Opening up a chat to discuss Baby Audio and their plugins. There seems to be enough individual threads and posts about their stuff to have a dedicated place to shoot the breeze on what they’re doing.
This is a really interesting company with a nice philosophy. Their general approach is to make production accessible, and their recent run of plugins have features some excellent ideas, sounds and they excel in the GUI department.
Their latest release is Transit. Releasing a plugin with a YouTuber could be seen as risky, but they’ve gone fully in for it on this one. As always, there are some gushing Youtube videos doing the rounds which are hardly objective, so it’ll take a while to pick up the full picture here. From a quick look; the GUI is as good as you’d expect. It appears to be their attempt to join the likes of Cableguys & Sugarbytes in the multi-effect department. These plugins can be quite complex in real world use to the point that it can be easier to do in your DAW, and sometimes not. So this is an interesting move.
This comes on the back of a run of plugins that were more or less themed around classic production techniques and sounds, from the 80s and 90s (BA-1, Super VHS, TAIP etc.) My initial thought on Transit is that this may have been an opportunity to do a retro multi effect, perhaps inspired by 90s loopers and samplers. Even in their reverbs (which are very modern) there is usually some sort of tape or lo-fi module. So this plugin feels like it breaks with their overall theme a little, but that’s not the end of the world. And having used their other stuff, from time to time the effects can be quite CPU heavy, so I’d want to demo this as other plugs like Sugarbytes tend to be very low on the CPU hit.
Typically BA plugins end up on sale either individually or in a bundle for a low cost after a year, and this one is currently coming in at the intro price as being pretty affordable compared to something like Shaperbox. At full price it will be a little less from what I understand.
So to kick things off, which Baby Audio plugs do you have and use, and what do you think of Transit?
I bought the Transit plugin yesterday and have most of their other plugins. Had the first real play with Transit this morning and it’s great! Going to take a while to get my head around all the options so I’m going to be using it lots in Live.
I recently got T.A.I.P because I was mostly interested by the AI approach, and had a couple of hours to play with it on an unfinished mix. It sounds very good as a distortion and a compression/glue plugin, and is also handy at making a lo fi kind of effect. The fact that you can increase the loudness without affecting the volume is also going to be usefull.
BA-1 is certainly somewhere in my top-5 of software synths.
in particular, there is no proper SH-101 emulation on iOS, but BA-1 is pretty cool substitute (yeah, i know it emulates different machine of the time – Yamaha CS01)
I genuinley love the concept of BA effects. They’re the right belnd for me of modern and vintage, with a distinctive reason for each instrument to exist. I think they’re a nice alternative in the arsenal to Soundtoys. ST is very serious and business like (plus their effects crank a lot harder in general), where Baby Audio lets its hair down, and is a bit more modern.
Of all the reverbs I’ve tried, I think the ducking feature in Crystalline is the best one I’ve come across. Spaced Out is really interesting, even if in theory a delay/verb combo isn’t totally necessary, it works really well - again that’s what a slick GUI can do for you. Where they really shine for me is in sound coluration. Taip, Super VHS and even Comeback Kid (which is essentially a delay - but I don’t see it as a pure delay) I group under colouration tools. I do throw Parallel Agressor on a lot of Drum racks, although I find Drum Buss to be equally good - it just depends on the mood. And I love using Smooth Operator to clean up overhyped peaks in sound. I was surprised to find BA-1 (which I was annoyed at at first because it inflated the bundle price!) is actually really good and since I like an analog synth, again it’s fun to have around.
Batsignal to @captain8 - I’ve been trialling Transit. It’s definitley OK, though I’m not sure it’s anything I’d pick up other than in a bundle. The effects are OK, but not a world apart from Sugarbytes - eg: the distortion effect is alright, but there’s better out there. I’d say if you have a few of these plugins it’s not an upgrade, but it is somewhat unique. Funnily enough, I ran a quick test and the Sugarbytes plugs sip 1-2% CPU each. Transit was more like 7-8%. This is not unusual for BA plugs, but it is worth mentioning. I think what Transit will be good for is getting ideas. You’ll try a preset and then maybe recreate it or make your own. I’m not rushing to get this one, but it’s clearly very good for DJ style effects and maybe you would pick this if you were coming to this whole production thing fresh.
thanks for the great summary I tend to like BA as well, this was the first time the sound was a little iffy in something from them that caught my interest, but the workflow is nice and for ideas like you say it might not be a bad way to continue supporting BA.
Yeah I think as well it’s worth pointing out that (taste depending) these plugs on demo are at their most extreme. I’ve just spent a while dialling in some automation in Ableton and to be fair, I can see where this would come in handy. As @monquixote says, you’ll likely have a few in their bundle you like and some you don’t. But I’ve found in use that I reach for them on every project and use a good chunk of them. And I agree TAIP is awesome, just the right balance of heat for a track.
Oh, one other little GUI thing they’ve done that even made me like the demo version. You know when you get the audio dropouts of a restricted demo? Transit says “we’ll be back in…” and it gives a countdown. It’s those little touches that I think set them apart a bit.
Thinking I’ll hold on this for a bundle upgrade at some stage, but as a multi-effect fan, I’m mostly covered in this dept. I’d love to see them do their take on Effectrix one day.
I have a few of their effects. Thought about the BA-1 but it really needs a nice signature effect. To me it is like a Juno with the chorus. Am considering the new Transit but it is a lot like Sugar Bytes Turnado, but with a master dial. I already own Turnado.
Does anyone know where your purchase licenses go with Baby Audio and FastSpring???
I bought a pack on Jul 3rd and went to install them on my MBP Air last night, and couldn’t find anything in my emails about a license.
Then I ended up in a really frustrating cycle of putting my email address in their site to receive an email from them that sent me back to the same page… I think I did it 3 times before realising!??
There should be an email with license keys from BA when you buy. Try searching back your emails for support {at} babyaud.io - agree it’s a bit odd that there is no portal page to just pick the licenses up from if you need to.
Can it be that your order process / transaction has never been finalized but terminated?
Has your bank account, PayPal … whatever been charged?
Immediately after my payment I’ve got an email referencing “my full name, your receipt for the order …” that contained the license key. So I’m happy with that fast transaction.
How long have you waited? Curious because my typcial experience for most companies is about 3 days.