So.. that was my choice and there is.. the new product of IKmultimedia... T-Racks 3... from the page:

Announcing T-RackS 3
Beyond Mastering
The new T-RackS 3 raises the bar again in high-end DAW mastering and mixing, with a suite of 9 analog modeled and digital Dynamics/EQ processors, an audio quality that is unmatched in software, and scores of new and unique features.
Modular High-End Mastering/Mixing Suite of Dynamics and EQ processors, including:

• 9 processors comprised of 3 new analog and vintage emulations (including models based on the Fairchild 670 and the Pultec EQP-1A), 2 new digital processors as well the 4 classic, award-winning T-RackS processors
• New configurable mastering/mixing chain – run up to 12 parallel/series processors
• New complete built-in metering section with Peak, Perceived Loudness, Phase, and RMS meters, plus a Spectrum analyzer with Peak, RMS and Averaging indicators
• New standalone and plug-in versions available in the same package for use in all the most popular native DAWs
• New high-fidelity oversampling with crystal clear transparency, for high quality audio processing throughout the entire signal path
• New SCC™ technology coupled with IK’s unique DSM™ technology provides the most realistic software emulation of vintage gear to date
• Extremely easy to use, with style-based presets, full chain visualization, one-click single module or chain bypass, “compare” function, multiple audio processing in standalone mode and much more

T-RackS 3 has all the tools you need to create superb, tube-toned or digital-tuned, mixes and masters. Its rich, warm sound combines new tube-modeled and state-of-the-art digital processors on top of its classic top-notch analog classics. A new modular chain gives you full control and easy navigation/compare features. A new complete metering section keeps all the most important variables of your sound under control. A truly superior mastering and mixing system that will put a polish on your tracks you may have never thought possible. All this, while adding the beautiful warmth and space of the tube devices it emulates. No other plug-in offers this kind of dedicated environment for such an important task, and nothing sounds like T-RackS 3.

Yup even more fairchilds and pultecs lol

Yep... that's Cool...

Yeah the link please: T-RackS 3

Looks like available Nov 10, $499 for "deluxe" with the Pultec etc, upgrade from any older IK plug to deluxe will be $299...

Kinda steep upgrade price but I guess there are several new plugins. I wonder if I should wait since I have the Total Effects bundle and they will be coming out with upgrades for all of them and probably will try to sell a package to laggards.

Not clear whether you can just get the "standard" upgrade from the older TRacks. (I often wonder how companies can avoid thinking through such obvious questions. Put yourself in the customer's shoes! If you lack the faculty to do that, try asking them. And don't worry about "busying up" your launch copy. Tell us what we want to know.)

looks cool, some very cool features in one plug. I like the standalone mode idea, if it winds up being a lil heavy in the daw session. nice gui's as well.
Intrested to see how thier emulations may compare to others of the same.

I guess this is gonna be the new thing, the clone wars ...maybe they should start shipping storm trooper helmets with all emulation plugs

So even if you already own tracks its £179 to upgrade ?

Thats half a new uad2 solo card.hmmmmmmm plus i already got the abbey road stuff and the stillwell stuff. I cant see what this would offer that i cant get through other things or don't have already.

Maybe like £50 upgrade but there really is so many eqs and comps you can have and i don't even really use the original. Have to try a demo i guess

Ik is stepping up for real! Can't wait for this baby! Fairchild & Co.... can't wait, can't wait to hear if it simply compete to the toys that has been on the market since!! The GUi is truly amazing but i simply hope they sound great no matter what, even if it does not really emulate the real Fairchild or Putlec etc.. just hope they sound creamy and warm.........!!!!

Looking forward for sure!!

they look awesome

i really hope they rate better than waves SSL, puigchild and api compressor

i don't need anymore EQ but the comps could be a nice addition

"With over 10 years of experience in analog-modeled software, IK has pioneered this technology and accumulated more experience than any other plug-in manufacturer in the field. This has resulted in several improvements like our unique DSM™ (Dynamic Saturation Modeling) and now the new SCC™ (Sonic Character Cloning). SCC™ has been developed to "clone" the true behavior of an analog vintage processor down to its finest level of sonic detail for a faithful reproduction of all its tonal characteristics. This new emulation technology produces results that are indistinguishable from the originals, even for the professionally trained ear.

Many pieces of vintage gear tend to have original and interesting circuit topology, due to the creative solutions that engineers were sometimes forced to put into place in order to overcome the limitations of components' technology. Vintage components' technology (many of which can't be found anymore because their technology became obsolete and un-economical) as well as their aging (some of the best sounding devices are 40-50 years old) played fundamental roles in giving these devices a unique musicality that is what the purist would define to be "the unmatched" by even the most advanced processors today. And finally, many of the unique sonic characteristics of these magnificent vintage units sometimes depended on erratic and unpredictable behavior of their electronics that would be considered unorthodox and unusable by today's science and standards.

SCC™ technology has the ability, through a new analysis method developed by IK, to integrate all of the above and turn it into a mathematical algorithm that, for the first time, is able to take into consideration all of these complex variables and get an exact "clone" of the original. This is software emulation evolved to a sound quality never heard before. Sounds so close to the real thing that you won’t be able to tell the difference."



i hope they will post some comparison files to the original hardware if they are so sure.

Wow, didn´t expect that.
The upgrade price (for existing customers) is a bit high for my taste and I am just not sure if i really need it as i just got my UAD2 Quad...guess i have to demo it and decide than.

i think if you have a UAD you def. dont need this. But forsomeone like me who has no PCI slots and cant buy UAD :( it may bee cool

I'm super excited. T-Racks are probably my favorite "character" plug ins. $500 for 9 plugs is a great deal compared to what you get from Waves for the same price...

It's a shame they're not selling the plug-in versions seperately, perhaps they will at some point in the future and that would certainly get my interest if the Fairchild compressor clone turns out to be good.

Eagerly awaiting comparisons of that compressor to what else is out there

cmon' FC670 & PT EQP1A.. UA, Waves and now IK too

Jeez can somebody come up with something new please

Don't forget about the Bomb Factory ones as well for Pro Tools!

If you missed it the site here's their vid:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4h5k...cks/videodemo/

Wasn't the original TRacks compressor suppose to be Fairchild emulation already?? I remember reading somewhere that it was modeled after the 670 albeit not a very good one but now they have another 670 emulation.

nice. i will actually upgrade to this. still use T-Racks 24 every once in a while for singles hittin mixshow/radio before mastering is done.

I used to like that soft clipper on certain stuff.

Agreed. Give me some new creative tools to make music with, not manipulate audio in the same old ways.

I have NEVER understood what was great about T-Racks.

Invest your Money in a waves Ren Compressor and EQ and an L2 - and if you know what your doing then this WILL yield you superior results over anything IK multimedia makes.

I would not install T-Racks on my rig even if someone gave it to me for free

like? (just curious)

You know how to do this right? Simply use nulling to match the hardware and software, and keep searching for material, and knob levels, that null best. You are very likely to find some material and settings that will null perfectly and be humanly indistinguishable...but how often you would actually use such settings and similar material is questionable.

Well, I would like to be surprised. For example off the top of my head, the new Paul Frindle plugin - Dynamic Spectrum Mapper - looks like a pretty innovative way to add some twists into the works. I have so many pultec and fairchild emus that I actually laugh to think of ever buying another one. Something that actually inspires new areas of creativity rather than the same old knobs that control the same old parameters. Obviously this is the musician in me speaking, not the engineer, as clearly there can be value in a straightforward tool. I would just like to see some new concepts incorporated with new technology, rather than old concepts incorporated with new technology.

What happens is the creative people who are doing new things never get spoken about, because no one feels confident to have an opinion about them. So they make a clone just to get included on shootouts etc. "Who makes the best 1073 EQ plugin?" was posted yesterday e.g.

The way this all works, if you look at gearslutz for instance, is you have some very high-end gear snob, a cantankerous old veteran, grunting that "nothing is like my original 670 that was maintained by the inventor himself before he died." And people read that cwap and have no means of disproving it. High-end artists go to these people and their gear museums because they want the "best of everything," so it all feeds on itself. And everyone else sees all of that and they want it for themselves driving the auction market out of reach of people that actually make music and making all those things museum pieces. So they become unquestioned standards to which all else is judged, even if, knowing nothing, you might rank them last in a blind shootout with modern stuff.

So much lust factor is whipped up that there's almost no way to market anything new, and so you have no choice but to release some kind of clone or emulation. And then they get included on shootouts, sometimes with the real thing. But the curmudgeon still gets the fun of coming on and grunting, "None of those sound anything like what I have here, the tracks suck and the engineer is some gangly clueless kid. The vintage unit is obviously broken and the plugins all sound one-dimensional and harsh." Nonetheless, people buy the plugins so they can say to their friends, "I'm sending this through a FAIRCHILD! "

The best you can hope to do is slip something new into a bundle, and they've done that here...but lo and behold! Even you have overlooked that!

Wow, so much discussion already, positive and negative. I guess we are doing something right. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Andrew Bach, and I'm the Marketing Assistant at IK Multimedia. I guess now is as good a time to jump in and offer up some of my thoughts.

I can understand why some of you would ask "Why another Fairchild/Pultec?". Having owned many different plugins that seek to emulate these classics myself, I still believe there is always room for improvement. Some sound close, some don't sound quite right, some don't sound at all like the original, etc. If there was one that sounded 100% like the original 100% of the time, no one would care to own the hardware version, or for that matter buy a new version in plugin form. At the end of the day we are all looking for the closest to the mojo of the originals, which still leaves room for more. Now of course I would like to think we make the best emulations of what we model, but then again I may be biased.

I think that everyone should also look at what T-racks 3 has to offer besides the Fairchild/Pultec emulations (not that they aren't awesome themselves). The original T-racks had some great options as far as EQ/Compressor/Limiters, but it was just one of each, and it was in need of an update. Now you get multiple styles of each (9 total processors), from the Pultec and linear phase eq's to the Fairchild and opto-style compressors, an ultra transparent brick wall limiter, PLUS the entire original T-racks suite with a souped up engine. In addition, you get a fully integrated metering section, the ability to chain up to 12 units in series/parallel, stand alone operation for those times when you want to not have to load up your Daw of choice complete with automation and dithering and the ability load multiple files, and the ability to use the individual pieces or the suite as a whole. To me that is an awesome value.

There are a lot of good companies who put out products that compete with T-racks 3, and again I own and have used many of these products. I'm not here to start a flame war or say that the other guys products are garbage, but I do like to think that we completely nailed it with this one. In my opinion it really does provide the best one stop shop for all your mixing/mastering needs. We even offer two packages based upon your budget and how many different processors you may need, plus crossgrade options (got T-racks EQ with your Digi002? Give us a call for savings!). Add on a reverb plugin and some good modulation FX (hey, did I tell you we provide both of those with CSR and the FX suite in Amplitube? ) and you pretty much have everything you need.

I really look forward to people trying out T-racks 3 and giving your opinions. I think that you all will be very pleasantly surprised.

Cheers,

Drew

Looks great, i will definately update my T-Racks to this .....

Andrew what is the upgrade price fro existing T-Racks owners ? It's not quite clear on the site !

While i agree to a certain extent , the good thing about this update is for existing owners of T-Racks who get theses extra plugs for a fraction of the price of just buying the Waves Puig stuff , not everybody has rushed out to buy every emulation around especially when some of the prices are competing with hardware which i would rather own, this just may postpone me buying a UAD card and that for me is a good thing .

Peeder also has some valid points . Personally i could care less how they sound compared to the originals as long as they make a nice sound without to much fuss which is the best thing about old designs , simple UI's .

Hi Drew,

You're here. We're here. No need for us to "give you a call." Tell us how much it will cost to upgrade from whatever we have to whatever you got.

Hey Andrew!

Welcome on board and good to have you here and to give us your point of view as well. I've always been a fan of T-racks and looking forward to give the newer version a try. I'm pretty confident it will be a very nice plugins rack to have!!!

Wish there were a demo already to try it!!!


Thans for stopping by!!!


Cheers!!