Razorwit


As promised,
I find myself in the somewhat embarassing position of owning a ton of these emulations....which is odd becuase I don't really use them that much. In any case, I threw together a quick comparison of a snippit of acoustic guitar. The zip contains the dry track and the track through the PC2A, UAD LA2A, T-racks White 2A, NI's VC2A and finally (the closest thing I have to the actual hardware) a Chameleon Labs 7802 which is an optical tube compressor like the LA2A.

*sigh*...how did I end up with all of those....I think I may have some sort of problem...

Anyway, guitar is a Taylor 816ce mic'd through Gefell m300's, Sebatron Tube pres out to an Aurora 16. Files are 32bit 48khz wave files. The mediocre playing is my own.

Get it here: 

www.fade.net/LA2A-comparison.zip

Dean

Oh, and Middleman - super jealous of your real one.  Just bought the Taylor tho and if I picked up another peice of hardware this quickly my wife would beat me to death in my sleep.

Thanks for the Demo! 
 
Cakewalks new PC2A sounds really good. As same as UAD. Sounds much better then IK White.
Cakewalks new PC2A  keep the sound warm and transparent. With trained studio ears you can easily hear how muffled the guitar gets with IK White compare to UAD and PC2A. I wasn't impressed with the NI emulation either.
 
 
Great Work Cakewalk!

I wouldn't say the Cakewalk version of the LA2A is better than the IKM White. Just different. At least on mic'd acoustic guitar.

As has already been mentioned, like the original  hand made hardware units, there were differences between them. That's how I would describe the (only subtle) differences between Cakewalk's and IKM emulations.

Middleman

bobguitkillerleft

Again I maybe,but the First file[HW] sounds the best IMO.

The question you have to ask yourself is.....is it $2,000 better?

There are few things in life that are!!

WOW F***ing Amazing!

Crush any opponent any emulation I have heard so far. Better then UAD anytime!!

Settings: Photo cell set to Classic
R37 = HF 0 (Zero)

I tried it on a bass track and it seemed to punch things up in a good way. This is highly subjective though cause I have other compressors that I use and I don't have a clue yet how best to tweak up this one. I also spent a good part of the day playing with my recently acquired OverStayer Stereo Dynamics Processor which can just smack up a synth so my ears were hardly fine tuned.

I just jumped on it to get the discount and for the price and convenience of using it in the ProChannel I am pretty pleased. That said, I have the Softube FET compressor and the FabFilter Pro-C so I have to figure out where this fits in with what I have been using the most. I suppose reading the documentation would probably help a lot ;-)

Well.. I'd been trying to resist! But after an hour I gave in. $40 is a great deal.. esp since I don't have a software la2a emu. I do have an LA610MkII though.. this will be fun to play with!

drjee


personally, I do not think I need this. If I want an optical-type compressor I usually load Blockfish (which is still one one the best compressor plugins around, regardless free or commercial).

What are you saing?!!
 
Its a joke right? You are joking, right ...it must be..?....please tell us you are joking!!
 
Blockfish or any other fish fillet are not considered and known as "great plugins" out there.  
 

Bit of editing, that'd make a great Haiku.

Sickvision


its a great plug in and as i saw last night on a friends mix it was like magic.
but again il never see it on  music .
since cakewalk has this group of die hards that think its good  they charge 79 bucks, for a plug i cant use for anything but sonar.
and knowing it will  have to be thrown in later versions.
this intire pay cus it make my music sound good nonsence is making us think about  moving on.
i did love this forum years ago, when it was about talent, time and knowledge not, $$$$$$$$$$$ for info on basic features.
cakewalk is out of my leage,
 it was the sofware we all used to colaberate. , not many add on  and solid versions with good tools .but after  talking to cakewalk folks in person. we now are faced with a plug in race, where everyone has different tool;, and versions.
and expanded should be called sonar bridge. since there is not a thing expanding in its purchace,its the gateway to your wallet.
 so in reality its false advertisment, the EQ is great but nothing comes with expanded yet.

Nit-picking here from me - but the PC expanded comes with 2-compressors, and 2 saturation modules - not just an eq.

I look at X1 differently now and it took some getting used to. But with X1, it is developing its' own sound/workflow if you use the ProC a lot. Similar to some people following and swearing by a certain console. Or swearing at one... :)  Regardless, X1 comes with its' own flavor.  AND it is locking us in similar to when I used a Fostex 16 track recorder. I couldn't take my reels over to my guitar player's house and put them on his Teac16. But we were both happy to find the work arounds to get music out there together. 


Been with Sonar since 3.0, I have no plans to switch to any other daw anyway. Too much trouble to learn their personality and workflow considering I already have one of the premier offerings in X1 locked and loaded. So these "optional" goodies are welcomed here. And they are "optional". We can and should use only transferable vst plugs or bounce to stems if we are using more than one daw on a project. That's been the case as in "always".


 

John T


Hmm, that's not quite right either. The two compressors and first saturation module come with X1 Producer as standard. Expanded gets you the Softube knob and know the updated EQ in the X1d patch.

I know - it's just that he was pointing to only the eq - to be even more clear I guess, expanded comes with Sat and Eq. Not sure why I'm typing this cause we already know.   :)

Trying to oil a squeaky wheel with SV.

Rimshot


Musicroom - I used a Fostex B16 in my studio in L.A. for 10 years.  Put a lot of projects through that machine.  First one I did was a jazz album for the late Billy Higgins (drummer extraordinaire).  

I am really liking my PC modules.  This new PC2A really sounds great on vocals and guitars - really smooth and transparent on my tests so far.  My recordings and mixes are getting really clean.  Can you imagine having to go back to tape?  

Rimshot

I spent most of my professional recording career in tape.  I've been digital for 10 years now (crap, where does the time go?!) and you couldn't pay me enough to go back to tape!  I love the sound but I still have razor scars from when cutting and pasting was really cutting and pasting!! No way!

It almost like the hardware one. Thing only thing different is that its not hardware :)

CJ

Jesus wept. I'll tell you something, I know some people think it rude to point this out, but the correlation between an inability to form a sentence and the idea that PC is some kind of affront is *remarkably* high.

Zo


Are you guyz buying it cause you really need another comp ? or because it's not expensive ?

Be carefull to not give Cakewalk a legit approbation for the bizness plan to become like Itunes crap .....where people buiyng stuff to demo , or because it's cool and not expensive ....lowering by this way the quality level people are expecting because of the small financial impact if the product is not as good as expected/advertised ..or simply not usuable ..

Bizness by number not quality .....witch is of course not the case here ...but might become the case ...

We used to have great plugins with updates ....now if we want to have all plugins cakewalk make ...at the end it's like buying another version of the software ....

A clear input from the bakers should be appreciated to know where we going ....

For me personally - did I need another compressor?  Probably not, but did I want one that fits into my current use of the PC module workflow I'm finding myself using more and more? Then yes, I wanted it.  Do any of us really base our purchases solely on our needs?  If one can afford variety, there's nothing wrong with convenience purchases.  


As for the comment on great plugins with updates.  In the past a certain percentage of users were upset with Cakewalk for "adding" plugins and syths (many multiple times) to the cost of upgrades, they felt they had superior alternatives as third party plugins so why work them into the price of Sonar.  Well, they've listened and gone À la carte and now a percentage of folks are concerned they aren't included in the price they paid.  Rock meet a hard place.  


I'll simply say - so far they have been quality modules, well worth it for me even if I had a similar VST plugin - there is no one answer that will make everyone happy.  I think the Bakers have clearly hit on something that is generating enthusiasm with some users, and by the interest seems to be something that's here to stay.  I like choices - it's just my way.  I'm and adult, I can weigh the benefit of my purchases, choose not to buy when I see no value.  Nothing wrong with that.

Middleman


Thanks Brandon, here are the files. No digs on the guitar playing, it was after work, I was tired, the sun was in my eyes and my shoes were untied.

http://soundcloud.com/phil-grabmiller/sets/la2a-comparison-tracks-1
Results are something like this.
 
Mid to hi the PC2A is closer to the hardware.
Low end the UAD is closer to the hardware.

In general I like the real unit best, but I'll still take the UAD over PC2A (even though I now own it too) based on this example.