Thank you for the heads up. Not sure what the difference is due to, but we'll resolve it as soon as possible.

Thanks for the heads up. I need to edit my post.

Is this still a thing when selling Acquas?

"Additional transfers may be requested at the cost of 25 euros plus the difference between the product purchase price and the retail price listed on the Acustica Audio store. Each additional support request pertaining to product transfers has a fixed cost of 25 euros."

That would mean if I wanted to sell i.e. Taupe I'd have to pay 215-240€ which in turn means AA plugins are not sellable at all.

If you have used all your free transfer slots, please contact our support to find out the exact transfer cost. It rarely exceeds €100.

Thanks, I have all slots. So the "free transfers" do not refer to the 25,- transfer fee but also to that purchase/retail price difference?

Still I think a possible 100€ for a single transfer would render resales pointless as I would have to pay more than I paid and way more than somebody would pay in the first place. Even selling a bunch at a time would be hard and very unlikely since the buyer would have to be interested in exactly the plugins offered.

its done like this intentionally. Same with many other devs. they dont want you to resell their products. To me, its counter-intuitive. Let them sell all over the place. More buyers, more users, old users are happy and buy new products, just let em rip. Sure a nominal transfer fee, whatever, but 100$ for a transfer is a joke. Even 25 is a stretch.

Not sure if you knew, but you can transfer multiple products at a time on each free transfer slot (so virtually, all your products)

It's probably far less than €100, but I can't say. Our Help Desk will provide the exact amount.

Yeah, in the EU you have to allow resales of software so apparently this is the weird but legal way to mess this up for the customer.

Yes "virtually" but actually I would have to find someone who is willing to buy coincidentally exactly these, i.e., 20 plugins. Or 5 people who want exactly the selection of 4 plugs. I might be wrong but that's probably not going to happen.

Yeah, it is definitely rigged against the license holder. I sold about 20 of them, used three slots. But only way i could move any was to just list them all and let people choose grab bags. I sold them for $20 each and still was only able to offload half i wanted to sell.

So, the moral is, don't buy any unless you want to keep them forever, because the sale will not get you much back, even with free slots left, AA is hard to sell.

Once the free slots are gone - lol.

And I haven't bought any since that realization. But I might buy Aubergine, if I can ever find time to demo it. People seem to like it...

FWIW, this is the view I take on all software. To me, it’s money gone. Physical stuff I see as possible to sell on, at least most stuff. Books not so much, for instance.

Best,

Magnus

Yes, plugin money is gone forever basically. Just looking into it to see if I can get at least a bit back. $20 is on the threshold were I have to think hard if it makes sense at all. The buyers fee at PA isn't better, you can basically try to sell a plugin for 5-10 bucks. So if you got 20 you're lucky.
Aubergine to me is the 1st plugin in a long time that seems worth buying. Maybe I can trade five licenses for Aubergine, giving back the others to Acustica.

m3 ultra, 32core, 256 GB unified memory:

I'm running multiple times into a annoying memory issue with any aqua plugin.

I've done multiple test projects.
By reaching a unified memory load of about 45 GB, with each opened instance memory loading get's slower and slower. To me it looks like exponential.

Tested in vanilla REAPER and logic pro installs.
Same behavior for both DAWs.
Sequoia 15.4.1 and 15.3.
No problem found with System Diagnostic.

Why is it needed to load the exactly same vectors/samples multiple times into memory for the same kind of instances?
Why these are not shared by multiple instances?


Related to a specific test project in REAPER:

4 instances of {StrawPre, Teal, SandUltraEq, SandUltraComp} on each track.

CPU utilizing meters inside REAPER, activity monitor and istats start to max out at about 60 tracks (=240 instances). Aqua's are reporting wrong values, while REAPER's core percent per track is pretty accurate.

I maxed it out with 900(!!) aqua plugin's running on 225 tracks by adjusting buffer settings inside REAPER for having no dropouts and snappy graphics fully utilizing all 32cores. 165GB of unified memory. That's insane!

BUT !!:

It took FOREVER to duplicate tracks.

At a certain plugin count (about 600, I guess) aqua graphics start to break.
Meters do what they want.
Eq graphics in ultra versions do not respond properly while knobs still respond and adjustments take place in the audio.
Opening a plugin's GUI works properly in an acceptable amount of time. Even with 900 instances.

loading such a project takes FOREVER. To be precise 3 hours and 47 minutes. :-)

Also checked REAPERs performance by loading kontakt libraries with total over 50 GB of memory.
No such issues. Loading times are excellent.
It seems REAPER performs great about this.

Anybody could replicate?
@ Giancarlo and Acustica, could you replicate or ever tried aquas on that kind of a computer?

To properly review this, we kindly ask that you open a support ticket through our helpdesk at:
https://acusticaudio.freshdesk.com/support/tickets/new

This will allow our support and dev teams to try to replicate the behavior and run internal tests properly. Thank you!

Ok, yes, I do.

Are here any other m3 ultra or m4 max users around?

I'm still debating Aubergine or Taupe before the sale ends... Taupe will more than likely win.

+1.

"You will own licenses and be happy."

I'm really only considering Aubergine for the Punishr+, which is excellent. Currently trying to duplicate its mojo with Bitwig's tools and I keep thinking I don't have time for this, just load Aubergine, lol. It's really sweet to dial in.

My backordered M4 should be here in a week so I will holler with any findings.

Also meant to mention for anyone interested in Aubergine -- try pairing it with Opal comp... filth for DAYS. A really great combo.

I am seeing this also (that Thing is advertised on sale in email for 109 but is 129 on the website)

i just got my m4 max setup on friday. Still installing stuff, but have started doing initial testing. Ive so far found Acustica plugins have a bit better performance on my Max than on my M1 Ultra. There is a definite noticeable improvement. i havent done an exact numbers test yet, but to me it feels like 15% improvement, maybe more.

fwiw I dig taupe on the master bus and individual tracks when I've played around with it. I like the TimP nebula tape libraries as well.

Taupe is cheaper and therefore maybe a more realistic alternative, and it's one I have kept, but honestly, they just added a center focus control on pulsar modular's tape, and it is so clearly the best tape out there now by a LONG way, IMO (and many others, I feel insecure if I don't run with the pack, lol).

I would go for Aubergene if I were you. Then save up for P821.

Exactly.

Or he takes Taupe from me for 20.

My fav nebula is the J37.

The "strip" is maybe even more interesting with the double saturation and pre/post emphasis.
Ofc you can get very close with Bitwig, they have so many waveshapers and saturators it's ridiculous. But you really gotta have time and love the experimentation. Or check my stuff.
Michelangelo is a pretty good match for Aubergine as well.

My only technical issue with 821 is it's essentially one flavor. A great flavor, but limited. I have issues with their pricing and pre-order "Masterpiece" marketing too but I think I can overlook that when a product is great (which they are).

My broader issue is with Ziad... the way he spoke to/treated Jantex in the thread is beyond his typical self-congratulatory/regard/aggrandizement. He can keep his plug ins. Y'all are welcome to spend your $ how you see fit, no judgment here.

Tape and Taupe: I have a bone to pick with AA as well (who pissed me off this Easter, lol?). Taupe is nearing 7 years old, Pink is turning 5 y.o. next month. They really, really need an update.

Don't think a Pink update is going to happen, at least not anytime soon. IRC there was some chatter like "don't have the tech to update Pink" or something along those lines. So I'm not sure if I should keep it. Was my favorite but given th ecircumstances my top want list items –and they look much more feasible to me– are Azure and Ivory.

Yup, I think it's the crossover filters and multiband.

Azure is definitely on my update list.

Yeah one of my favorites too.

That's fair. He is very impressed with himself. Lol