Tulip is the third in our new ‘Boutique Collection’ of Acqua plugins (VST/VST3/AAX/AU) that aims to reproduce the essence of unique gear, those elusive, extremely hard to find devices, of which very few units were ever built and/or whose traces have almost been lost in the mist of time.
This suite of plug-ins pays tribute to a prestigious Dutch electronics company that from the 1950s began producing quality professional audio equipment with truly amazing features for their record label, which over the years was home to an array of landmark artists such as David Bowie, The Bee Gees, Shirley Bassey, Nina Simone, Demis Roussos, Dusty Springfield, Roy Hamilton and many other.
This is the first Acqua plugin suite suite in which our brand new 'Hyper preamplification technology' has been used for the first time. It significantly improves the standard of current preamplifier emulations, offering the highest possible audio quality, precision and low CPU consumption, taking full advantage of the extraordinary potential of our VVK technology.
Tulip brings together emulations derived from the very rare units that were built by a well-known Dutch multinational company that acquired and created many record labels over the years and used to rename the sound consoles it designed and built with the names of each of them, so it is not surprising to find the 'same' console branded differently... Any engineer and sound creator will immediately be fascinated by the unique features of this plugin suite.
Tulip includes:
Each plug-in included in the Tulip suite comes in a “Standard” version and an alternative “ZL*” version, which operates at *zero latency and is thus suitable for use when tracking, at the cost of extra processing resources. For further details consult the Indigo user's manual in the Overview section.
The Tulip EQ includes two different EQ (8122 - 3675) with several perculiarities that make it truly unique, with HP-LP filters, plus 3 different preamp emulations.
- the 8122 EQ model derived from a 3-band passive EQ module included in a very rare tracking/mixing console from the mid 70s. Very few pieces were produced and they were sold exclusively to the studios of the Dutch multinational company we are honouring with this suite. This is probably why people have forgotten about them. The build quality of these consoles is still impressive today...after all, when money was not an issue for design and very high quality standards were met, the result was usually very good, if not excellent. The sound of these desks is absolutely rich, smooth, clean and very hi-fi..The console we used for our sampling was built in 1975 and is still in excellent condition today; it is located in the recording studio of Oliver Gregor and Peter ´jem´ Seifert in Düsseldorf (Germany).
- the 3675 EQ model derived from a 3-band passive germanium transistor-based EQ originally part of a 60s mixing console; Thanks to the precious contribution of Peppe De Angelis, sound engineer at the Monopattino Recording Studio located in southern Italy, we managed to recover a perfectly functioning EQ module of this historic brand, whose design, according to legend, also bears the signature of one of the greatest British-American gurus of professional audio.
NOTE: Both these 3-band EQs, as per the Acustica tradition, have become 4-bands, doubling the medium bands.
The 8122 was 'customized' by the owner who was able to build an LMF band that was not strictly present in the original unit.
A solid-state VCA Compressor / Limiter from the FM Recording Studio 'Fonologie Monzesi' - Monza (Italy) owned by sound engineers Massimo Faggioni and Raffaele Stefani. It features 4 different switchable dynamic processor emulations (the original model called COMP, a 'Frankenstein mode created by Acustica called ULTRACOMP based on our ‘Hyper’ compression tech and finally two different Brickwall limiters plus the compressor preamp emulation.
NOTE:
- The main idea behind the included VCA compressor is to provide a clean transparent, musical mix where you want control over a large range of parameters without neglecting the ability to create distinctive new sounds as well as vintage ones, too.
- A few dB of threshold you get a high level in RMS avoiding unwanted 'pumping effects', it's well suited to mastering sessions as with small amounts of threshold they can give immediate compression thanks to the addition of new 'custom' release times and extremely fast attacks.
The Tulip Pre plugin includes sixteen Line preamps, sixteen Mic preamps, six Custom preamps emulations. These recreate the same sound and behavior of the original units sampled for this project.. As with the hardware, the plugin can be used to obtain various colors increasing the harmonic distortion, starting from a clear,
powerful and colorful sound, that can evolve into a range of distortions whose musicality is unmatched. You can use the distinct palette of tones in this plug-in as a ‘mojo sparkler’ for your mix.
PRE LINE: 16 Line preamps from the 8122 console (Ch.1 through 16).
PRE MIC: 16 Mic preamps from the 8122 console (Ch.1 through 16).
PRE CUST:
1) 8122 ST MIX (Stereo Mix).
2) 8122 MONO MIX (Mono Mix).
3) 3675 ST (Stereo Pre from two 3675 EQ units).
4) 3675 MONO (Mono Pre from a 3675 EQ unit).
5) COMP ST (Stereo Pre from the Compressor unit).
6) COMP MONO ( Mono Pre from the Compressor unit).
The preamps derived from the vintage mixing console exhibit a slightly different response, which you can use to recreate an authentic analog desk experience in the box.
The Tulip Channel-strip is the perfect choice that packs all of the features of the standalone versions, with a sensational and distinctive sound to enhance and massage your music, all in one easy-to-use interface.
Our standard compressors run at 22kHz regardless of sample rate or oversampling; this implies that the reduction, attack, and release curves are not calculated for every sample but for every 'n' samples, where 'n' depends on the sample rate. For example, on fast transients, the input level is evaluated correctly; however, the reduction is calculated after 'n' samples, so the signal containing the transient is not compressed in time, and the transient "escapes" compression.
This new Hyper compression tech calculates the amount of compression and the attack and release curves at each sample, so compression is applied immediately and no longer after 'n' samples.
The speed of these new compressors can be further increased by oversampling while keeping the power consumption at 1/12th of our standard compressors.
In this suite you can appreciate for the first time our brand new 'Hyper preamplification technology'. It significantly improves the standard of current preamplifier emulations, offering the highest possible audio quality, precision and low CPU consumption (keeping CPU consumption between 1/3rd and 1/2nd of our standard preamps), taking full advantage of the extraordinary potential of our VVK technology. The quality of these new preamplifiers can be further increased by oversampling, while keeping CPU consumption the same as our previous preamplifiers, but sounding much better in all respects.
HOW TO TRY A PLUGIN: TRIAL MODE
For details about the installation/authorization process, please refer to this page.
Technical Specs
All other trademarks and trade names mentioned on this page are used for identification purposes only and are properties of their respective owners. The product is at an introductory period for the first four weeks after release or until the first official version is released; this implies that the product may receive improvements, changes, or fixes available through Aquarius Desktop updates.
