Hello Rafael,
May be it would be a good idea to give them another chance, there are a lot of people out there who use them who have a very different opinion.
All the best,
Chris
nomads factory plugins
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- KVRAF
- 2121 posts since 10 Apr, 2002 from Saint Germain en Laye, France
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- KVRAF
- 1531 posts since 17 Sep, 2002
I have had the Integral Studio bundle for a few years now, but the only plugins from it that remain on my drive are Magnetic, Echoes, and the BlueTubes Analog Phaser.
I used the British NEQ-1972 for a good while, and it's a good plugin with a great GUI and very low CPU usage, but I have pretty much removed these "emulation" style EQs from my workflow, and either just use ReaEQ or SlickEQ.
I found myself kind of put off by the tube emulation built into their more "analog" plugins; it seems to add a certain harshness/edge that is rather limited in its usage. Of course, you can just dial it all the way down.
The GUIs are all pretty great if you are into the whole skeuomorphic vibe, but some of them seem just way too big for what they do (the SC-226 comes to mind here, although that one has a pretty good sound).
The various BlueTubes EQs and compressors are nothing special sound-wise, though if you are after the interface and workflow of a certain style of hardware, you might have some luck with these.
The All-Tech and Pulse-Tec EQs are good fun, but again, they take up way too much screen space on my laptop.
Magnetic (I don't have 2, just the original version) is great fun on drums, bass, and pretty much anything that you might want to beef up. Does it sound like tape? I don't know, I've never recorded to tape, but regardless, I like the mojo of this plugin. The BT Phaser I keep mostly because it fulfills its duties just fine, and I haven't bothered seeking out a replacement. Nothing special about it, but it does its job well enough for me.
The BlueVerb... maybe it's just me, but I could never coax any sort of desirable sounds out of it. This one was the first to be deleted from my hard drive.
I used the British NEQ-1972 for a good while, and it's a good plugin with a great GUI and very low CPU usage, but I have pretty much removed these "emulation" style EQs from my workflow, and either just use ReaEQ or SlickEQ.
I found myself kind of put off by the tube emulation built into their more "analog" plugins; it seems to add a certain harshness/edge that is rather limited in its usage. Of course, you can just dial it all the way down.
The GUIs are all pretty great if you are into the whole skeuomorphic vibe, but some of them seem just way too big for what they do (the SC-226 comes to mind here, although that one has a pretty good sound).
The various BlueTubes EQs and compressors are nothing special sound-wise, though if you are after the interface and workflow of a certain style of hardware, you might have some luck with these.
The All-Tech and Pulse-Tec EQs are good fun, but again, they take up way too much screen space on my laptop.
Magnetic (I don't have 2, just the original version) is great fun on drums, bass, and pretty much anything that you might want to beef up. Does it sound like tape? I don't know, I've never recorded to tape, but regardless, I like the mojo of this plugin. The BT Phaser I keep mostly because it fulfills its duties just fine, and I haven't bothered seeking out a replacement. Nothing special about it, but it does its job well enough for me.
The BlueVerb... maybe it's just me, but I could never coax any sort of desirable sounds out of it. This one was the first to be deleted from my hard drive.
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- KVRist
- 95 posts since 30 Apr, 2014
I am going to post again on this topic, because I think the whole Nomad Factory bundle covers everything you could possibly need to mix a record in the box. It's true that you might not like the sound quality of every plugin, and perhaps some of the coding is out of date (is it? I really wouldn't know), but I really don't think there's anything *wrong* with most of these plugins.
I see it as a very good, cost-effective alternative to something like the Waves Gold Bundle; not exactly the same, but definitely covering the same ground.
If you had just the BlueTubes series, you would have a great starter kit of plugins.
If you then take in to account the availability of some very affordable plugins by other independent plugin manufacturers, you could very easily collect a really strong set of tools for production and mixing.
Just to go off-topic a little, I would say that Nomad Factory ISP3, or even just bluetubes bundle, gives you all the bread and butter plugins you might want outside of your stock DAW plugins, and on top of that, you have some great options for a few extra flavours, such as:
Stillwell Audio - Major Tom, Event Horizon, 1973 etc.
SKNote - GTS39, STA Limit, SDC etc.
Sonimus - SonEQ Pro, Burnley 73
Klanghelm - MJUC
Boz Labs - Mongoose
Kuassa - EVE AT-1
Luftikus EQ
None of these plugins are that expensive, but they can all be used to deliver a "pro" product. None of them use iLok or WUP schemes.
If you keep an eye on the Don't Crack website, you can usually grab a lot of the Nomad plugins at a discount price. The ISP3 bundle pops up on the KVR marketplace from time to time. I say give them a try if you are looking for a decent alternative to your stock DAW plugins.
I see it as a very good, cost-effective alternative to something like the Waves Gold Bundle; not exactly the same, but definitely covering the same ground.
If you had just the BlueTubes series, you would have a great starter kit of plugins.
If you then take in to account the availability of some very affordable plugins by other independent plugin manufacturers, you could very easily collect a really strong set of tools for production and mixing.
Just to go off-topic a little, I would say that Nomad Factory ISP3, or even just bluetubes bundle, gives you all the bread and butter plugins you might want outside of your stock DAW plugins, and on top of that, you have some great options for a few extra flavours, such as:
Stillwell Audio - Major Tom, Event Horizon, 1973 etc.
SKNote - GTS39, STA Limit, SDC etc.
Sonimus - SonEQ Pro, Burnley 73
Klanghelm - MJUC
Boz Labs - Mongoose
Kuassa - EVE AT-1
Luftikus EQ
None of these plugins are that expensive, but they can all be used to deliver a "pro" product. None of them use iLok or WUP schemes.
If you keep an eye on the Don't Crack website, you can usually grab a lot of the Nomad plugins at a discount price. The ISP3 bundle pops up on the KVR marketplace from time to time. I say give them a try if you are looking for a decent alternative to your stock DAW plugins.
