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Altiverb 8 is available

I don't know why the surround version costs so much money these days.

I have Altiverb 7 regular from a long time ago and these days most of my plugins are now surround capable, not that I am doing surround yet. The upgrade to Altiverb 8 is an OK-ish 89 Euro, but the upgrade to Altiverb 8 XL is an insane 439 Euro.

Back around 2010 when Altiverb was big, they could charge those amounts for a surround version, but now it seems really out of touch with the market. Altiverb XL was always overpriced, but I thought that when Altiverb 8 finally came out that they might look at the market and realize that it was too highly priced for 2023/2024. It doesn't seem like they did, though.

I mean, it's cheaper to get freaking MIR than Altiverb XL. I think most musicians would much rather have MIR.

And even though the upgrade price is somewhat reasonable, for people who don't have Altiverb at all, 499 Euro even for the stereo version. I don't know who is going to buy that as a new product. They basically disappeared for years, to the point where a lot of people newer to this haven't even heard of Altiverb. I don't know how they expect to sell Altiverb to that group.

Inspirata seems better and better all the time.
 
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I think that Altiverb is somewhat akin to Omnisphere in that both have been around a long time, cost considerably more than the competition, but also offer a huge variety of presets which could eliminate the need to buy any competing products.

If I were a newcomer or a hobbyist, I’d think twice before buying either product from scratch; but as an existing user, the upgrade price from 7 to 8 is a no-brainer for me.

I use Altiverb more than any other plugin. (I also use Omnisphere a lot.) That said, I have a great many reverb plugins that I like to use both in combination with, and separately from, Altiverb. I've been making music for a living for a long time, so my needs may be different from yours.

Best,

Geoff
 
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Don't forget that Altiverb has also sampled and includes a 'kazillion' hardware reverbs as well.

Altiverb is beyond amazing for film and music post work.

I must say though that I really, really wish it came with 2 licenses.
 
I'm afraid I can't jump on the "stingy" wagon with some of the rest of you. A few days ago, before version 8 was even announced to the public, I received an email from Audio Ease with not only an advanced link to download version 8, but it was a free upgrade because I had purchased version 7 recently. And bear in mind, recently meant about 7 months ago. It looks like if you purchased 7 within the past year, 8 is a free upgrade. That's a pretty long grace period.

So I'm giving them big points for generosity there.
 
Geoff Grace said:
I think that Altiverb is somewhat akin to Omnisphere in that both have been around a long time, cost considerably more than the competition, but also offer a huge variety of presets which could eliminate the need to buy any competing products.
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I'd argue that they're quite different, in so far as that Spectrasonics are perhaps one of the most generous companies to original/loyal customers. I bought Trilogy, for instance, at about the same time as I bought Altiverb and have received FREE updates/upgrades over many, many years! Audio Ease (sic) however, want £££ to upgrade to the latest version, despite the extremely high cost of entry in the first instance.
 
shropshirelad said:
I'd argue that they're quite different, in so far as that Spectrasonics are perhaps one of the most generous companies to original/loyal customers. I bought Trilogy, for instance, at about the same time as I bought Altiverb and have received FREE updates/upgrades over many, many years! Audio Ease (sic) however, want £££ to upgrade to the latest version, despite the extremely high cost of entry in the first instance.
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I agree that Spectrasonics is better about free upgrades than is Audio Ease. I used the word "somewhat" before "akin" because the analogy I made is a limited one. It's accurate for the examples I wrote, but it can't be stretched to the comparison you made.

Best,

Geoff
 
I think Omnisphere offers much more value for a composer than Altiverb, but I imagine there are many for whom that level of variety in reverbs is worth the money. Particularly back in the day when budgets were higher all around. I think they're a little out of step with the times compared to Spectrasonics, who I think are one of the few who can and should stick to their guns. I don't think you can argue that a product with such a ridiculous amount of content shouldn't be this expensive, but I'm generally not a huge fan of the approach of making a massive product with a price tag to match. I'd be in favor of selling it more modularly like MIR, but I guess this was their chance to change and they are continuing to sell it the same way. Again, not arguing that it isn't worth the money... Just think they might get sales more than compensating for the drop in price if they were to split it up into at least stages/halls/churches vs. post spaces vs. hardware captures. The latter is where I think Altiverb has the least advantage anyway.
 
Guy Rowland said:
Just FYI - EW do now offer a free second license for HOOPUS if you ask nicely. I think they said it was coming to other products too. Quite a big deal imo, though they don't make much of a noise about it.
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I wasn't aware of that, Thanks for mentioning it. I'd love to get 2nd licenses for SD2/3, RA, etc, so I might just reach out...
 
Sorry, I didn't mean to push the thread in an Omnisphere vs Altiverb direction. Both have very different uses and both are invaluable, as far as I'm concerned.

Best,

Geoff
 
And unfortunately, according to a bunch of respected people on this forum, a lot of the Altiverb IRs have issues, which I would somewhat doubt are fixed in Altiverb 8. I don't know about them all, but they are well documented in previous posts on the forum if you search back. Things like left and right channels being completely out of balance when they should match, etc. One example is the old, venerated Todd-AO scoring stage that used to exist in LA. It seems the IRs weren't all recorded as carefully as each other. For such a premium product, you would expect more care to go into that, but instead going through the IRs is like a minefield, you never know which one is going to be a good one or one where the recording was messed up.

The much-touted positioning feature was also generally pretty bad in Altiverb 6 and 7, and again doing searches back in this forum, you will find more detail. I don't know if it's any better in 8.
 
For me Altiverb will always have a sound that I can never emulate with other plugs. But I can't describe it. I don't own it though, so it might just be fantasy. I'm afraid to buy it in case it bursts the dream.
 
It's a shame about the single activation - off to the 'Stingy Hall Of Shame' along with VSL and Zynaptiq! 👿

Overall it's a nice update. It's great not to have zipper noise now when making adjustments, which makes the Positioner much more useful. Yes, it's automatable too, but does sound a bit weird/phasey when moving the speakers around. Probably better to make subtle adjustments using snapshots really.

The new Scalable UI doesn't work in Logic sadly - for some reason the button does not appear. You would think they might have caught this after 12 years of development, and it's literally the first new feature they list on the website, but hey... It works fine in Cubase, but only goes up to 125%, so still not ideal for those working in 6/8k.

Here's a quick demo of the Todd AO Hall with a bone-dry Pianoteq source. First wet (45%), then dry, then wet again.

View attachment Altiverb.mp3
 
Guy Rowland said:
I can't recall them ever doing a sale of any kind. And yes, it does have the Todd/AO hall.
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NoamL said:
Anyone know if it's ever been on sale? I had it bookmarked during BF but the price never went down. Maybe Christmas? :)

I've heard that this contains a Todd AO preset, which is really nice for tail on orchestra.
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They haven’t done sales, but plugin discounts usually takes 8% off or so, at $500 it’s not small change. Just looked and even v8 and upgrades are currently discounted 5%.

For music this is expensive, but for post and mixing there’s nothing like it. I use it on every film. So many real spaces I can’t find elsewhere- bathrooms, car interiors, outdoors (yes a forest or open street has it’s own sound) bedrooms…. and not just a few but many of each. Todd AO? Yes, Fox Scoring stage, many other famouns Halls and venues.

But again, for the few Hall sounds you can get elsewhere, it’s not the point or worth the cost. But for the person that has dialog to fix or scene to match foley/ADR to the picture location- it’s a dream. Even pumping music through a car speaker yesterday and I found the exact car/ sound in Altiverb. Makes me want Speaker as well. Damn your prices Audio Ease! But I understand.

I was just thinking about going to XL but 5.1 max held me back (no one mixes in 5.1 anymore). Now v.8 does 9.1.6! Now I have no excuse.

Damn your prices Audio Ease! But I understand. Wow, I thought my holiday shopping was over.
 
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I have an issue with Altiverb 8: The first instance takes FOREVER to load. Both in Logic and in Vienna Ensemble Pro. Both VST and AU tested. It takes around 30 seconds for the first instance to start.

Also, unloading the last instance takes a few seconds. And then if you add the first instance, it again takes 30 seconds to start. Anyone else seeing this? I think it might be iLOK related but not sure.
 
Simon Ravn said:
I have an issue with Altiverb 8: The first instance takes FOREVER to load. Both in Logic and in Vienna Ensemble Pro. Both VST and AU tested. It takes around 30 seconds for the first instance to start.

Also, unloading the last instance takes a few seconds. And then if you add the first instance, it again takes 30 seconds to start. Anyone else seeing this? I think it might be iLOK related but not sure.
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Are you running Apple Silicon Native? In Rosetta 2? The docs actually says it will load and run faster, but perhaps there's a glitch. No fear, Audio Ease are always on it.

I'm seeing about 5% off at Audio Deluxe as well (JRR shop still has version 7 upgrades but has not updated to 8 yet). $94.98 after current auto in cart discount. So no reason to join plugin discounts if you're not a member already.

Seems like the only reasons to upgrade are bigger surround formats in XL (which I need) and/or Apple Silicon Support (which I need). There are a few other minor improvements, but nothing that would wow a composer. You should still get the free IR updates in 7.

Seems Apple Silicon may get many to update and be a windfall for Audio Ease- if re-coding everything wasn't overly expensive. I'm sure it was time consuming. I'm glad they are still going strong. I was a little concerned since XL was still 5.1 max. Seems crazy now considering the large array they were recording with. But I suppose it was all to lead up to a release that can handle atmos. So glad they don't have to fake 9.1.6. I'm actually sticking Altiverb 7 through Halo Upmix 7.1 now just to fake it until this release. :)
 
Love this card at the bottom of their sales page. I keep forgetting Altiverb has the option to sell or transfer your license. Yea Audio Ease! It does help me feel better about giving them the money. Although the upgrade to XL is expensive, it's the difference between the two products (again no sales) which is fair. It also supports them recording in thousands of locations with a ton of mics, I'm glad they didn't just record stereo! Again for post it's really a product on it's own, no matter how old. There are no great bedrooms or bathrooms in Cinematic Rooms, I've looked. :rofl:

Screenshot 2023-12-05 at 9.23.43 AM.png
 
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X-Bassist said:
There are no great bedrooms or bathrooms in Cinematic Rooms, I've looked. :rofl:
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The Exponential reverbs are perhaps a better rival, but none of them have that really visual way of working with the huge range Altiverb does. It's such a simple trick, I don't know why others don't do it - it's staggeringly effective.

Exponential redid their GUIs fairly recently, but it was a missed opportunity imo.
 
I'll be buying the XL version when I get another feature film gig. Looks too good to pass up.
 
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