# RC 20 Retro Color vs. UJam Finisher Retro



## crossrootsdoc (Oct 5, 2021)

I am trying to achieve a vintage tape effect for the legato strings. Does anyone have an opinion on which is better suited? And yes I know there is a demo/trial available for Ujam. Still interested in opinions/preferences nonetheless.


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## kgdrum (Oct 5, 2021)

I don’t want to scare anyone away from Ujam’s finisher ,it does sound great. 
I don’t know if this was a quirk in my system or what was the actual cause but the last time I used it I got a horrible noise burst(it scared the shit out of me!) I was worried about my ears as well as my monitors. I contacted Ujam when this happened but they really didn’t offer any solution or explanation so I’ve haven’t used it since this happened.


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## lychee (Oct 5, 2021)

I don't know UJam, but RC 20 Retro Color excels in transforming audio into vintage sound, all in a simple and terribly efficient interface.


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## MarkH (Oct 7, 2021)

I find that RC-20 gives you a wider range of vintage flavors. If you want the old school, warbly vintage tape sound, with some adjustable noise, RC-20 is what I would recommend. Retro is great as well, just has a different approach with a different toolset. May not be as flexible in the the ‘warbly’ characteristic. Don’t think you can go wrong either way. Personally I own both as I like the variety and have a love for vintage character.


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## grabauf (Oct 7, 2021)

And both are on sale at Pluginboutique at the moment.


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## darkogav (Oct 7, 2021)

RC-20 is great. But I feel I have seen it on sale for $49 before. No?


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## GtrString (Oct 7, 2021)

If it is to sound reel, I'd suggest Softube Tape. It's very tweakable and sounds great.


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## crossrootsdoc (Oct 7, 2021)

darkogav said:


> RC-20 is great. But I feel I have seen it on sale for $49 before. No?


That's what I bought it for earlier this year!


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## crossrootsdoc (Oct 7, 2021)

MarkH said:


> I find that RC-20 gives you a wider range of vintage flavors. If you want the old school, warbly vintage tape sound, with some adjustable noise, RC-20 is what I would recommend. Retro is great as well, just has a different approach with a different toolset. May not be as flexible in the the ‘warbly’ characteristic. Don’t think you can go wrong either way. Personally I own both as I like the variety and have a love for vintage character.


Good to meet another vintage fan!


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## Joseph JP (Oct 25, 2021)

RC 20 is the way to go, if it's on sale. it has lots of options and gives you refined control and it is easy to tweak and is suitable for quick Retro Tape Style Machines and to get the Lofi Feelings going. There are plenty of other options like Super VHS by baby audio. If degrading the sound is what your after.


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## Laurin Lenschow (Oct 25, 2021)

Any thoughts on how RC 20 compares to more expensive dedicated tape emulations?
I want to get RC 20 anyway (mostly for Electro Swing), but I am wondering how well it would work for orchestral music (and I won't be able to compare it to other tape emulations, as I don't have any).


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## Zanshin (Oct 25, 2021)

What’s a good sale price for RC 20?


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## Joseph JP (Oct 25, 2021)

Laurin Lenschow said:


> Any thoughts on how RC 20 compares to more expensive dedicated tape emulations?
> I want to get RC 20 anyway (mostly for Electro Swing), but I am wondering how well it would work for orchestral music (and I won't be able to compare it to other tape emulations, as I don't have any).


It's Very Good. I have used it on many occasions and you can get a lot of mileage out of it for Orchestral Stuff. Just use it on mild settings and your good to go. But for a fair comparison, it is not an emulation. We don't know what equipment it is modeled/based after. So I can't say for sure. But it serves its purpose well.


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## Joseph JP (Oct 25, 2021)

Zanshin said:


> What’s a good sale price for RC 20?


Some time ago, if I remember correctly is was available for $39.95 USD


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## easyrider (Oct 25, 2021)

Zanshin said:


> What’s a good sale price for RC 20?


$33 from JRR shop just checked what I paid.


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## jcrosby (Oct 25, 2021)

I have both and another vote for RC 20. Plenty of presets to get you in the ballpark quickly, and very easy to modify or build from scratch... Whereas the Finisher stuff gives you very little flexibility...

Both sound great, but the RC 20 not only does the vintage thing better, you can grow into it over time whereas the Finisher plugins limit you to a preset per effect type(s), some with a small range of options.

If you demo it start out with the _VHS,_ or one of the _Vinyl_ presets, then turn off the noise and fiddle around. That should quickly get you in the ballpark as far as a retro vibe goes... Also try flipping the saturation between tube and transformer.


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## el-bo (Oct 26, 2021)

If you have Reaktor (included in Komplete) you have access to the VHS Degradation Suite. Can achieve a whole lot of retro whooze and wonk without paying a dime:






ENTRY







www.native-instruments.com


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## AkashicBird (Oct 27, 2021)

Not sure how it compares, but Chow Tape Model is pretty well regarded and free.
No harm in giving it a try, sometimes free is enough.


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## grabauf (Feb 4, 2022)

RC-20 is on sale now for <20$








RC-20 Retro Color


RC-20 Retro Color, RC-20 Retro Color plugin, buy RC-20 Retro Color, download RC-20 Retro Color trial, XLN Audio RC-20 Retro Color




www.pluginboutique.com


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## lychee (Feb 4, 2022)

grabauf said:


> RC-20 is on sale now for <20$
> 
> 
> 
> ...


At this price, it's criminal not to buy it, moreover I would denounce to the FBI all those who have not put their hands on the wallet.


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## Artemi (Feb 4, 2022)

This deal is good through *February 6, 2022*.

(according to the gearnews.com website)


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## el-bo (Feb 4, 2022)

lychee said:


> At this price, it's criminal not to buy it, moreover I would denounce to the FBI all those who have not put their hands on the wallet.


Well, I'm not going to buy it. Not sure the FBI has jurisdiction in Spain, but denounce away


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## lychee (Feb 4, 2022)

el-bo said:


> Well, I'm not going to buy it. Not sure the FBI has jurisdiction in Spain, but denounce away


Ok, I warned you, now get ready to be swatted by the FBI, CIA, NFL and NASA, and your Spanish status won't change anything!


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## grabauf (Feb 5, 2022)

Who is afraid of the FBI, if there's the Spanish Inquisition?


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## el-bo (Feb 5, 2022)

lychee said:


> Ok, I warned you, now get ready to be swatted by the FBI, CIA, NFL and NASA, and your Spanish status won't change anything!


Well, I don't have Spanish status, so I reckon I'm still safe


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## el-bo (Feb 5, 2022)

grabauf said:


> Who is afraid of the FBI, if there's the Spanish Inquisition?



Ah, the Spanish Inquisition! How very unexpected!


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## Bee_Abney (Feb 5, 2022)

I knew there was an RC-20 sale somewhere when I saw lots of licenses for sale on Knobcloud for around €39.

There's a great business opportunity here: buy several RC-20 licenses at this low price then sell the transfers at a profit over the next several months. 

You know, if you're evil.


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## Mr Sakitumi (Feb 5, 2022)

That's why I appreciate this forum. Had it on my radar for a while and this is by far the best price I've seen on it ever! Just picked it up...smooth criminal...Thanku VI-C!


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## Crowe (Feb 5, 2022)

I've picked it up as well (yesterday) but have yet to receive my license :(.


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## Marcus Millfield (Feb 5, 2022)

Crowe said:


> I've picked it up as well (yesterday) but have yet to receive my license :(.


Me too. Does take a while.

Got Warble from PA too.


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## chrisav (Feb 5, 2022)

Crowe said:


> I've picked it up as well (yesterday) but have yet to receive my license :(.


Yeah, same on my end!


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## chrisav (Feb 5, 2022)

Considering how popular this plugin is, and how big of a discount we're looking at, I guess XLN is being slammed with purchases now and are struggling to meet the demand for licenses


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## kgdrum (Feb 5, 2022)

chrisav said:


> Considering how popular this plugin is, and how big of a discount we're looking at, I guess XLN is being slammed with purchases now and are struggling to meet the demand for licenses




Most definitely the sale is overwhelming XLM’s ability to keep up with the current licensing demands but I also suspect XLN suddenly discounting this plugin so aggressively that a RC-20 version 2 must be on the horizon.


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## sostenuto (Feb 5, 2022)

kgdrum said:


> Most definitely the sale is overwhelming XLM’s ability to keep up with the current licensing demands but I also suspect XLN suddenly discounting this plugin so aggressively that a RC-20 version 2 must be on the horizon.


 ....... or something else is 'warbling in their ears ?


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## Hadrondrift (Feb 5, 2022)

Nice sale, cheapest price I've ever seen for this plugin. But gradually I hesitate to keep buying new plugins, because I don't want to register again with a developer just for a single plugin, don't want to install another "Online Product Installer", which installs the actual plugin only in a second step. Too much bloat and too many annoyances, should I ever significantly change my hardware.

If this plugin came with a serial number or similar, I would have purchased it immediately. I think this is the first time I will actually pass up a purchase just for the reasons stated above. Not to be taken as a direct blame on XLN Audio. It is more an act of introspection.

The ratio of my self-produced signals to plugins processing them is increasingly shifting towards plugins. This has to stop at some point. Otherwise I will eventually produce only one sounding cadence per year, which is then processed by myriads of plugins for the rest of that year.

I guess the FBI will have to live with that. However, the sale is still going on for a few hours. Opinions can change. It is cheap, you know...


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## artomatic (Feb 5, 2022)

So glad I bumped into this thread today! I was gonna pull the trigger yesterday at XLN's site (RC-20 for $100) but since I'd just purchased Neold Warble, I resisted. But RC's price at PluginBoutique is insanely cheap! Thanks all!!


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## Crowe (Feb 5, 2022)

Crowe said:


> I've picked it up as well (yesterday) but have yet to receive my license :(.


I've received my license but now the site and downloader gateways are timing out XD. XO Is having a busy few days it seems.

Ah well. I can do the patience-thing for a bit, I'm sure.


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## muratkayi (Feb 7, 2022)

Thanks for the heads up! I finally got it. I'm late to the party, but in the meantime I learned how to emulate this with what I had.
Still, now it's here waiting to be used.

I guess by the time I get something done with it, the RC-20 on everything sound will be the gated reverb of the 20s


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## muratkayi (Feb 7, 2022)

Hadrondrift said:


> If this plugin came with a serial number or similar, I would have purchased it immediately.


If you are talking about the rc-20 it comes with a serial no. which you enter into XLN's license and download manager.

About the possibility of a new version of RC-20... Wouldn't it be more in line with the philosophy of the plug-in if they released an even older version (harhar)


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## Hadrondrift (Feb 7, 2022)

muratkayi said:


> serial no. which you enter into XLN's license and download manager


My point was that I need to create another account and install another download manager. And that is not a criticism of this process (I have Native Access, Toontrack Product Manager, EW Installation Center, ...). I just found myself checking plugin boutique to see what installation variant this plugin comes with. This side condition seems to increasingly influence my purchase decisions.

Don't let this get in the way of you enjoying RC-20.  It was a great price for a very popular plugin.


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## muratkayi (Feb 7, 2022)

Hadrondrift said:


> My point was that I need to create another account and install another download manager. And that is not a criticism of this process (I have Native Access, Toontrack Product Manager, EW Installation Center, ...). I just found myself checking plugin boutique to see what installation variant this plugin comes with. This side condition seems to increasingly influence my purchase decisions.
> 
> Don't let this get in the way of you enjoying RC-20.  It was a great price for a very popular plugin.


Ah sorry, I did not get that. Yes, I understand. I'm starting to feel the same way. If the company requests a download manager and I am not interested in at least 3 products within their ecosystem I can't see the point.


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## Geoff Grace (Feb 7, 2022)

muratkayi said:


> Ah sorry, I did not get that. Yes, I understand. I'm starting to feel the same way. If the company requests a download manager and I am not interested in at least 3 products within their ecosystem I can't see the point.


Fortunately, for many of us, XLN Audio is such a company. Anyone who hasn’t heard of their XO product, should do themselves a favor and check it out now. It’s a must-have for workflow if you have a large collection of one-shot drum samples, as it intelligently rounds them up and sorts them by similarity:






XO - XLN Audio


XO is a Beat maker plugin allowing you to organize and seamlessly explore your drum samples in a new and exciting way. Fully compatible with MIDI.




www.xlnaudio.com





RC-20 Retro Color has been heavily praised already in this thread and DS-10 Drum Shaper is another valuable effect. Last, but not least, many people here swear by Addictive Drums (although, if you have Superior Drummer, you can probably skip that one).

That said, @Hadrondrift, I agree about the annoyance of installers. At last count, I had 36 of them! They use extra space on your hard drive, you’ve got to keep them up-to-date if you want to keep your products up-to-date, and they don’t always work. The main advantage is that many of them allow you to save time by updating multiple products at once, so it makes sense that you’d want to wait to invest in a company that uses them until you think you’re likely to buy more than one product.

Best,

Geoff


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## muratkayi (Feb 7, 2022)

XLN totally is for me, too, yes. Actually the damn installer basically provides me with an overview of the products I still need to buy to complete my collection, hahaha.


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