# Dynamic Room Modeling (UAD 7.x)



## re-peat (May 7, 2013)

The latest UAD software includes the *Ocean Way Studios* plugin which _"reinvents ambience processing with UA’s proprietary new Dynamic Room Modeling, an exclusive combination of signal processing and advanced measurement techniques. Eclipsing standard convolution reverbs — which can only provide a sonic snapshot — Dynamic Room Modeling opens up the full spectrum of a studio’s ambience possibilities"_.

Fascinating.

_


----------



## EastWest Lurker (May 7, 2013)

I have been beta testing this. So far, I have had more success with it on audio tracks of real players and singers than sample libraries but i will be curious top see what you Piet, and others think.

i think for Apollo users who track small groups of players and singers in their project studios, recording through it will be fantastic.


----------



## re-peat (May 7, 2013)

EastWest Lurker @ Tue May 07 said:


> (...) I have had more success with it on audio tracks of real players and singers than sample libraries (...)


Funny you should bring that up, Jay, cause that’s precisely what I think of, say, 75% of UAD’s plug-ins: unable to show quite how good they are when all they’ve got to work with is the audio of samplelibraries, which is inevitably dead, dynamically poor, spatially compromised, constantly in need of artificial enhancing, … well, pretty bad in just about every way you can think of.
This already came up in another UAD-thread from a while back: http://www.vi-control.net/forum/viewtop ... 09#3640809

Anyway, I’ve just finished installing v7.0, and Logic is doing its validation thing while I type this. Curious to find out what they've come up with this time.

_


----------



## germancomponist (May 7, 2013)

Ha ha, well said/described .... .


----------



## Maestro77 (May 7, 2013)

I am purchasing an Apollo Quad today and I'm new to the world of UA plugins. I just checked out the videos and info on the new software update. Do these new plugins come free with the new software, or do you just get the 14-day demo? I believe the Apollo comes with 3 other free plugins though, right?


----------



## Giant_Shadow (May 7, 2013)

some of the press releases have worded it as 7.0 includes the new SPL and Sonnox plugins, but I'm not sure. UA's website is so bogged down today I can;t get past the front page.

Anyone else having trouble getting to the 7.0 update let alone authorization page ?
What day to pick to buy/download my 3 pack.


----------



## Jack Weaver (May 7, 2013)

Maestro77 hoped beyond hope:


> Do these new plugins come free with the new software?



ha, ha, ha....

.


----------



## ThomasL (May 7, 2013)

Giant_Shadow @ 2013-05-07 said:


> some of the press releases have worded it as 7.0 includes the new SPL and Sonnox plugins, but I'm not sure. UA's website is so bogged down today I can;t get past the front page.
> 
> Anyone else having trouble getting to the 7.0 update let alone authorization page ?
> What day to pick to buy/download my 3 pack.


Yes, Ocean Way Studios, SPL TwinTube Processor Plug-In and Sonnox Oxford Inflator Plug-In.

A real nice release I might say.


----------



## germancomponist (May 7, 2013)

The Sonnox Oxford Inflator is one of the best plugs I know!


----------



## EastWest Lurker (May 7, 2013)

The SPL Twin Tube sounds amazing on vocals.


----------



## Gusfmm (May 8, 2013)

I tend to have a primal philosophical issue with hyped-branded products. Just the name tag is worth 50% of the sale price. Same goes for their drum library. Same for their ridiculously priced mic.

Would be curious to read your final impression Piet.


----------



## guydoingmusic (May 8, 2013)

At first glance: not too impressed. But granted, I only played with for a few minutes and didn't really have time to do any real tweaking to it. I did find that there are some unique things you can do with it, but I don't know if it's worth the price tag.


----------



## spectrum (May 8, 2013)

Don't judge this one quickly and don't be too cynical about the branding....get to know it more, because IMHO it's a real game-changer.

I've been using it for a while now (beta testing) and it's pretty great!

You have MUCH more control than a standard convolution reverb and the remicing results are really pretty remarkable. For example, I had a live Piano concert that was accidentally recorded in mono and this thing made it sound like the piano was recorded there with stereo mics!

I've recorded at Oceanway for decades too, so they are some of my favorite rooms. I've also had the Altiverb impulses of these rooms for years and there's simply no comparison with this plug-in.

Being able to reposition and blend different distant mic pairs and keep them in phase is incredibly useful. The Source option for re-micing is also unlike any convolution system I've used.

Really thrilled and excited about this release. It's already changed the mixing game for me in a huge way (and I don't say that sort of thing lightly).


----------



## José Herring (May 8, 2013)

EastWest Lurker @ Tue May 07 said:


> I have been beta testing this. So far, I have had more success with it on audio tracks of real players and singers than sample libraries but i will be curious top see what you Piet, and others think.
> 
> i think for Apollo users who track small groups of players and singers in their project studios, recording through it will be fantastic.



I think you'd have to use it on a source that was fairly dry like Sample Modeling or Mike Green's, the Ladies. If you're trying to use it on material like HS or HB then it wouldn't have any real effect since those samples already have a lot of room in them.

But, I think it would do wonders on sample modeling stuff. Sounds cleaner and more realistic than even SPAT does. Did you try it on The Trumpet?


----------



## Gusfmm (May 8, 2013)

spectrum @ Wed May 08 said:


> Don't judge this one quickly and don't be too cynical about the branding....get to know it more, because IMHO it's a real game-changer.


I wasn't being cynical Erik.


On another note, wasn't VSL trying to do something like this several years ago? Discontinued due to AKG dropping out of the project if I recall correctly?


----------



## re-peat (May 9, 2013)

spectrum @ Thu May 09 said:


> (...) it's a real game-changer. (...)


A game-changer? Mmm. I really don’t hear that, I must say. SPAT, to me, now _there_ was a game-changer, a real one, no doubt, but this? This looks and feels more like the GarageBand-version of SPAT, if you don’t mind me saying so.

Been trying it out extensively on all types of audio — real, live, sampled, synthesized, mono, stereo, dry, wet, … — for the past two days, and while certainly capable of some nice results, and occasionaly even quite impressive ones (also plenty of undistinguished, even downright bad-sounding ones though), it doesn’t do anything that, I feel, can’t be done just as well and often better, quicker and certainly much more precise with other tools. (SPAT-owners are notoriously difficult to impress of course, maybe that’s got something to do with it as well.)

This is the sort of plug-in, I feel, that nobody _really_ needs (unless they’re utterly bored and need a new toy to spend the evening with), the type of tool you mess about with for a few days but then, as soon as wisdom and clarity of mind have returned to the head, cast aside together with the intention of ever looking at it again. (I’m at that stage already, I’m afraid.)

Also, try as I may, I honestly can’t recall ever being in a mixing situation that called specifically for a tool such as this to make things better. I have never thought: “Damn, if only I had a bit of the old Ocean Way flavour, now that would really take this mix to a higher level”. But maybe that’s just me. 
And, I also wonder how bad an engineer one has to be to get oneself into such a mess that this tool effectively offers the best way to get back out of it.

Still, hype this plug-in in a clever enough away, and get a few authorities on your side to tell us how totally awesome this thing really is, and you’ll probably convince a good number of people and sell quite a few units, yes. 
But as I said, I don’t hear it. A typical product for today, I believe: a solution for a problem that never existed in the first place. A tool that, paradoxically, offers creative options to people who indicate, by their very interest in this type of product, not to possess the kind of creativity this tool is supposed to stimulate. The paradox being: if that creativity really did exist, they wouldn’t be interested in this type of tool.

I’m also allergic, I must confess, to products which claim to bring something to a mix which, in actual fact, they don’t and never can. I hate “famous halls” and “legendary recording venues”, well, not those places themselves of course, but products which claim to be able to bring some of the essence of these places to our studios, and the idea that the magic which occured there at one time or another, can somehow be captured in an impulse response, or an algorithm, and then transplanted to good effect into our own music. Which is the idea that these type of products try to sell, isn’t it? 
As if inspiration, talent, passion, true craft, dedication and years of experience are all things that can be plucked out of the air, then digitized and boxed, and then somehow triggered to materialize again in our own music. “Great things have happened in Ocean Way Studio, and from now on, some of that greatness can aromatize your music too because, by buying this plugin, you have gained access to That Sound.” To me, that’s sillyness of the most insulting order. Quite offensive, in fact.
(Which is also partly the reason, by the way, why I have much, much, much less appreciation and enthusiasm for MIR than I do for SPAT.) People who really believe that their music will somehow gain in appeal (of whatever type) by simply running it through and IR of Todd AO, Ocean Way, the Mozart Saal or whatever, are completely misguided and worryingly self-delusional, in my opinion. (And this applies especially to those who work mainly with sampled and/or modeled instruments, as most of us here do.)

In short: this thing gets my vote for being possibly the most silly and pointless UAD-plugin ever. 

I do remain very much interested in the concept though: a SPAT-like tool for the UAD-platform — a versatile dynamic room modeler (preferably totally anonymous and abstract) — could be quite something. But this isn’t it.
It could have been, if only it offered more control over the room (and if more types of spaces were available), if the capturing device simulations included a few much less coloured choices, if the character and behaviour of the source could be better controlled, if it weren’t so fussy about the sort of signal it is prepared to handle well, if …, if …, if … in short: if it were a lot more like SPAT in the first place.

_


----------



## Gusfmm (May 9, 2013)

Thanks for reporting back Piet.



re-peat @ Thu May 09 said:


> ...aromatize your music...



I had a good laugh at that, it's great! :lol: you should probably hurry up and copyright it ASAP; I'm sure a genius marketing head would otherwise steal it with pride and slap it to the technical description of the next big product coming out.


----------



## EastWest Lurker (May 9, 2013)

Piet, I think really where this plug-in would shine is recording through it in your project studio through an Apollo. Then using the re-micing features for changes.

I am as big a fanboy of UA as anyone but I must admit I have not (yet at least) found it that useful for sample libraries and V.I.s.

BTW, is Spat EVER going to be 64 it on the mac. I have an NFR that I have not even bothered to install.


----------



## germancomponist (May 9, 2013)

Many truths in Peats post in general! The same is true with regard to many sample libraries that nobody really needs. ...


----------



## Daryl (May 9, 2013)

EastWest Lurker @ Thu May 09 said:


> BTW, is Spat EVER going to be 64 it on the mac. I have an NFR that I have not even bothered to install.


It's not 64bit on Windows either, so don't feel left out. :wink: 

D


----------



## Den (May 10, 2013)

Actually everybody can do some positioning effect with your reverb on the bus, and insert after the reverb a free plugin "Proximity". http://www.tokyodawn.net/proximity/

Choose ambience on the reverb and than with proximity do the rest.
I doing it with B2 a lot with wonderful results.

Hope I helped.


----------



## rayinstirling (May 10, 2013)

germancomponist @ Thu May 09 said:


> Many truths in Peats post in general! The same is true with regard to many sample libraries that nobody really needs. ...



Wash out your mouth with soap Gunther :roll:


----------



## germancomponist (May 10, 2013)

rayinstirling @ Fri May 10 said:


> germancomponist @ Thu May 09 said:
> 
> 
> > Many truths in Peats post in general! The same is true with regard to many sample libraries that nobody really needs. ...
> ...



He he ... Ok, I have a bit exaggerated perhaps? o/~


----------



## Rob (May 10, 2013)

Den @ 10th May 2013 said:


> Actually everybody can do some positioning effect with your reverb on the bus, and insert after the reverb a free plugin "Proximity". http://www.tokyodawn.net/proximity/
> 
> Choose ambience on the reverb and than with proximity do the rest.
> I doing it with B2 a lot with wonderful results.
> ...



nice plug, thank you Den!


----------



## EastWest Lurker (May 10, 2013)

Is it 64 bit AU?


----------



## Aquatone (May 10, 2013)

It is 64 bit AU. Shows up on stereo tracks in the Logic plugin menu. Should show up without doing a 32 bit startup but I did that, anyway.


----------



## EastWest Lurker (May 10, 2013)

Aquatone @ Fri May 10 said:


> It is 64 bit AU. Shows up on stereo tracks in the Logic plugin menu. Should show up without doing a 32 bit startup but I did that, anyway.



Most of the libraries I use are recorded in place, which gives them good panning. What I want to achieve is a sense of me as the conductor and some players being closer to the podium while others are deeper in the hall. Will this plug-in help to achieve that?


----------



## EastWest Lurker (May 10, 2013)

To answer my own question, no. After fooling with it for a while "Proximity" is a good name for it as it does that well, but I got more of a sense of "deeper in the hall' simply by turning up the pre-delay in QL Spaces 

Spat probably IS what I want but until it is 64 bit, it is a no go for me.


----------



## Sid Francis (May 10, 2013)

As some of you are drooling over SPAT: Is there any demo, I could watch/listen to? I enter "ircam spat" in youtube and get nothing but the always prominent "I present you this plug at Musikmesse but you will hear nothing but rumble and mumble of Musikmesse surroundings" Any clean and nice demo? I have been looking for a good spatialisation tool for years now.
Any demos of proximity in use from you, Den? I tried it out when it came out but couldn´t get anything interesting out of it...


----------



## Rob (May 10, 2013)

Sid Francis @ 10th May 2013 said:


> ...
> Any demos of proximity in use from you, Den? I tried it out when it came out but couldn´t get anything interesting out of it...



Sid, here you have a flute arpeggio in four positions (only backward/forward, no left/right movement), first natural placement, then two at increasing distance and last one at reduced (about half the original) distance... proximity in default setting.

www.robertosoggetti.com/ProximaCentauri.mp3


----------



## rayinstirling (May 10, 2013)

Rob @ Fri May 10 said:


> Sid Francis @ 10th May 2013 said:
> 
> 
> > ...
> ...


that cleared the wax out of my left ear then :cry:


----------



## Rob (May 10, 2013)

rayinstirling @ 10th May 2013 said:


> Rob @ Fri May 10 said:
> 
> 
> > Sid Francis @ 10th May 2013 said:
> ...



hahaha


----------



## germancomponist (May 10, 2013)

rayinstirling @ Fri May 10 said:


> that cleared the wax out of my left ear then :cry:



 o=<


----------



## Sid Francis (May 10, 2013)

Waxfree too finally  
Thank you very much, Rob. As I thought. The Far setting isn´t of interest for me, but the Near might be with libraries recorded in big rooms to make them less "indifferent" or how ever you could call it. I will try it out tomorrow, just too tired today...


----------



## antoniopandrade (May 10, 2013)

I'm a semi-happy user of SPAT. I bought it a while ago to use alongside SM and have been successful to varied degrees. Honestly I feel the only reason why I haven't tested it out more (and thus learned how to use it properly) is that it's only 32-bit. I keep a 32-bit SM template opened up separately, but it tends to crash once I load heavy IRs from other reverbs too, so I try to keep everything in 64-bit. SPAT might be a great plug-in, but Flux is an absolutely terrible company in customer relations and update regularity. But I still think SPAT is a worthwhile purchase. Nothing really comes imo.


----------



## guydoingmusic (May 15, 2013)

Ok.. So I'm still on the fence with this one. I have an opportunity to include this in a bundle without having to drop the $350 for it. 

Anyone pulled the trigger officially?


----------



## spectrum (May 15, 2013)

re-peat @ Thu May 09 said:


> Also, try as I may, I honestly can’t recall ever being in a mixing situation that called specifically for a tool such as this to make things better. I have never thought: “Damn, if only I had a bit of the old Ocean Way flavour, now that would really take this mix to a higher level”. But maybe that’s just me.
> And, I also wonder how bad an engineer one has to be to get oneself into such a mess that this tool effectively offers the best way to get back out of it.


Perhaps you aren't mixing material that other people have recorded. I'm often in that position and am finding this to be extremely useful and sounding great. It's more often than not in these days of limited budgets that recording in the big rooms and the expensive studios is not an option, so people deliver me typically dry tracks recorded in small rooms.

So far, I'm mixing all stuff done with live players and real instruments with this. I'm been incredibly happy with the results so far (and a lot of engineers/musicians/sound designer buddies have been surprised at what I've shown them with it)

However, here's a VERY important key in using this tool effectively:

It's really important that you phase align the mic adjustments, otherwise it will likely not sound good in a mix. Once they are phase-aligned (right-click the distance knobs), they will then blend together MUCH better and fit into a track easier. I think a lot of people might not be aware of this feature and how important it is to get the best results out of the UAD Oceanway plug-in.

SPAT sounds interesting too and I'll check it out. IRCAM does great work and I'm a fan. 

For me living in Los Angeles, I've recorded a lot at Oceanway for many years - both on a lot of scores and record dates - so I know the sound of those rooms really well and what they bring to a recording and how to use that color. I've tried the Altiverb impulses of these rooms and never found them to be that useful or flexible enough....however, this new plug-in is a huge improvement and is something that I feel is incredibly useful....especially the remicing options. (Hence: Gamechanger for me. )

For me it's not the hype, it's the sound....but maybe it's because this is one of my town's great rooms that I love. I can vouch that it sounds like recording in those rooms.

But actually....maybe it would be best if I wasn't so publicly enthusiastic about it....that way it would just be my secret weapon. 

Yeah....so ignore all the good stuff I said....NEVERMIND!  :D


----------



## Den (May 16, 2013)

Here is alternative for SPAT on 64bit. I just tried it, sounds ok. Just 30Euro.

http://www.meldaproduction.com/plugins/ ... id=MReverb


----------



## re-peat (May 16, 2013)

Den,

Forgive me, but could it be that perhaps you are not entirely aware of just how deep, complex and powerful SPAT _really_ is? Because one who is, would never ever suggest what you are suggesting. 
This Melda plugin is no more an alternative to SPAT than I am to Emil Gilels when it comes to playing the piano. 

It's not because a plugin claims to do ‘spatialization’ and offers ‘positioning’, haha, that it automatically qualifies as a SPAT-alternative. Compared to SPAT — and assuming believable spatialization is our aim with these tools of course —, this MReverb is a very rudimentary, blunt, completely unconvincing and mediocre-sounding tool. 
(Not implying that it doesn’t have its uses, and for 30 euros, it actually offers a remarkable lot, but SPAT it most certainly isn’t.)

Believe me, at the moment, there is no such thing as a SPAT-alternative. SPAT, as the poet says, stands alone.

_


----------



## Den (May 16, 2013)

re-peat @ Thu May 16 said:


> Den,
> 
> Forgive me, but could it be that perhaps you are not entirely aware of just how deep, complex and powerful SPAT _really_ is? Because one who is, would never ever suggest what you are suggesting.
> This Melda plugin is no more an alternative to SPAT than I am to Emil Gilels when it comes to playing the piano.
> ...



Sorry my fault. Now I took the demo to see how it sounds like. Quite impressive really. I forgot when I tried it, several years or so. Probably they improved the sound from the first version. 

You are completely right.


----------



## antoniopandrade (May 16, 2013)

re-peat @ Thu May 16 said:


> Den,
> 
> Forgive me, but could it be that perhaps you are not entirely aware of just how deep, complex and powerful SPAT _really_ is? Because one who is, would never ever suggest what you are suggesting.
> This Melda plugin is no more an alternative to SPAT than I am to Emil Gilels when it comes to playing the piano.
> ...



Piet, do you know of any good resource to learning how to effectively use SPAT? Perusing through the manual brought me little clarity, and I haven't had time to truly sit and incorporate it into my template (use it primarily with SM). How did you go about effectively harnessing SPAT's myriad of tools?


----------



## re-peat (May 16, 2013)

Antonio,

I’ll try to do a video tutorial one of these days, specifically about spatializing the SampleModeling instruments with SPAT, because writing everything out that I feel needs to be said on the subject would (a) take much too long for me to type and for you to read, and (b) it would be nowhere near as useful anyway as actually seeing and hearing the software in action.

It might take a few days before I’ve got something ready though, because I’m afraid I haven’t got a clue about how to do these type of tutorials, so please, be patient. I’ll start a new thread when I’ve got something.

_


----------



## jamwerks (May 16, 2013)

Peat,

Do you like SPAT also on samples that have some baked in ER's, like CB or HB?


----------



## Aquatone (May 16, 2013)

[/quote](Not implying that it doesn’t have its uses, and for 30 euros, it actually offers a remarkable lot, but SPAT it most certainly isn’t.)


> Agreed. I've found MReverb useful for a couple of years. After buying it, I tried many of Melda's other offerings. The developer has useful (and I think clever) ideas in a plugin's workflow. A while back, I emailed him questions about the inner workings of MReverb. I asked Vojtech specifically about positioning and units of distance. This was his response…
> 
> _"Position in the field - it is an approximation again. I really do NOT want people to use units here as it may be quite dangerous - for example, place the source to the center and listen to the headphones, and move the audio source a little to the left and right - you will see that the source is moving too radically. It doesn't follow the acoustics precisely enough."_
> 
> ...


----------



## re-peat (May 16, 2013)

jamwerks @ Thu May 16 said:


> (...) do you like SPAT also on samples that have some baked in ER's, like CB or HB?


Jam,

No, that’s not what I use SPAT for. SPAT, in my experience, is at its unbeatable best in combination with things like SampleModeling, the Efimov instruments, the entire Vienna catalogue, the Westgate family, LASS, close-miced sampled pianos (Galaxy, Ivory, TrueKeys), Trilian, Toontrack, synths, … in short: anything that doesn’t already have too much spatial information baked in. Other excellent source material are close-up recordings of vocals and instruments and such, of course.
The reason is that SPAT’s definition of space (or, to be more precise: its _fusion_ of sound and the enclosing space — see below) is so complete in itself, that it is bound to cause problems when there is already too much predefined and static ambience present in the source.

SPAT works best, I feel, when it can fully control/define both the source (its position, its width and its radiation) and the way the reflective space around it reacts to that source. 

Using it on libraries with noticeable baked-in reverb doesn’t do neither component any favours: the natural reverb present in the samples tends to get all messed up and also messes up what SPAT is attempting to do, and poor SPAT itself can’t add to the process what it is designed and supposed to add. So, no.

See, the biggest misunderstanding about SPAT is, that it is a some sort of clever reverberation unit with added positioning functionality and plenty of arcane features which nobody understands, let alone needs. But that is not what SPAT is — although, I’ll admit, some of its parameters might appear a bit enigmatic at first — and if you intend to use it as such, you’ll never be able to get the most out of it, in my opinion.

SPAT is all about how a sound is projected and reflected in a space (depending on things like position, size, width, etc. …): SPAT doesn’t treat reverberation (or early reflections for that matter) as something seperate which you add to (or blend with) a dry sound, no-no-no, it always considers the combination “source plus room response” as _one single, complex phenomenon_. Extremely important, this. Can’t be stressed enough.
Anything you do to the source signal will have an immediate effect on the reflections and reverberation, and vice versa. (*) Hence the absence of many familiar parameters which you usually find in other spatialization software such as, for instance, dry-wet balance. There simply can’t be a dry-wet parameter in SPAT, because that’s not how the software approaches and/or generates its spatialization. A dry-wet parameter would imply that SPAT somehow considers these things (source and reverberation) separable, but that is precisely what SPAT _does not do_. The moment you enter SPAT, there is no ‘dry sound’ anymore. The idea of ‘dry sound’ doesn’t even exist in SPAT: the only thing that exists is the combination of sound and how this sound is reflected by a user defined enclosement.
(The above also explains, I hope, why using SPAT as a bus effect, rather than as an insert effect, makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.)

It’s all a bit difficult to explain, really. Took me some time as well before I started to feel entirely at ease with this remarkable piece of software.
The best thing to do, I feel, before starting to work with SPAT, is to simply forget everything you think you know about (artificial) reverberation, be it algorithmic or convolution-based, and then simply discover, step by step, how SPAT is designed, and how its complex engine generates that fusion of spatialized sound.

(*) This is by far the most difficult thing to master in SPAT, in my experience: getting a good understanding of how every single parameter affects all the other parameters as well, how everything is linked and interacts with everything else. Takes quite a bit of time, extended practice and close attention before this aspect of SPAT can be called truly conquered.

_


----------



## Patrick de Caumette (May 16, 2013)

I was pleasantly surprised by The Ocean Way plug.
I tried it on acoustic guitar and it really smoothed the sound of it.
Nice on piano too...
Like Eric said, especially the re-micing option.
Thanks for the phase alignment tip!

I'll probably grab it at some point.


----------



## antoniopandrade (May 16, 2013)

re-peat @ Thu May 16 said:


> Antonio,
> 
> I’ll try to do a video tutorial one of these days, specifically about spatializing the SampleModeling instruments with SPAT
> 
> _



Thanks Piet, that's great!


----------



## EastWest Lurker (May 16, 2013)

http://www.uaudio.com/blog/ocean-way-st ... 6-71857469


----------



## wst3 (May 17, 2013)

If I might...

I think UA has a small problem on their hands. They've introduced this cool new plug-in, but they may not be doing a stellar job explaining what it is.

Or what it is not<G>.

For starters, it is NOT a replacement or even substitute for SPAT. They are two entirely different tools.

Further, for reasons I don't completely understand, it does not work well - for me - with sample libraries.

But it does work, brilliantly I might add, with tracks that I've recorded, or that were recorded elsewhere.

As I live on the other coast I can't say one way or the other if it really sounds like Ocean Way. Several people that I know and respect have stated that it is really close, and now Eric has chimed in here to confirm this further.

I should also add that I find re-mic mode to be fantastic, but I'm still struggling with reverb mode. Which brings up an important point I think - this is not a plug-in that will provide stellar results without a little effort on the user's part.

Past plug-ins, especially compressors and equalizers, come with presets that mimic settings that we've all heard. That's pretty close to instant gratification.

Selecting a microphone, and then placing the microphone and instrument in a room is not so easy. For those that have done that for real, think about how small changes can make big differences...

To Eric's comments about using multiple microphones... well, I can screw up a track as quickly with OWS as I can in real life. Nuff said!

For what it does I think it's a fantastic plug-in. It won't make the coffee, but dang, it has made some of my tracks sound better. Which is what I wanted!


----------



## re-peat (May 17, 2013)

I remain completely unconvinced and after watching that demonstration that Jay linked to, it has even developed into a case of unconvincedissimo.

_


----------



## jamwerks (May 18, 2013)

Peat, thanks for the details. I'm liking all the latest samples that do have varied room info, so I guess I know now I can pass on SPAT.

Strange on the UA video, they talk about re-micing (re-amping), then throw strings in there. :shock: I wasn't at all intrigued by that string sound.

I could see uses however for the re-amping part for stuff like BFD, and all the guitar & bass libraries.

As for the reverb section, seems like MIR (with some of their studio soundpacks) are still a step ahead.


----------



## dormusic (May 18, 2013)

I'm surprised nobody even mentioned Quantec's units. They are really all about room simulating. Isn't the UAD thing just another vienna mir? The real breakthrough is Quantec. They are the only real room-simulator technology available today.

*And no, I was not paid to say this. I hope someday I will have enough money to buy me a quantec unit. Or two. Or however many neccesary for an orchestral setting


----------

