Louder Than Liftoff Silver Bullet

The Lounge Other Gear
#61

I’ll just leave this right here…

Louder Than Liftoff SILVER BULLET mk2 - Plugin Alliance (plugin-alliance.com)

TL;DR: It’s really freaking good. No way around it. If you want the vast majority of the SB sound in a plugin here it is.

The plugin was done in house by LTL and not PA, though they’re doing the marketing and distribution.

To snipe some of what I posted elsewhere:

For me, when I close my eyes and go back and forth between the two, the hardware still has a slightly better image and openness to it. There’s just a touch more polish overall. That said, if I couldn’t A/B the two directly, you took one of my masters with close settings on the plugin, had me listen to it and told me it was the hardware, I’m pretty sure I’d believe it without much question.

7 Likes
#62

Nice, thanks for the heads up and the review! Will probably snag it once it reaches 29.99 :-P.

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#63

Good to know, @sl1200mk2! I probably will too, @HBIII, haha. Those deals are just too hard to pass up!

#64

Looks like Louder Than Liftoff also offer it on their own website, for a little cheaper.

1 Like
#65

It depends. With LTL, there was a coupon sent out for existing owners. With PA, the intro price was $179 for owners of certain plugins (which I was one of) and if you combine that with your monthly voucher (if you get one) it could be anywhere from $104-154. There’s just a bunch of variables.

I have no idea and just speculating, but I don’t think this particular plugin will ever hit the $29 sales realm. It might get down to $99 plus a voucher, but that’s probably it. Why? Because it’s not strictly a PA developed plugin and I don’t think LTL will want to devalue it that much. Sure, it could happen, but so far there’s some precedent with Kirchhoff EQ not going sub $100 (at least if I recall correctly).

For me, I don’t mean this flippantly, but whether it’s $75, $125 or $175 it doesn’t really matter. IMO, it’s worth it and would easily pay for itself within a few months if that, but I get it and everyone’s situation is different.

2 Likes
#67

This part of the marketing blurb intrigues me.

When you instantiate the plugin, you receive a unique “built-to-order” version of the digitally modeled analog circuit, associated to your license. The six-digit serial number on the rear panel is not just for graphical authenticity–it serves an integral function to the Dyna Realism™ modes. Just like a real hardware unit, each license of the plugin is given a unique serial number and will be distinct in subtle, entirely analog ways. Enter any string of numbers to alter your build.

1 Like
#68

Existing owners of the hardware? I didn’t get anything.

#69

Yes. If you didn’t get an email and are interested, contact them and I’m sure you’ll get a coupon. For me, it would be better to purchase from PA.

#70

I haven’t played with that yet. The variations are probably pretty subtle. Using it is optional and you can always go back to any serial number you want. If you were using several in a mix it might be interesting to have a slight variance on each, but that’s not generally how I’d use mine. I like repeatability.

There’s some more explanation about it from Brad @ LTL on the GS forum if you want to know more behind the reasoning.

1 Like
#72

Downloaded the demo. only had a few minutes with it so far. sounding nice, but way more subtle than I was expecting. I had it pegged as a modular channel alternative, but based on the few minutes I’ve spent with it, it seems quite different. I need to spend more time with it of course. anyway I dig the idea of discrepancies that can be introduced at will.

#73

Right, definitely not that and far more on the subtle side of things. Think Analog Heat on ‘Clean Boost’ or SSL Fusion type of thing. Don’t get me wrong, I’d love to have a Modular Channel, but it’s (generally) a far more prominent and aggressive tool. That’s not necessarily a bad thing at all, but it’s all in the context of what your goal is.

I mostly work on other people’s music and my goal is the last 5-10% of polish and enhancement and the SB is brilliant for that. I’m not looking to fundamentally change the tone or overly impart my own stamp/sound on a mix, rather I’m looking to enhance and bring out what’s already there. The SB opens things up and adds vibe without being dominant.

I hope Softube does a full Modular Channel emulation! I’d pick that up instantly, but I’m sure it’d just make me want the hardware even more.

3 Likes
#74

Thanks for putting it into context. Makes a lot more sense, looking forward to rinsing it later.

I’ve had extensive time with the MC and it is indeed more aggressive, the filters scream MS20. I was quite disappointed with Softubes version, iirc this was modeled on the saturation part of the MC, sadly it didn’t sound close to me. The extremities of hardware being pushed are more troublesome to emulate I reckon.

1 Like
#75

Softube models the M-A-S not the Modular channel.

#76

isn’t the saturation circuit on the modular channel the same as the MAS?

#77

indeed, i have found the same across basically all plugs. Extreme territory is usually where things get interesting, I can imagine devs don’t bother modelling the extremities as its time consuming and used by a smaller percentage of users

re: your gear mfgs not aligning with your beliefs, it definitely is a drag and when you “rep” this stuff I can totally see the concern.

from my own experience LTL team (bill and deegan) are pretty chill and provided pretty good customer service when I hit them up. They miscommunicated a shipping time and I was pretty annoyed by it, handled professionally and they sped up my order to make up for it. Good experience, and the silver bullet is pretty awesome for the price/build quality/ and customizability with the colour modules.

Political beliefs aside, i wouldn’t fade this thing and give it a good listen

2 Likes
#78

I have no idea.
But we have the MAS and the Softube version is pretty close.

#79

Since they use some Unfiltered Audio stuff in one of the sw Silver Bullet modules I wondered if you could recreate its schematic in the UA modular Triad fx.

#80

No, everything on here is original code. For the Silver Bullet portion, Gary Grutzek did extremely detailed analog modeling. For the various bent and failure modes, all of that is analog modeled (we’re not “cheating” by just chucking a distortion in there or whatnot, although I’ve seen a lot of armchair developers on Gearspace suggesting otherwise :laughing:). Gary also did the Hitmaker, which is again an analog modeled section.

The other color modules are new algorithms by Josh that won’t be present in Triad. The Bitmaker actually uses a model of the SP-1200 DAC, Vinyl Distortion uses a modified version of his model from Needlepoint, and the remaining two modes incorporate elements from Needlepoint and Lo-fi. With each of these modes, are algorithms are still interacting with the rest of the box in fun ways. Circuit Bent + Helical Scan is a really nice lo-fi combo.

5 Likes
#81

Some of the stuff people post is just ridiculous. I just can’t understand how they can’t understand how utterly stupid they’re making themselves sound.

Prime example:

I could code this plugin in about 15 minutes. It’s basically a tilt EQ with two pretty standard harmonic components. It’s almost certain that you already own plugins that have those harmonic components and you definitely own EQ’s that will do a tilt.

Could you cobble various things together to have a somewhat similar functionality? Sure. How close will it be? Aside from EQ curves… questionable. But to say this is some hack job that was thrown together in days or even weeks is laughable.

EDIT: I wanted to be clear I’m not referring to anyone here. This is stuff from the GS forum.

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#82

I didn’t mean to suggest otherwise, it was more the overall signal flow I meant.