibility. It's all been apple compatibility and bug fixes.

My guess is that it's because most w10 compatible stuff works fine in w11, which has been my experience so far. I ran Adobe audition 1.5 on w11 for a test, flawlessly. That software is from 2002 or so. And because apple compatibility was a main priority as it's a big market sector still for audio.

I hope this isn't a new trend however where apples lack of backward compatibly consistently eats up dev time. If that's the case I think perhaps there should be an extra fee associated with the AU version, so us windows users can also recieve reasonbly timely updates. I feel bad saying that as apple isn't an inexpensive ecosystem begin with, but at some point it may be fair.

I have a powerful AMD 5900x with Windows 11. all my plugins including Nebula 4.5 (I have loads of libs) and my Aquas working wonderful. all I see is mac users having problems.lol but im a real geek so my windows is deeply tweaked, optimized and cleaned. never crashes.

As for UAD, you should ask that to the 1000 plus replies in that thread.

The problem is not from MAC because all other thord part plugin works marvellous with M1 and ARM actually on MAC, the problem is AA with is really a mess for MAC

How much was "a bit" for you? Are we talking a couple few outboard units, or all down the line, e.g.reel to reel into something like a Burl A/D?

I'd love to get my hands on some Analog, but cost has always been my problem...I'm guessing it is for most of us playing engineer in our bedrooms.

Let me tell you something about M1 compatibility... it's Apple's way or the highway. Acustica did not like it but they're forced to for business reasons.

As for Windows 11...dual boot to test or stay safe with Windows 10.

As for me... Windows 7 is still working great!

and that's great , I had a good run for a while but as soon as you do have an issue you're on you're own with support though.

As I said windows is the best OS regarding backwards compatibility so it's all the more irksome when after all this time AA don't support it and obviously no one there uses a windows 11 machine.


M

Do with what you have most of all!!! i don't think you need and entire chain to have beautiful analog sound today. Choose only good material, i mean no need to spend 5000 dollars on a comp; but i think you will be better having one reliable comp that three berhinger craps.

There are real possibilities for great studio material at decent prices.

If you have nothing, so i advise you to begin with a compressor (enough versatile and clean, ideally an affordable vca; i choosed aphex expressor for modern american feedforward compression. Very punchy, highly tweakable... Can be found for 200...), an equalizer (versatile and tweakable too; ideally a full parametric or a graphic), anything you feel comfortable with. Those can be your workbase; then after searching for more colour.
Preamps are a good point too, to reamp your tracks in line mode, its super useful to polish sounds with class. Super preamps are totally affordable.

To see what you really need, see how you work in digital... What are the usual suspects you always use? Those plugins surely have an analog counterparts... Begin there.


If you want a simple idea, you can check mixanalog.com and accessanalog.com
High end studio gears you can use from your sofa. To polish sounds without the cost problem this is pretty effective.

I dont think analog is so much expensive. How much plugins do you have??? On the secondhand market under 1000$ choices are limited yes, but it will restrain and help you choose the first.
Depending your needs, one or two channel strip is another solution; like an avalon or UAD and go directly for color; once again those stuffs could be very simple to help you polish and finnish your sounds. The difference can go from subtle to night and day against full digital.

You can mp me, ill try to analyze what you use/need/like and advise you more if you want.

Im not a pro audio guy yet, still trying to get my mixes good. But in my experience on my Mac mini M1 I could run say 43 AA plugs (44hz project). On my intel i9 18 core 36 threads windows 10 pc, I can run about 34 AA plugs 44hz project) . and the pc the AA plugs (vst3) seem load up quicker and are more snappy when using the AA plugin dials (on m1 Mac mini it takes a second or so to load up and also a second or so to eg. change pink eq freq. On my Mac mini in studio one the AA plugs didnt automate well sometimes didnt work for automation, but on the windows 10 in studio one the automation works.

Can you people please guesstimate instances of various AA plugs you can use in your system?
I know its amazing to run loads of AA plugs. 40 is a nice amount (@44hz) but ideally I'd like to be able to use 40 more - even 100 AA plugs that would be awesome.
I will upgrade to windows 11 once AA have support for it Im sure they must be working on that and well as the new Mac studio os.

For me, I will start committing the audio and then moving on. In studio one to do this I recommend not using fx channels as those cant be 'transform to audio track' (by selecting the tracks and right clicking), so for me I will be duplicating any track I want to use to mimic fx channels, that way at the end of the session you can (perhaps save it to a new project studio one, and) select all tracks and 'transform to audio'.

Im not there yet with my mixing skills but I fully understand all the controls and tools (I think!) - and maybe committing the audio is the way to work (not all tracks eg. vocals or eg. guitars , etc that you might change settings.

I think if you can afford it get the Mac studio because the technology is loads more powerful. That said, Im sure the intel will release chips for pcs in the future that might be silicon technology ?

I think having 2 computers is good to see the difference then sell the other. I will be selling my Mac mini once I get a Mac studio maxed, but its harder to get money back selling a pc. Then again, if windows 11 really makes a massive difference with my 36 threads (I dont even know what that means lol) then maybe id be able to run double the instances of AA. ?

I am no expert yet (need to start using reference files!!!!) at mixing, but to my good ears the quality of eg. sand eq , etc, just blows all my other plugs out the water! UAD is an excellent platform and ive invested heavily into its system over the years and even thinking of selling it all and just going AA. I really like the UAD, but I never thought I loved some of their plugs which everyone raves about being amazing, but many many of their plugs are also excellent, plus UAD is ultra rock solid and you can totally trust it working with the dsp cards.

Around the time all the M1 work was being finished I picked up a 12900K and dropped Win 11 on it as I was interested in how the move into a world of P/E cores for Intel and a new Windows 11 core scheduling model might interact with audio systems. I didn't find anything of concern on my plug-ins so didn't make any adjustments to them in Windows, which is why I was pretty quiet on the topic. There was one drawing issue in Illusion needing a fix and some DAWs had pretty strange CPU metering when getting towards the system's limit at the time, but other than that it was smooth sailing. As usual for Windows!

Nebula 4.5 gave me a scrambled CPCL and Crimson 1.5 gave me an authorization bug on windows 11/reaper. This was when those were first released so maybe they've released updates. Other than that, I don't think I'm experiencing anything that wouldn't show up anywhere else i.e. the Lime channel strip EQ bug.

How so? I have an Intel Mac and a M1 Mac.
AA runs well on both!

It is true that AAs don't do well running in Rosetta, but, even there, they are not 100% unusable. I think single core speed is still the most important factor (?), but - as mentioned here and elsewhere by others - how well they run is largely dependent on the DAW used and how much RAM is available. For example, AAs do pretty well for me running natively in Cubase 12 / Monterey, but they really excel in Reaper. I place part of that problem on Steinberg. I know a lot of Cubase users are waiting for the big C12 update coming sometime, which may help.

The RAM suggestions are a surprise to me. I've been using AA for several years now, but don't recall more RAM being mentioned as so important back when I started. IIRC, AA is now saying 16GB minimum, with 64GB recommended. I've only got 16 in both my i7 and M1 Mini, so you know I will be eagerly watching the news out of Apple's upcoming WWDC. Tim Cook should cut Giancarlo a check for helping to sell new Macs.

Maybe some can help - as I’m running a new MacBook with M1 max chip. 32 GB on the memory - Monterey operating system im running latest Logic Pro X in Rosetta mode and my ACustica plugs are basically unusable. Any suggestions on what I’m doing wrong

AA is not a mess on my Mac Studio Max. All their plugins run fine and most with decent CPU usage, ie: not hogs. Same with N4.5 libraries. All is running very well.

So I don't know what you're talking about. If you're talking about Rosetta that is a moot point since it will be gone soon.

Yes. Stop using Logic in Rosetta mode. Giancarlo explained why. Go native and you'll see that the Acustica plugins will work really well. N4 too. Rosetta will be gone soon. Use other non native plugins within Patchwork.

I'm doing that on my Mac Studio Max with no issues. And I'm pushing it hard.

Thanks for the reply, I own the full pro bundle. It's great to know things moved into w11 well in your experience. So far that's been my experience as well.

One question Im curious about is did you test w10 vs w11 on the 12900k? It would be good to know how critical it is for 12 gen owners to be on w11. As some have addressed concerns about lack of "official" support, and perhaps w10 isn't much sacrifice in performance.

I really appreciate the reply, I humbly suggest maybe if possible, in one of the upcomong emails, liquidsonics mentions that the preliminary or unofficial testing, whatever you call it, has shown w11 compatibility for the product's. I think people would be happy to hear it.

Cheers, love the new features recently added!

Glad you're enjoying the new features

Sorry but I don't have a data-point for Windows 10 on the Intel 12th gen, I've only installed Windows 11 on to it to date. I have the impression this is the recommend OS for the new hardware so felt it was the best testing to perform. I gather more people are using Windows 10 on 12th gen than I expected though so it could be something to look into.

All good, thanks!

Hi, I would Like to use AA Plugins on my Second PC. Is it possible to Register the Plugins on my First Internet connected PC and use Them with the Second offline PC?

You can copy the stage area from one computer to another to make the installation times shorter, but to authorize the products on your second computer you need an internet connection.

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