d16 Silverline Effects Group Buy

cheers, it's not a lot considering the cost and if you (in theory /  dependant on others) get all 6..  like other group buys a lot will buy in the last week.

wouldn't mind if they did a group buy on their instruments though .. maybe they will in the future.

The number of group buy participants leapt from 13 when I checked it yesterday to 57 today. Looks like it'll at least be a two-fer sale.

It's now over 100!...I'm not sure it'll make 1000, but I feel like 500 is almost certain. 

I'd be pretty happy with a 4 for 1 deal.

bitflipper


The number of group buy participants leapt from 13 when I checked it yesterday to 57 today. Looks like it'll at least be a two-fer sale.

last few days of it there is always a rush on from other group buys I've seen on esoundz etc. I'll leave my money in my bank as long as possible.

I'd be surprised if they didn't hit that target

I've also been keeping an eye on this....I'll prolly jump in towards the end (even if it's a 3 for 1.....it's a good deal).

I've been playing with the demos. Here's my first-look mini review.

(Note: the demos are fully functional except that you cannot save presets and they will only work for 30 minutes, then you have to reload them.)

Although these are not the kind of effects you'd drop into every project, when appropriate they'd deserve to be your go-to special effects. They all sound excellent and they are all extremely tweakable.

The distortion plug impressed me the most. You can get anything from a subtle sparkle to a full-on fuzzface assault and everything in between. Like all 6 of these plugins, it has a wet/dry mix knob so you can easily do parallel distortion, one of my favorite tricks for vocals.

The distortion plug pairs up well with the chorus, which is also surprisingly versatile - for a chorus - and has more presets than you can audition in one 30-minute demo period. I was only able to try it on guitar, but was enjoying some nice Rush-style picked chords before the demo ran out.

The multiband distortion unit may seem redundant after they added the other distortion plugin to the collection. But I use the multiband exciter in Ozone a lot, and I can see where the d16 multiband distortion might be similarly applied. Especially when doing subtle distortion, such as on vocals, it's nice to restrict it to the bands above 1Khz where it adds color without mud. If I end up using this one, it may be to replace Ozone's exciter on drums and vocals.

Toraverb sounds very cool, but I'm not sure how I'd use it. It's apparently a regenerative type reverb (think ValhallaShimmer) that excels at long lush tails. Not exactly something you'd reach for for subliminal ambiance, but beautiful as a special effect in a Vangelis-style spacious synth piece. Or perhaps at the end of a long fadeout, or to enhance a cinematic over-the-top drum hit. I'll definitely play with it some more to find applications, because it does sound really good.

The phaser is, well, a phaser. I can count on one hand the number of times I've ever needed one. This one is more tweakable than your average phaser, though. It would probably appeal most to folks into electronica who are always on the hunt for some new twist on your basic sawtooth.

I did not bother with the decimator. I have no use for a bitcrusher/decimator plugin. But if it's anything like the other plugs I'm sure it's more than a one-trick pony. If, unlike me, the term "lo-fi" doesn't make you cringe, you'll probably like it.

These are 32-bit plugins, if you care about that. I don't. The vendor has promised 64-bit versions down the road, so it's likely they'll be available by the time I feel compelled to go 64-bit. I cannot tell you if they are bitbridge-compatible, but I'd be surprised if they weren't.

My biggest complaint is the size of the UI, which needs a magnifying glass to read the labels. Literally. Once you learn where all the knobs are that won't be a problem. But - there are a lot of knobs.

Bottom line: these are excellent, tweakable, high-quality special-purpose effects and if the group buy makes it to the 6-for-1 level it's an opportunity you'd be nuts to miss. Just keep your bifocals handy.

Thanks bit for the review....for a novice as myself, your opinion and expertise is always appreciated. Now, I can justify my (GAS) with the good lady as: "even the Pro's have recommend this". LOL  

With these things at 39Euros (which is, what, about 60 bucks?)

I noticed that the price in U.S. dollars fluctuates automatically with the exchange rate. Consequently, I actually paid $2 more today ($55) than I would have yesterday ($53).

Licensing is the good kind: they can be resold (although you cannot sell individual products from a bundle like this one), there is no dongle and no online authorization. You simply get a key file that you drop into the same folder as the plugins. The only way it gets easier than that is to have no copy protection at all.

(BTW, if you've downloaded the demos you won't need to re-download them again after purchase. Just get the key file and the pdf user guides.)

Sorry, I don't remember where I read about 64-bit versions coming. If I had to guess I guess it would have been on kvr.

Looks like the count will pass the 200 mark today. At this rate, we'll be downloading our next freebie around Wednesday. Cool.

Sunday morning, PST, and the count is 236. Just 14 short of the second freebie, so it could happen today. I've got a track ready to go with a slot waiting for Toraverb.

I am enjoying these plugs more and more as I learn them. I tried Redoptor on drums last night, on a dense, aggressive up-tempo tune. It worked quite well, especially on toms. I'm not normally a big fan of distortion on drums, but this plugin gives you good control. Unlike guitar amp sims, it does not assume you're necessarily after the sound of an AC30 with a screwdriver through it. Although it can do that, too.

I spent several hours over the last two days auditioning all six plugs.  Surprise, surprise!  For me, the pick of the litter was the phaser.  Clever and aggressive use of the LFOs provided a number of musically useful sound alterations ... I wasn't expecting more than something that would make whooshie pads whooshier.  I liked the chorus quite a bit as well.  Toraverb is very nice, but I recently picked up Aether and it can probably do everything Toraverb can (albeit with maybe a bit more CPU use) in the 600+ presets it's got.  As for the other three ... not too excited about what they bring to what I want to accomplish, but all three do have some subtile presets that may end up in use at some point.  No decision on which will get the nod when the group buy hits the next level.
 
But for those not yet committed to all your choices, do at least audition Fazortan.  You might be pleasantly surprised the way I was.
 
But question: where's the documentation?  I couldn't find anything installed and there's apparently no help function.  While most of what you need to do is intuative for all the plugs, it's not completely so.  I could not get MIDI learn to work, for example.  Has anyone spotted the doc?

This appears to be the extent of the documentation: "Twiddle the knobs until it sounds good".

Ah...  That's what I get for over-working all week (we were preparing for a big tradeshow so 4.5 hours of sleep was the norm).

Oh well, at least I did put a heads-up about the group buy on two other forums so maybe that will help.

(Hehe...  I just thought of a way to get it over 1,000 quickly - just post in a Pro Tools forum that the "SONAR guys" think these plug-ins aren't that good.  Gotta love reverse psychology!)

bitflipper


This appears to be the extent of the documentation: "Twiddle the knobs until it sounds good".

So has anyone worked out how MIDI-learn works?  Or could it be that it's just disabled in demo mode?
 
Also, any idea what "BBD Emulation" is in Syntorus?

Bucket Brigade Delay??????

Yup, that one.