NAMM 2025: Kazrog and Retro Instruments announce Retro Sta-Level Native plugin
by Kazrog   25th January 2025

Originally Posted by Rugginz ➡️

So so happy with this. I almost think it needs its own thread now that its available.

Originally Posted by Rugginz ➡️

I compared it to virtually all of the other offerings out there this evening: TimP, Arturia, Kiive, and Mixwave, and AA Smoke.
I know this will sound like a honeymoon thing, but this is finally the one that does the thing I have always wanted a Sta Level plugin to do.

The box tone is literally perfect - I would not change a thing. I think some of these other devs try to hard to make it characterful, to the point where its actually more distorted than the HW. Not to mention, if they are sampling old Gates units - the differences between them are going to be immense.
Another issue I have, on the other side of the spectrum is that some of them can be far too grabby in a pokey digital type of way. The Mixwave is the worst of them in this way, and Smoke is a close second. The next best thing to this Kazrog unit is the TimP, but that's limited by the Nebula engine itself, and can sound a bit robotic and unpredictable as a result.

Anyway, even though Sta Level plugins are a somewhat saturated market, for me - this is the one that I like the sound of the best - and the only one where I can happily compress 40db on a vocal and not have weird digital artifacts. Absolutely superb, well done Kazrog!

Originally Posted by Rugginz ➡️

So so happy with this. I almost think it needs its own thread now that its available.