Nomad Factory Group Buy @ DontCrack.com

[mikebeckmotu]

I already had most of the bundle as earlier separate purchases. The current bundle deal is worth it for Pulse-Tec and the British Bundle alone, as I found out within minutes of purchasing it.

[BobK]

Anybody out there compared any of the Nomad Factory plugs to UAD? Just curious, since they both model vintage gear. I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone who's compared these to similar plugs from other developers.

This deal is tempting, but I don't have much time to try them out, and if I end up not using them it'd be a false economy, even at that great price (I'd already budgeted for just one other software purchase this year). I found relatively few reviews online, except for very mixed and usually unhelpful comments on other forums. I also noticed that their web site doesn't include reviews, and the 'artists' page lists people who are registered users, but says that 'listing of a registered user does not imply an endorsement', which strikes me as strange.

[Bill OC]

Sometimes you just have to pass up an offer that's "too good to pass up" just for self-control. If I didn't have several amp sims and the Waves Studio Classic Collection and Sonnox, I snap it up in a minute.

[BobK]

Good point, Bill. I've been thinking I need some restraint in the plug-in department. But then again, it's mainly the V.I. department where I have more than enough toys.

I don't have any vintage EQ plugs (though DP's MW EQ is good, and is based on classic British console EQ according to MOTU) - those are the main ones I'm curious about in this bundle (and maybe the tape saturation). This would be an inexpensive way to test those waters.

[Frodo]

Anybody out there compared any of the Nomad Factory plugs to UAD? Just curious, since they both model vintage gear. I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone who's compared these to similar plugs from other developers.

So far, I'm finding them more than comparable. They have a different character, especially the British fx. I need to do some more side-by-sides, especially with the Abbey Road Bundle as well as UAD.

The price of Nomad is one thing-- but at the moment I just don't see myself spending $100+ on one UAD plugin when Nomad's 27 plugins look so promising. The other thing which makes the Nomad bundle attractive right now are the other things it offers which could not be had from UAD at any price.

I need to do some more testing, but I want to lock down some more comparisons before the end of the day. I can think of a few other things to do with $249, but unless I find something not to like about the Nomad bundle I'll most likely buy them.

FWIW:

http://www.gearslutz.com/board/music-co ... tubes.html

http://www.barryrudolph.com/stellar/nomadbritish.html


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[BobK]

Thanks, Frodo! Great to hear you find Nomads are comparable, if different. I've heard only great things about the UAD stuff, but I don't see one in my future, at least not right now; so if I can get some decent vintage flavor plugs in the Producer Pack, even if they're not spot-on models, I think it'll be worth the $249.

It was nice to see Barry Rudolph's positive review of the British plugs. (I'd been to his site via Nomad's artist page but had missed that piece, having only checked his magazine reviews.) Not sure if I'd seen that particular Gearslutz thread, but, like the others, it consists mostly of comments like '[insert product or brand name here] sounds like sh*t', which I pretty much ignore unless they include at least SOME sort of explanation.

I messed around with the EQs a little more, and liked what I heard. I have no experience with vintage hardware or plug-in models for comparison, but it might be nice to have them around even if just for a change pace. Fewer parameters to futz with can reduce option anxiety, and even a different GUI might help reduce the chance of mixing visually instead of listening.

[dbender]

I need to do some more testing, but I want to lock down some more comparisons before the end of the day. I can think of a few other things to do with $249, but unless I find something not to like about the Nomad bundle I'll most likely buy them.
=====[/quote]

Frodo, as someone who has long valued your thoughtful opinions, I'm looking forward to seeing what you think.

I'm contemplating getting the Producer Pack II bundle. My problem is that I already bought in late '06 the other Dont Crack Nomad group buy, not for Producer Pack I but for the Studio Bundle. So, I already have all of these, except for Rock Amp Legends, and the newer plugs -- Pulse-Tec EQs, Analog Mastering Tools, British Bundle and the Motown EQs. I'm really not interested in Rock Amp Legends, since I already own Guitar Rig 4 (great update), Amplitube stuff, and Overloud TH1.

So, what I'd be buying here really comes down to the Pulse-Tec EQs, Analog Mastering Tools, British Bundle and the Motown EQs. The $249 is still a great deal for all of these, but, for me, already having most of the plugs in this Producer Pack II bundle, that value proposition is a bit watered down.

Plus, I really don't have the money for this right now, but could put it on a credit card and pay off in a couple of months. I guess I'd defer the Kontakt 4 upgrade if I get this. I was also interested in taking advantage of the $129 special price this month for iZotope's Alloy, which I've been demoing and like so far. Even that would have been pushing things financially. Hmmmm...... if I get Producer Pack II, maybe I'd just not get Alloy, though the $129 special price is very tempting.

I did extensive A/B demoing last night of the Analog Mastering Tools and British Bundle plugs. I think they're much better than the Blue Tubes stuff I already had bought. I got the new IK plugs in the August promotion IK ran, including the Pul-Tec EQ. But, the Nomad Pulse-Tec really sounds great, and that MEQ EQ is amazing. This is a huge improvement over the Pul Tec EQ plug that is part of the Blue Tubes bundle I already have. And, compared to IK's, it sounds great and the MEQ really adds a lot of control the IK one does not have.

The Analog Mastering Tools stuff does not use the new Nomad "Retrology" modeling method that is used in the Pulse-Tec, British Bundle and MTone EQs, but all these AMT plugs sound really great and musical. I was worried about duplication, since I just recently got the IK new Limiter. But comparing that to the Nomad AMT plugs, they really sound nice, are easy to get a good sound, and sound very "musical."

The British Bundle plugs were great. I read up a lot last night about the Neve equipment they emulate. They really helped pull the mix together, and the compressor tamed and nicely glued into the mix a fairly shrill lead guitar.

All of these Nomad new plugs seem to be fairly easy on the CPU, at least compared to the IK stuff.

So, I'm closely watching this thread to see what Frodo and others are saying, as I go down to the wire and continue testing and deciding whether I should pull the trigger on this. Boy, they really hated the Nomad stuff at the GearSlutz thread Frodo posted the link to. I found the blue tubes stuff OK -- just OK, a solid B-B+ on the EQs and dynamics plugs. But, the new Pulse-Tec, AMT plugs and British Bundle sounded great, and I didn't want to like them in light of my situation. Darn, you had to make me like you!!

So, should I still get this bundle, or not??? Should I blow off Alloy instead to be able to get the Producer Pack II? Those plugs seems to have a special quality, whereas I'm thinking that while Alloy is a nice all in one package, I could get by without it more than I could get by without what the newer Nomad plugs offer to my mix.

Thanks to all for your input!

[Frodo]

Frodo, as someone who has long valued your thoughtful opinions, I'm looking forward to seeing what you think.

You are way too kind, dbender.

I'm contemplating getting the Producer Pack II bundle. My problem is that I already bought in late '06 the other Dont Crack Nomad group buy, not for Producer Pack I but for the Studio Bundle. So, I already have all of these, except for Rock Amp Legends, and the newer plugs -- Pulse-Tec EQs, Analog Mastering Tools, British Bundle and the Motown EQs. I'm really not interested in Rock Amp Legends, since I already own Guitar Rig 4 (great update), Amplitube stuff, and Overloud TH1.

The one thing to consider is whether the "repeat" titles have been upgraded to better versions of themselves, especially where Producer Pack 1 people are able to move over to Producer Pack 2. I don't have any of their earlier stuff, so I couldn't compare them.

So, what I'd be buying here really comes down to the Pulse-Tec EQs, Analog Mastering Tools, British Bundle and the Motown EQs. The $249 is still a great deal for all of these, but, for me, already having most of the plugs in this Producer Pack II bundle, that value proposition is a bit watered down.

Plus, I really don't have the money for this right now, but could put it on a credit card and pay off in a couple of months. I guess I'd defer the Kontakt 4 upgrade if I get this. I was also interested in taking advantage of the $129 special price this month for iZotope's Alloy, which I've been demoing and like so far. Even that would have been pushing things financially. Hmmmm...... if I get Producer Pack II, maybe I'd just not get Alloy, though the $129 special price is very tempting.

Yes-- I'm doing a bit of upgrade shuffling myself-- moving things up and down my to-do list where everything cannot be had at once.

Word of advice: Don't spend unwisely, and don't allow a deadline to compromise your fiscal stability. Someone said it earlier that if it's safer to pass on it, then put safety first. These deals will come around again. Plus, you can always fill some gaps at any time without having to deal with a deadline.

Just consider what's more important to you-- Alloy, Kontakt 4, etc. Is there one plugin or VI upgrade that you really need that's holding you back? If a sacrifice has to be made, then I would sooner "fix the whole in the dam" before I tried to expand it.

I did extensive A/B demoing last night of the Analog Mastering Tools and British Bundle plugs. I think they're much better than the Blue Tubes stuff I already had bought. I got the new IK plugs in the August promotion IK ran, including the Pul-Tec EQ. But, the Nomad Pulse-Tec really sounds great, and that MEQ EQ is amazing. This is a huge improvement over the Pul Tec EQ plug that is part of the Blue Tubes bundle I already have. And, compared to IK's, it sounds great and the MEQ really adds a lot of control the IK one does not have.

The Analog Mastering Tools stuff does not use the new Nomad "Retrology" modeling method that is used in the Pulse-Tec, British Bundle and MTone EQs, but all these AMT plugs sound really great and musical. I was worried about duplication, since I just recently got the IK new Limiter. But comparing that to the Nomad AMT plugs, they really sound nice, are easy to get a good sound, and sound very "musical."

The British Bundle plugs were great. I read up a lot last night about the Neve equipment they emulate. They really helped pull the mix together, and the compressor tamed and nicely glued into the mix a fairly shrill lead guitar.

All of these Nomad new plugs seem to be fairly easy on the CPU, at least compared to the IK stuff.

So, I'm closely watching this thread to see what Frodo and others are saying, as I go down to the wire and continue testing and deciding whether I should pull the trigger on this. Boy, they really hated the Nomad stuff at the GearSlutz thread Frodo posted the link to. I found the blue tubes stuff OK -- just OK, a solid B-B+ on the EQs and dynamics plugs. But, the new Pulse-Tec, AMT plugs and British Bundle sounded great, and I didn't want to like them in light of my situation. Darn, you had to make me like you!!

So, should I still get this bundle, or not??? Should I blow off Alloy instead to be able to get the Producer Pack II? Those plugs seems to have a special quality, whereas I'm thinking that while Alloy is a nice all in one package, I could get by without it more than I could get by without what the newer Nomad plugs offer to my mix.

Thanks to all for your input!

Aha-- so you did compare the old studio fx with the new producer pack.

Even though the folks at gearslutz are not known for mincing words, I had to take notice of the Blue Tube comments. You've just confirmed my suspicions with this. Few have complimented the Blue Tube plugs during their evaluations of the entire bundle, although some find a use for them. Still, in the bigger picture of the entire bundle, the Blue Tubes are a small part of the equation, considering its price.

I've got a bit more to consider yet, so I'll be happy to share what I discover, fwiw.

(Still love that avatar, dbender!!)

[bOing]

Anybody out there compared any of the Nomad Factory plugs to UAD? Just curious, since they both model vintage gear. I'd appreciate any feedback from anyone who's compared these to similar plugs from other developers.

I've had the Producer Pac since last year and use it a lot. Yesterday I was doing some kick and snare tests and compared both Nomads Pultec vs UAD's Pultec. The UAD seemed "clearer" to me in it's output, whereas the Nomad was a bit smudgy, if I may use that term. Perhaps it made it more "tape" like in that case. But this was limited to drums and may or may not have been what others might have heard.

[wurliuchi]

Here is the Pultec on female blues singer, in case you missed it. Don't judge by the mix, it's not tweaked yet. Pultec vox track down 1.4 dB from the other, should have been more.

Female Vocal-1 preset, Peak Freq set to 700 instead or 300.

without Pultec on vocal:
http://www.northcoastsoundsystem.com/Go ... Pultec.wav

with Pultec on vocal:
http://www.northcoastsoundsystem.com/Go ... Pultec.wav

[BobK]

I checked out Wurli's tracks and could easily hear the difference. But when I thought about it, I realized this doesn't really tell me anything about the merits of this EQ vs other EQs - I needed to just demo the Nomad EQ myself! In any case, thanks again for the upload.

Also, I did another Google search, this time for 'blue tubes' and 'review', which turned up reviews at Sound On Sound, Music Tech, and a couple of others. For what it's worth, the Blue Tubes plugs got consistently good reviews - none of the writers trashed them like the guys over at Gearslutz did.

Looking forward to more of your comments, Frodo!

[zed]

Here is the Pultec on female blues singer, in case you missed it. Don't judge by the mix, it's not tweaked yet. Pultec vox track down 1.4 dB from the other, should have been more.

Nice. Certainly subtle, but it definitely makes a difference.

...I needed to just demo the Nomad EQ myself!

Sale ends tomorrow, so don't wait too long.

I was quite put off by the comments on the Gearslutz page. I don't think I will base any future decisions on *any* purchase based on the kind of "crap" I hear from a large bunch of the users over there. Such attitude and judgement. Sheeeeeesh.

[Frodo]

Wurluichi, thanks for the samples. The difference was very nice, I thought; the effect was a touch more clarity without being harsh. I'd like to run these tracks through my studio monitors later this evening to give them a fairer listen. Right now I'm using my Sony 7506s.

That's one of my favorite blues tunes of all time.

Was the lyric suggestive enough a solution for this purchasing quandary?

You only live once and then....

Okay-- back to work I go.... more soon.


Zed-- you beat be by one minute!!

[dbender]

Thanks, Frodo! (It is you, sir, who is the kind one, for I was merely being accurate about you)

Thanks for your sage wisdom about plugging holes rather than expanding things. That really clicked for me. Under that logic, the Kontakt 4 upgrade takes a back seat now to completing my effects plug-ins tools, as does the DP 7 upgrade.

The hole that I am finding in that regard are plug-ins that will give me an overall good sounding mix without killing the CPU on my lowly 2 GHz MacBook. Good glue plugs to make it all sit well together without rough elbows and knobby knees protruding out of my mixes.

Having just bought all of the five new IK T-Racks plug-ins, I thought that would do the trick to round out my collection of mix tools, but found that it really didn't. Because of their CPU use, I can't really use them on as many tracks as I had thought. And using them just on the two bus still left me feel like something was lacking. I also have all of the PSP mix plug-ins, but they also are little heavy on the CPU, and cause stuttering after adding them on a few tracks, especially if I add Vintage Warmer on the master out bus.

So, when I saw that the new Nomad special at don'tcrack, I thought to myself, nah, I've already got most of those, I just got the five new IK T-Racks plug-ins (which duplicates some of the new Nomad plugs), and now that Alloy has popped in out of the blue and I'm seriously considering getting it (even though I already have Nomad's Track Box and the Wave Arts TrackPlug), I'll pass up this Nomad special that would only get me their newer plugs (which I had not yet at that point demoed).

Heck, I thought, they seem to mainly be mastering plugs (referring to AMT and the British Bundle modeled on master bus fx), and the Pulse Tec and MTone EQs (already had IK's PulTech, and plenty of other various EQs so who needs the MTone ones? I thought), I've already got Ozone 4, and they probably can't be used on a lot of separate tracks without killing my cpu.

But, when I demoed PulseTec, Analog Mixing Tools and British Bundle (still have yet to demo the MTone EQs), I had several WOW jaw drop moments on tricky mixes I tested them out on. Very easily dialed in what had been very hard to achieve before without them. And they were head and shoulders above the Blue Tubes and the other dynamics and eq Nomad Plugs I'd previously bought and have used since. I was surprised and not expecting this. I demoed them only to show myself that I was really missing much by skipping this Nomad special just to get the few newer ones I didn't already have, so that I should instead spend this money on Alloy, which I'd been liking in my demoing of it (in terms of workflow more than sound, though the sound is good).

PulseTec, Analog Mixing Tools and British Bundle really helped me glue things together verynicely. The British Bundle compressor also really helped on a harsh lead guitar track too. The plugs all had a warm non-noisy character, and was at that level of quality I first felt after my first testing of the IK Fairchild 670 and Pul-Tec EQ. You could hear how the hardware was attempted to be carefully emulated.

So, that's why everyone's opinions would be so helpful to me in terms of what you think especially about the newer Nomad plug-ins (which really for me in practical terms are the ones I would be buying, since I already have all of the prior ones).

How is everyone finding the CPU load to be on these newer plug-ins? The Blue Tubes plug-ins are pretty light on the CPU, but how about the newer ones that I'd be getting? Do you think these newer Nomad plugs take less CPU than the newer IK ones? Do they sound good to you and do things that you find can't be done by other plug-ins you use?

What do you think about the British Bundle plug-ins?

To me, I was a kinda blown away when I demoed them, and was surprised to see that I really liked them. I was not very familiar with the original Neve hardware units they are modeled on, so read up a lot about them last night and found that they are pretty rare and much coveted, legendary units like for example the Fairchild and Pul-Tech units are.

How about the Pulse-Tec compared to IK's Pul-Tec emulation?

So, from my perspective as someone who already has most of these plug-ins, the question for me is whether I spend $249 essentially to get these newer Nomad plug-ins which have really impressed me as I have been demoing them. Even though for me that cuts down on the value proposition of the group by price, still, $249 is still a great group by price just for all of the newer Nomad plug-ins I've been talking about, if they really are as great as they seem at first blush to me to be, unless I am hallucinating -- am I? Your reality checks are much appreciated.

Looking forward to reading Frodo's and everyone else's contributions, feedback, impressions and input.


Thanks everybody!!

[billf]

For what it's worth, the Blue Tubes plugs got consistently good reviews - none of the writers trashed them like the guys over at Gearslutz did.

I don't know if it makes a difference, but the Gearslutz comments are from 2004, so maybe the Blue Tubes have improved since then?