Special 50% offer on Rupert Neve Designs 5033/5043 plug-ins!

Hello cpehet

Wow ! That says a lot.

I’m surely buying the 5033 EQ in the next couple of weeks.

I already have the 5043 RN-Portico Compressor, and love it !

Thanks for the feedback,
Muziksculp

First off, this isn’t truly scientific as it isn’t a blind test. Since we’re talking about high end, expensive plug-ins here I think a little testing not only appropriate but positively called for.

There is another plug-in on the market that claims to emulate the same EQ, except this one costs only $39, and there’s a free demo available, so there is no excuse.

http://www.ddmf.eu/product.php?id=2

Now I wouldn’t expect a $39 plug-in to match one costing 100s $$ but a little testing costs nothing but time.

First off I made a two bar wave file from an Halion SC preset called SR 120 BPM Loop. I loaded this loop into Cubase twice and made sure they perfectly nulled with an input of -2db. They nulled to absolute silence. My word means nothing here but this part can be tested by anyone. Please do.

I then loaded the Portico 5033 trial onto one track and the DDMF onto the other and tried various settings on both, taking great care to make sure the parameters on both were identical.

At no point could I make them null. There was always a difference. However, there appeared to be a small volume difference between the two in that the the Portico was a tad quieter on my Cubase meters. Also, even in all bypass mode on both plug-ins there was a very slight (inaudible) difference between the two. On my NS 10s and both my AKG and Sure headphones I could not hear the difference, but the meters showed a small difference.

I then did a subjective test, listening to both files separately through my NS 10m monitors, my AKG open back headphones and my Sure SRH830 closed back headphones.

To my ears the Portico’s sounded a little cleaner in the top end, but that means little as my ears are as human as anyone else’s and by now my ears may well have become a little clouded by fatigue. At this point the DDMF plug-in also sounded very nice indeed.

I am no scientist but very much driven by scientific scepticism and honestly, I’m becoming truly sick of reading buzz terms like: open, warm, 3D, wide and so on, which mean absolutely nothing really.

I will of course continue my tests. I do not for one second deny the quality of one plug-in over another. But please people, lets not compare the clever manipulation of 1s and 0s with magic.

Regards.

In the interest of presenting a more coherent argument against the use of hyperbole to express a sonic experience might I suggest that you refrain from using the word “cleaner”? By your own standards this imputes meaninglessness. Either that or permit some of us to gush as we see fit.

As for the clever manipulation of 1s and 0s, to some of us the joy resulting from these manipulations might just as well be magic.

Respectfully

CP

Double post

Which is why I added the qualifiers, “subjective test” and “ear fatigue”, as in, not totally trustworthy, or did you miss that? But feel free to gush and believe as you will. Permission granted. :wink:

As for the clever manipulation of 1s and 0s, to some of us the joy resulting from these manipulations might just as well be magic.

Respectfully

CP

By all means take offence if it makes you feel better. It’s your money, and it’s only a little testing, which I did, at the beginning, qualify as not being as scientific as it could be. Further more, clearly there is a difference between the two but a difference is just that. Better, or worse, are subjective terms, which you’ll note my testing avoided.

Regards.

Thanks for sharing your tests with us! Sounds like CP choked on a thesaurus and needed to spit it out :wink:

Thanks :slight_smile:

As I say, I’m no scientist but find myself doing this kind of thing more and more before taking things on hearsay. Not that I think people deliberately mislead, more that we are all fallible. And of course, the sentiment works both ways.

For a much more in depth and interesting video on the subject follow the link:

Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but know one is entitled their own facts - no idea who coined that but I sure like it :wink:

downloaded the demo and after using both the compressor and eq on a current project I was sold.

I had to buy them…I must point out I wasn’t in the market for new plugins however the end results were without a doubt worth the price even if only for this project ( slick,classy old school 89/90’s R&B )



MC

<Thanks for sharing your tests with us! Sounds like CP choked on a thesaurus and needed to spit it out>

Nope… I use Syntax Auto-Tune now… In this case, the Conrad Black preset…

  • 1 - I used my trial too…I activated it and then got slammed with work to the point I couldn’t really “play around” with something new at the time :frowning:

Can I get a second chance??!!

I was told by Steinberg support it is not possible to get a second trial code…I bought the 5043 comp anyway and do like a lot.

Mauri.

Tomorrow i will buy this beauties )

Hi,

I just bought the Portico 5033 EQ.

Finally … I have both Portico VSTs 5033 EQ, and 5043 Compressor !

I will post some feedback on the Portico EQ, once I install, and test it with some music. I’m sure I’m going to love it :smiley:

Cheers,
Muziksculp

5033 is an AWESOMELY musical plugin. I mean, it was almost impossible to make the thing sound bad. Sounded just as good as my hardware EQ which I really love!

I have to say though. $500 is much much much TOO MUCH for this plugin. I mean it’s great, but as a professional not even I could have justified getting it for full price. Nice to see Steinberg make a good move in the consumers direction! :mrgreen:

It makes me wonder how good the real 5033 must sound :wink:

Thanks very much for your positive feedback. Much appreciated.

Cheers,
Timo

Speaking as someone who owns both of these, all I can say is that they are truly outstanding and moreover (UAD apart) are the only plugin versions of Neve products actually authorized by Rupert Neve himself and to me that says a lot.
The EQ - almost impossible to make it sound bad.
The compressor - with VST3 you get native sidechaining (awesome) and no matter how hard you
hit it, you simply cannot drive it into pumping - which is also great as although that effect can be one you want, more often than not it’s an irritation.

I cannot think of anything bad to say about these - not one word - although a nice extra would be proper surround support, which sadly looks like it will not happen. Still, not to worry.

Just buy them - your mixes & clients will thank you for it.

Hi, Neil,

I feel the release, and perhaps the attack, of the 5043 could be faster for sidechaining. Because of that, I mostly use Elysia Mpressor for SC. Other than that (SC), they really are great.

Any thoughts on that?

Mauri.

AAX?
RTAS?


nope
Why should I buy if its for Cubase only?

Steinberg Shop: “Available in VST 3, VST 2.4 and AU format for multi-instance use”.

Yep, don’t buy them :wink: .

Mauri.