steadystate
Fractal Fanatic
Update and Correction
Sooo, after even the UA rep told me their devices aren't MIDI controllable, I decided to buy a cheap used Solo card just to try the plugins anyway. After installation, I opened some of them in Reaper and found that all the parameters are effortlessly controllable by MIDI cc from external controller hardware. Why UA doesn't say this is beyond me. It is hurting their sales.
I am blown away by the quality of these plugins. The EP-34 sounds exactly like my old Echoplex. The only shortfall is its behavior when you rapidly reduce delay time by moving the virtual record head faster than the virtual tape. But even that is still the closest approximation I have ever seen. The Studer A800, Empirical Labs Fatso, Ocean Way room sims, Dimension D, and every other plugin I've tried so far have exceeded my expectations. The difference in quality/realism between these and my Waves/etc. plugins is undeniable.
I've decided to by an Octo, as using a Studer sim and Neve/other channel strip on every track, along with Ocean Way, eats up the DSP rather quickly.
Off I go to build what I hope will be a reasonable Hyperspace Pedal with the EP-34. Reaper offers VST feedback loops via its old buffer save/restore plugin (so I can process the EP's feedback), and the latency of the UA gear is tiny enough not to slow down even the fastest repeats.
Sooo, after even the UA rep told me their devices aren't MIDI controllable, I decided to buy a cheap used Solo card just to try the plugins anyway. After installation, I opened some of them in Reaper and found that all the parameters are effortlessly controllable by MIDI cc from external controller hardware. Why UA doesn't say this is beyond me. It is hurting their sales.
I am blown away by the quality of these plugins. The EP-34 sounds exactly like my old Echoplex. The only shortfall is its behavior when you rapidly reduce delay time by moving the virtual record head faster than the virtual tape. But even that is still the closest approximation I have ever seen. The Studer A800, Empirical Labs Fatso, Ocean Way room sims, Dimension D, and every other plugin I've tried so far have exceeded my expectations. The difference in quality/realism between these and my Waves/etc. plugins is undeniable.
I've decided to by an Octo, as using a Studer sim and Neve/other channel strip on every track, along with Ocean Way, eats up the DSP rather quickly.
Off I go to build what I hope will be a reasonable Hyperspace Pedal with the EP-34. Reaper offers VST feedback loops via its old buffer save/restore plugin (so I can process the EP's feedback), and the latency of the UA gear is tiny enough not to slow down even the fastest repeats.