Acustica Audio Acqua Recommendations!!!
Acqua plug-ins Characteristic > Acqua Plugins Guide!!!
Updated: 6th May 2024 (Sand Ultra)
Recommended:
Go to's & must have AA Classics: Gold, Sand & Pink.
Go to's & must have Consoles: Amethyst, Honey, Lime, Navy, Sand Ultra & Snow.
Tier 2 go to's & must have Consoles: Cardinal & Olive.
Swiss Army Knife "desert island EQ": Salt.
Desert island Compressor: Tiger/Tiger Mix Ultra.
Dynamic Harmonics Suppressor/De-harsher: Dove.
Indispensable: Lemon, Sienna & Taupe.
Voted as one of AA best compressor plug-in: El Rey.
Voted as AA best delay plug-in: Lemon.
Voted as one of AA best all rounder Console: Lime.
API-ish Vibe: Pink.
Neve-ish Vibe: Amethyst, Cerise, Gold, Lime, Navy & Snow.
SSL-ish Vibe: Celestial, Frost & Sand/Sand Ultra.
Hybrid (API, Neve & SSL) Vibe: Salt.
1176-ish Vibe: Nickel.
dbx-ish Vibe: Grey Pro/Ultra.
2500-ish Vibe: Pink Comp & Tiger - Pink presets.
33609-ish Vibe: Amethyst Comp, GOLD 8254, Navy Comp2 and Tiger - GOLD 8254.
Favourites "most talked about":
Amber Ultra > High Shelf known as an excellent "sparkle and air".
Amethyst > 9098, 2500 Mix & Buss Pre on Master
.
Blond > Premixer.
Brown > 444 EQ
, Pre Custom 8, 9 & Comp.
Camel > EQ B & Preamp B.
Coffee > Pre's.
Cola > 228 EQ & Pre's.
Coral > Compressor.
Cream > Magic Knob
& Tube 2 Pre (Greg Wells: Things sound better simply running through Cream in factory default setting)
Diamond Color EQ > Pre's.
Diamond Transient > Dyn F.
Dove > Dove + Green Ultra on Master & "Dual Dove" with different settings.
El Rey > Great on everything.
Erin > Ultra Comp & Brickwall 2.
Fire the Clip > ACU2 (Pop) & ECO (EDM).
Fire the Pan > 3D Analog (059) with left slider between 3 - 5 notches (those white line markers) to start.
Gainstation & VSM > Genre from Hip Hop, Boom Bap, Trap, EDM and 808, bass synths, synths etc.
Gold > Great on everything.
Indigo > EQ1.
Ivory > IAE -3 EQ with pre off.
Jam > Great on everything.
Lace > Use 'simple - low aliasing', Ash into Lace.
Lemon > Blends so effortlessly into any mix, at any settings.
Lime > EQ B, Lime Pre's & Comp C.
Navy > Eq B.
Ocean > Francesco Donadel Campbell Mastering HQ preset.
Olive > Pre's & Expander (Aggressive settings and blend with Dry/WET knob).
Pearl > High Shelf.
Pensado EQ > Pre 1, Jaysen Joshua uses Pre 2 with 50 or 80 Hz boost on drumbuss.
Pink > Great on everything.
Purple > Pultec "Low End" Trick.
Salt > Great on everything.
Sand > Great on everything.
Scarlet > Scarlet Classic.
Sienna > Vol B: Spitfire SIRIO800 (Sub).
Silver > Vol A.
Smoke > EQ “Pultec Low End Trick” with HPF (Was said better than Pultec hardware).
Snow > Pre's & MB.
Sunray > EQ (sweet top end).
Taupe > A0, A1, C1, C2, A8 A9 & C5 presets.
Tulip > Comp & Custom 8122 Pre.
Ultramarine > A-27 EQ.
Water > Pre's & EQ (Tip: HPF 30Hz on kicks, subs, 808 etc).
Endorsed Plug-ins:
Cinderella Sound Studio: Cardinal.
Dave Pensado: Pensado EQ.
D.W. Fearn: Ruby.
GRBass: Graphite.
Greg Wells: El Rey.
Hardwell: SpaceControl.
Howie Weinberg: HWMC.
George Goodwin: Magic Flow
Luca Martegani aka Xelius: Cobalt.
Luca Pretolesi: Diamond Color EQ, Diamond Dynamic Saturator, Diamond Lift & Diamond Transient.
MarkBass: Maize.
Memphis Magnetic Recording Co: Straw.
Mike Dean: Gainstation, Boost & VSM.
Oram Sonics: Opal & Opal Comp.
Oxygen Recording Studio: Mint.
Salvatore Addeo: Druma, Sounda & Voxa.
White Sound Mastering: White.
Zino Mikorey: Azure.
Zarma Studio: Desert.
Bass Amp/Cabinet: Graphite.
Brickwall Limiters: Ash/Ash Ultra, Cola, Erin, Frost, HWMC, Lace & Tulip.
Clippers: Ash/Ash Ultra & Fire the Clip.
Compressors: Aquamarine, El Rey, Fire the Bus+, Grey Pro/Ultra, Midnight, Nickel, Opal Comp, Tan, Tiger/Tiger Mix Ultra, Titanium & Ultramarine.
Consoles: Amethyst, Blond, Brown, Camel, Cardinal, Coffee, Cola, Cream, Desert, Gold, Honey, Lime, Mint, Navy, Olive, Pink, Sand/Sand Ultra, Snow, Straw & Tulip.
Continuous Freq EQ: Amethyst, Green Ultra, Honey, Lime, Sand PE/PG & Sand Ultra.
De-esser: Fire The Dees & Magic Flow (great on vocals, instruments, drums, mix buss etc).
Dynamic Harmonics Compressor/Suppressor & a De-Harsher: Dove
Delay: Lemon. [It just blends so effortlessly into any mix, at any settings. This is probably one of the finest delay plugins ever created. If this was within a hardware box at zero latency, it would probably be considered one of the best delay hardware ever created.]
Distortions: Aero, Crimson, Fire the Pump & Gainstation.
Dynamic EQ's: Cobalt, Frost, Ivory & Jet.
Enhancers: Diamond Transient, Druma, Fire Filters, Fire the Gold, Fire the Pan, Fire the Tilt, Gainstation & VSM, Jet, Lava, Magic Flow, Mystic, Sounda, Space Control & Voxa.
Expanders: Fire the Exp & Olive Expander.
Microphone Modeler: Lava.
Mastering (useful for mixing as well): Aquamarine, Ash/Ash Ultra, Azure, Cherry, Coral, HWMC, Indigo, Ivory, Lace, Magenta, Pearl, Scarlet, Erin, Ultramarine & White.
Tier 2: Baxter, Celestial, Cobalt, Diamond Color EQ, Diamond Dynamic Saturator, Diamond Lift, Diamond Transient, El Rey, Fire the Clip, Green/Green Ultra, Ocean, Pink, Purple, Ruby, Rust, Snow, Space Control, Taupe & Water.
Multiband Compressor: Ivory, Pink, Ocean & Titanium.
Reverbs: Ebony, Silver & Ultramarine.
Saturators: Diamond Dynamic Saturator, Jam & Pumpkin Pro.
Stompbox + Amps: Aero.
Tape: Taupe & Taipei.
Tools: Sienna (Mix and Master Translation) & Sienna Sphere (Immersive Audio 5.1 - 9.1.6).
Tube: Amber/Amber Ultra, Azure, Coffee, El Rey, Erin, Indigo, Magenta, Mystic, Purple, Ruby, Smoke, Ultramarine & Titanium.
Variable Mu: Magenta (C1, C2) & Midnight.
Vibes: Taupe (Tape) & Black (Preamps).
"Vintage" Colors: Blond, Brown (most colored/vintage feel), Camel, Cardinal, Coffee, Cola, Cream, Desert, Ebony, Gold, Olive, Pearl, Rust (Motown), Smoke, Straw, Tulip, Viridian & Water.
Characteristics:
Aggressive: Mint & Navy.
Clean: Ash/Ash Ultra, Azure, Cherry, Green/Green Ultra, Ivory & White.
Clean with Vibe: Amber/Amber Ultra, Amethyst, Lime, Mint, Navy, Sand/Sand Ultra & Snow.
Forward: Blond, Green/Green Ultra & Pink.
Great Top End (5K-12K+): Amber/Amber Ultra, Aquamarine, Azure, Cream, Diamond Color EQ, Ebony, Emerald, Green/Green Ultra, HWMC, Indigo, Jade, Lime (EQ-B), Opal, Pensado EQ, Pearl, Ruby, Rust, Snow, Sunray, Tulip, Ultramarine (A-27) & Viridian.
Great Midrange: Diamond Color EQ, Gold, Honey, Indigo, Tulip, Water
Great Low-Midrange: Aquamarine, Brown & Magenta.
Great Low-End: Aquamarine, Cream (Tube 2 pre and boost the input up a few db), El Rey, Fire the Bass, Maize, Pink (Cust 5 Preamp), Purple, Ruby, Scarlet, Smoke, Snow, Tulip, Ultramarine (A-27), Viridian, Water (High Pass at 30Hz).
Insane Top End: Azure (27K), Pensado EQ (34K), Jade (40K) & Diamond Color EQ (50K).
Most Colored: Brown.
Most Stealthy: Maize (surgical cuts).
Most Unique: Pearl (Limited Edition) - no longer available!!!
Most Warmth: Cream & Olive.
Silky: Purple.
Smoothest: Amber Ultra (EQ), Azure & Ruby.
Tier 2: Cherry, Scarlet & Snow.
Solid: Pink.
Soft: Azure, Cherry, Cobalt & Ruby.
Transparent: Ivory & Green/Green Ultra.
Versatility: Lime (You could mix a whole record just with it).
Tier 2: Tiger/Tiger Mix Ultra (Huge collection of compressors) & Salt (Mix and Match EQ).
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Links
Acustica Audio Manuals!!!
Sienna Sphere
Acustica Cloud Processing [LAVA]
https://tech.acustica-audio.com/
Acustica Audio Merchandise
Unofficial Acustica Master List