SAND out now!

[giancarlo]

From gs

Doom64: thank you

Stereo bus: for a mistake the bus is mono, there will be a fix within a couple of days
Echo bug: it was reduced and tolerated by betatesters. It will be improved in a couple of days
Input trim: in this plugin is not output compensated, and it is reported on the user manual. It was a choice.
Au and filters: a bug about plugin save/load is possible, we are trying to reproduce it.
Vst parameters: some parameters are not named correctly, or they are not accessible/working. A fix in a couple of days.
48-88 frequency pack: the installer is using a wrong path for sand 64 bits. A fix in a couple of days. The pack will be available for mac osx soon

We are also evaluating the crash bug happening in logic/routing
I think it is enough if you place
<LEGACYSTEREOCHANNEL> 1 </LEGACYSTEREOCHANNEL>

In your sand.xml. We are still verifying. A fix will be available

[giancarlo]

Mixing with SAND right now on channels and the bus. I mix lots of different genres and I enjoy Aquamarine on more moody and sensitive material.

SAND is incredibly good sounding! Once you dial in a sound with the EQ it is magical and fits perfectly. The pres are amazing and very unique. Love the buss comps (prefer A) - what is difference between A and C? C seems slower and less "smacky".

Only problem now is transferring settings from trial to bought version will this possibly be compatible with the release settings-wise?

They are not compatible, but there is a commercial version since day 1

[markgalup]

Mixing with SAND right now on channels and the bus. I mix lots of different genres and I enjoy Aquamarine on more moody and sensitive material.

SAND is incredibly good sounding! Once you dial in a sound with the EQ it is magical and fits perfectly. The pres are amazing and very unique. Love the buss comps (prefer A) - what is difference between A and C? C seems slower and less "smacky".

Only problem now is transferring settings from trial to bought version will this possibly be compatible with the release settings-wise?

They are not compatible, but there is a commercial version since day 1

Ah, I misunderstood before when you said that - that is excellent news!

I want to clarify my previous post:

SAND as a buss compressor is the most amazing itb buss compressor of any kind I have ever heard - especially for modern/pop/electro music. It is huge, 3D, tall and wide, and glues just like it should. This is an absolute must-have and I'll be buying it asap!

Congrats to you, Giancarlo and AA!
MG

[chimulko]

Duplicating a track with sand inserted freezes logic pro X randomly.

[giancarlo]

It is linked to lacking of channel 3-4, a fix is on the way - a day or two
As temporary workaround try the legacystereochannel hint or contact support

[Thierr7]

Amazing release indeed ! The Eq's have an incredible S.. Highs , very accurate . It's going to take me some time to understand the different routings which are impressive btw !
It's true that the comp side usually boost gains a lot and not easy to soften but i don't master the beast anyway .

I feel SAND is an amazing tool especially for Pop , Teck and Elektro i guess ...

I feel like buying right away but i have to wait a bit (Even if my coupon makes it cheap (thanks a lot by the way !)
You guys are ruinning my wallet ! LOL...

Excellent work anyway

[callumr]

Guys do you have an eta for au sidechain?

[giancarlo]

not yet, but nebula implementation based on juce4 is scheduled for the end of the year (so all our engines will take advantage of it automatically, just replacing a file).

[tumburu]

Bought!

General impressions: it has a solid center (although it eats a bit of low end, but you can make it come back even nicer than before if you engage the filter in sc mode, setting 11) and makes the transients jump (even on shmod 1). No (unwanted) pumping, just solid compression.

Very modern sound, I'm happy with the purchase. I compared it to the UAD version, which was the first and only G bus comp emulation I liked. UAD doesn't eat the low end in the first place (one of its strong points), but then Sand can compensate for this (and do a lot more) with the filters in sc mode. OTOH Sand makes the transients pop in a very unique way, while UAD doesn't do anything similar. For a lack of a better term, the program sounds 'enhanced' making it hard to go back to how it was without it.

One small observation: the gr meters don't match. The needle shows more, the one on the virtual screed shows less. When I want to compensate for the loss in level I find the second one more useful in telling me how much level I need to bring up.

If you can bring down a bit the cpu load it will be even better. It's a beast!

[Thierr7]

Just Bought !

- I got audio dropouts with a few instances when turning any knob (@1024 , Reaper shows 35 , 40 percent realtime cpu ) GR meter doesn't work most of the time here.

I don't have the filters working with the instance on my Master bus. (Trial version , haven't installed official release yet ...)

- SHMOD reacts not as obvious as with previous Plugins here.

Besides these small bugs, SAND is Amazing , Congrats Giancarlo and Co !

[callumr]

not yet, but nebula implementation based on juce4 is scheduled for the end of the year (so all our engines will take advantage of it automatically, just replacing a file).

Thank you sir!

[jfjer379]

Just Bought !

- I got audio dropouts with a few instances when turning any knob (@1024 , Reaper shows 35 , 40 percent realtime cpu ) GR meter doesn't work most of the time here.

I don't have the filters working with the instance on my Master bus. (Trial version , haven't installed official release yet ...)

- SHMOD reacts not as obvious as with previous Plugins here.

Besides these small bugs, SAND is Amazing , Congrats Giancarlo and Co !

i used to get audio dropouts often in Reaper with high latency plugins on big bus groups or master
even when my CPU hit was low
the problem didn't start before i was adding the big bus groups so i don't know why Reaper is doing this

it helped turning up the anticipated effects in the Reaper settings for me about 300ms for 512 latency and 400 for 1024 latency
this may differ from different audio cards
if that doesn't help enough or at all

also try the ZL version for buses and master
for me that also helps getting rid of audio dropouts a lot

i have heard reports from some users that the ZL versions of the Acquas don't eat that much extra CPU when the latency in the DAW or Audio interface is set high

i have not compared ZL and the regular version of Sand
CPU vice
But im using the ZL version now all the time
i don't think i need to use ZL version on regular tracks though
but my recent mixing project has crashed quite a few times already so i play it on the safe side with this particular song LOL

it seems very stable now

im going to try ZL only for buses and master on the next song and see what happens.
right now using Sand ZL, no dropouts at all

[Thierr7]

Thanks a lot "[email protected]" for your input !

I'll try these settings asap and keep you informed ...

- I didn't try ZL versions much for i thought these were more CPU hungry ! But i use 1024 usually for mixing with Neb and Acquas on my MOTU firewire ultralite Mk3.

[markgalup]

Very CPU hungry here as well.

Reaper users: one thing I discovered when I was trying to give Reaper a chance was that any plugins put on the actual master track can not take advantage of Anticipative FX Processing. When I made a bus to handle my master processing prior to the master track everything got WAY better. Just a thought and hope it helps.

One very small suggestion for SAND: my personal taste would be to start the CONTROL section in F->E->C mode (I think 3). So basically switch 1,2 and 3,4.

I think that this plugin blows away other algos (and even several orher acquas) in the simple fact of how much life and motion it imparts into the program. The snare in my first mix with it on the buss went from sitting back in the recording sounding unfinished, to sounding like a drummer with a world-class touch and nuance played it just perfectly. THAT is what I call magic.

MG

[giancarlo]

we are uploading a new version with almost all fixes. It should be ready tomorrow in the morning

- stereo bus correctly mapped and working
- parameter list updated and working (automation)
- echo bug (reduced by around 80% )
- input/output on the skin as replacement of input trim/output trim
- mixrate (less cpu intensive)
- au version restricted to stereo channels (less crash bugs)
- user manual updated

we could not replicate the acustica/acustica64 wrong path in 48-88.