iZotope Excalibur $10 as upgrade from PiB

[Boombastix]

If you have any iZotope product you can get Excalibur for ten bucks. It is a digital FX with an Eventide H3000 and old Lexicon multi FX type vibe according to the folks at KVR (the guy coding this worked for Lexicon). Nothing analog emulation, all old school digital glory
Don't complain about the interface, UNLESS you have actually worked on a 90's digital FX unit with a small LCD

You can of course buy a used H3000 for about $1500 !

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... -Products-

[MrFigg]

Been messing about with this a little bit on my guitar. ONe thing I'm wondering about though....the distortion setting. Now maybe I'm looking for walls of noise where the plug-in is supposed to be subtle but I can't get it to sound fuzzy at all. Even on "nasty fuzz" and "shred". I've tried loading presets, I've tried twiddling all the knobs and pushing all the buttons, hell, I've even tried reading the instructions. So...am I do something wrong and if so what?

[MrFigg]

Nah...still no joy. I’m on the verge of giving up and saving this until I retire from work and go to pension. Back to Trash 2 .

[MrFigg]

Don't complain about the interface, UNLESS you have actually worked on a 90's digital FX unit with a small LCD

Just reminded me that I had one of these once in time.

[Boombastix]

Been messing about with this a little bit on my guitar. ONe thing I'm wondering about though....the distortion setting. Now maybe I'm looking for walls of noise where the plug-in is supposed to be subtle but I can't get it to sound fuzzy at all. Even on "nasty fuzz" and "shred". I've tried loading presets, I've tried twiddling all the knobs and pushing all the buttons, hell, I've even tried reading the instructions. So...am I do something wrong and if so what?

Make sure you have both L+R wired up. Reason sees it as a mono device and only wires up the L.
Also, check you master wet knob, bottom left side, I noticed many patches need around 80% to sound well, some 50%, some 30%. All depends. The dist is subtle mostly, but I got some serious fuzz out of the bass patches.

[Boombastix]

This is an insta buy for me: Patch browsing with 4 arrow keys, fast - nice! Almost zero loading time, yep, like that.
Most FX are musical, so not to many gimmicks, but they sure change the sounds, a lot if you want.

Interesting multiple feedback loops and cross modulation. Not exactly what you would wire up in a combinator. Reminiscent of old digital HW costing thousands of $$$, for $10 bucks, heck yeah

NB, the trial code at PiB seems to be wrong. I added it as a trial at iZotope and used their trial code, all good that way.

Try the funky bass auto wah (Talking Bass 2) on ID8 pick bass or Subtractor bass patches. You can thank me later

PS - YOU MUST MANUALLY CONNECT THE RIGHT WIRE

[joeyluck]

This is an insta buy for me: Patch browsing with 4 arrow keys, fast - nice! Almost zero loading time, yep, like that.

Yeah I only wish it showed the keyword category at the top of the browse window when it is open. So when you use up/down to switch keyword categories, you'd know which category you are in.

The thing that isn't fast with Excalibur is opening the plugin window. Takes about 5 seconds. iZotope will hopefully address this at some point with an optimization update.

Most FX are musical, so not to many gimmicks, but they sure change the sounds, a lot if you want.

I really like the sound design focus on practical sounds of all their plugins— things such as "in the walls", "under the floor" and a few character voices of Excalibur, and things like "front yard" and "city streets" with PhoenixVerb.

PS - YOU MUST MANUALLY CONNECT THE RIGHT WIRE

This is a known bug and supposedly RS and iZotope are working on it figuring it out. It's pretty annoying because if you want to change the order of your effect chain, holding shift and moving it creates a mess—it shifts the left channels, but the right channels that have been run manually stay in place. Also, if you have the L/R channels of the inputs and outputs routed to an Exponential Audio plugin and then replace it with anything else like the RV7000, that will then be routed mono.

We talked about it in the other PhoenixVerb thread. The VST2 loads just fine for me in Bitwig and the AU loads fine in Logic. So it seems like maybe it's a bug on the part of both RS and iZotope? It's weird because Reason shows the right channel green, but doesn't connect it. Actual mono plugins I have, like the separate Waves mono plugins, connect mono, but only have the left channel green. It's confusing.

[MrFigg]

Been messing about with this a little bit on my guitar. ONe thing I'm wondering about though....the distortion setting. Now maybe I'm looking for walls of noise where the plug-in is supposed to be subtle but I can't get it to sound fuzzy at all. Even on "nasty fuzz" and "shred". I've tried loading presets, I've tried twiddling all the knobs and pushing all the buttons, hell, I've even tried reading the instructions. So...am I do something wrong and if so what?

Make sure you have both L+R wired up. Reason sees it as a mono device and only wires up the L.
Also, check you master wet knob, bottom left side, I noticed many patches need around 80% to sound well, some 50%, some 30%. All depends. The dist is subtle mostly, but I got some serious fuzz out of the bass patches.

Exactly that. Thanks. That L and R thing is a tricky one. Last time I had that was on the Kuassa amps. Thankfully that's fixed. And yeah...looks like the dists are pretty subtle but the Talking Bass Patches are pretty cool. Thanks again for pointing out the cabling thing.

[hurricane]

Excalibur is a little hard to understand, but Groove3 have a tutorial video available. All you have to do is log in or register. It's FREE:

https://www.groove3.com/tutorials/Expon ... -Explained

Screen Shot 2020-04-12 at 4.32.10 PM.png (202.91 KiB) Viewed 17906 times

[groggy1]

Don't complain about the interface, UNLESS you have actually worked on a 90's digital FX unit with a small LCD

Just reminded me that I had one of these once in time.

Man, I love these old fx units. I used to have a tc electronics fireworks fx unit. I wish I still had it, it
Was fun to use.

[KevTav]

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... -Products-

I threw this in my cart earlier today, then took it out. Just saw this thread. Buying it now. I gotta see what the hub-bub is about.

[Loque]

https://www.pluginboutique.com/product/ ... -Products-

I threw this in my cart earlier today, then took it out. Just saw this thread. Buying it now. I gotta see what the hub-bub is about.

You should know a few things, since i saw your post about Soundspot.

I tried this device and its, well, it works somehow. It is a sub-window-panel-fest. Each parameter can only be modulated once. Bad workflow at all, really. It cost a bit of time to get something useful out of it. Its really not a slam, bam, cool fx thingy. Better try, before you waste another 10 bucks.

[MrFigg]

I threw this in my cart earlier today, then took it out. Just saw this thread. Buying it now. I gotta see what the hub-bub is about.

You should know a few things, since i saw your post about Soundspot.

I tried this device and its, well, it works somehow. It is a sub-window-panel-fest. Each parameter can only be modulated once. Bad workflow at all, really. It cost a bit of time to get something useful out of it. Its really not a slam, bam, cool fx thingy. Better try, before you waste another 10 bucks.

Yep. Totally honestly I could have done quite happily without buying it.

[KevTav]

Okay guys a few notes.

1) Worth $10 bucks? Well, there ARE some interesting presets. A few stood out. Most are just gimmicky.
2) Interface is tedious and stale. TOO many parameters. Which go further into the goofiness of it all.
3) Might give good effects for EDM and Eletronic kits. Not for "real" drums sounds maybe a few room verbs and chorus(lightly)
4) Gotta wire up the RIGHT side ins/outs every time I load it in? Boooooooo
5) Glitches out on a certain preset. Quick fix I already found. Toggle the bypass switch on front panel. Should snap out of the glitch.
6) Might come up with cool creations on Pads and Synths, but there's like a GAZILLION of those.

That's all I got for now.

Will I use it? Maybe. I have Trash, Nectar, and an older version of Alloy....this is basically a shiny object.

[KevTav]

I threw this in my cart earlier today, then took it out. Just saw this thread. Buying it now. I gotta see what the hub-bub is about.

You should know a few things, since i saw your post about Soundspot.

I tried this device and its, well, it works somehow. It is a sub-window-panel-fest. Each parameter can only be modulated once. Bad workflow at all, really. It cost a bit of time to get something useful out of it. Its really not a slam, bam, cool fx thingy. Better try, before you waste another 10 bucks.

YEP.........................................................

$15 bucks total for the day on plug ins I could have done without. I guess that's what cabin fever will do. Oh well

[hurricane]

I think first and foremost you need to think of Excalibur as a delay plugin (which is how the developer described it). And maybe it's not any better than your favorite delay, but where Excalibur takes it to the next level is the different ways it creates space WITH delays. It's impressive. To me at least. I've never spent so much time playing with a plugin before - and I am certainly NOT a tweaker. The chorus is fantastic. The way you can emulate early digital reverbs and delays (using the glide effect) is very cool. The noise and crackle generators which I didn't know it had, are really handy. Most mind-blowing to me was how it took a drab mono electric piano and turned it into the most GORGEOUS sounding stereo EP in my arsenal. Worth the $10 just for THAT.

My only criticism is that some of the effects are very subtle - I can't seem to get the phaser to sound "phasery" enough. As I'm typing this I just happened to look at the manual and saw this:

"The Phaser is the more-subtle cousin of the flanger. It works by changing the phase of the signal (in multiple bands) but without affecting pitch or delay. Broadband signals work best, but in many cases it may not be possible to hear the effect. Faster modulation can give an effect similar to a very popular effect used on electric pianos many years ago. This must be mixed with the dry effect, so an Effects Mix of around 50% is best."

So I guess I'll try that.

And yeah, the distortion is very tame. But I don't think that's what this plugin is. It's not a multi-effect destruction unit. It's a space-creating effect, with sound design capabilities. That's what I conclude from exploring it, and that's what the factory presets seem to show off.

[Boombastix]

I think first and foremost you need to think of Excalibur as a delay plugin (which is how the developer described it). And maybe it's not any better than your favorite delay, but where Excalibur takes it to the next level is the different ways it creates space WITH delays. It's impressive. To me at least. I've never spent so much time playing with a plugin before - and I am certainly NOT a tweaker. The chorus is fantastic. The way you can emulate early digital reverbs and delays (using the glide effect) is very cool. The noise and crackle generators which I didn't know it had, are really handy. Most mind-blowing to me was how it took a drab mono electric piano and turned it into the most GORGEOUS sounding stereo EP in my arsenal. Worth the $10 just for THAT.

My only criticism is that some of the effects are very subtle - I can't seem to get the phaser to sound "phasery" enough. As I'm typing this I just happened to look at the manual and saw this:

"The Phaser is the more-subtle cousin of the flanger. It works by changing the phase of the signal (in multiple bands) but without affecting pitch or delay. Broadband signals work best, but in many cases it may not be possible to hear the effect. Faster modulation can give an effect similar to a very popular effect used on electric pianos many years ago. This must be mixed with the dry effect, so an Effects Mix of around 50% is best."

So I guess I'll try that.

And yeah, the distortion is very tame. But I don't think that's what this plugin is. It's not a multi-effect destruction unit. It's a space-creating effect, with sound design capabilities. That's what I conclude from exploring it, and that's what the factory presets seem to show off.

Yeah, it is a bit like that. It does certain things just great, but it is not primarily a purist reverb or distortion FX. You can of course use those FX on the delay repeats. But it does stuff other multi FX won't. Some of the old Lexicon, Eventide, TC multi units costed $xxxx dollars and this one does a bunch of that for 10 bucks. If you don't like or want that, then, well...no need to buy.

I actually put two instances of Excalibur on an EP (one was a tremolo FX, the other chorus), and the ID8 sounded like a million bucks. Worth 10 dollars just for that IMO.
The bass patches with wah on the ID8 pick bass made it into something completely different, and better. Anyhow, I like it, but then I dig old digital synths just as much as old analog, so yeah, the old digital multi FX are great tools used for the right purpose. I never complain that my bike has two wheels, if I need 4 I get in my car...

[hurricane]

Excalibur and the upcoming Uhbik 2.0 cover all the multi-fx bases for me. Man, I'm glad I bought those Uhbik REs a long time ago.

[MrFigg]

Excalibur and the upcoming Uhbik 2.0 cover all the multi-fx bases for me. Man, I'm glad I bought those Uhbik REs a long time ago.

Yeah. Same here. Any news in that by the way?

[hurricane]

Only what I saw on KVR: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=534519

3. Roadmap, pricing and all

Our plan is to go public beta in mid December.

We hope to be ready for release mid of January.

Until release, the price stays €149, then (mid of January) goes up to €199. (Consider the current price tag an introduction offer to V2.0)

The upgrade is free for existing owners of a 1.x license.

There are experiments with a rack version. We will let you know if and what we do with it as soon as we are sure that it's what we want it to be.

[MrFigg]

Only what I saw on KVR: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=534519

3. Roadmap, pricing and all

Our plan is to go public beta in mid December.

We hope to be ready for release mid of January.

Until release, the price stays €149, then (mid of January) goes up to €199. (Consider the current price tag an introduction offer to V2.0)

The upgrade is free for existing owners of a 1.x license.

There are experiments with a rack version. We will let you know if and what we do with it as soon as we are sure that it's what we want it to be.

Aaa. Yeah. Saw that too. Wondered just if they were any closer to release. I’ve got the full suite in both RE and VST format.

[joeyluck]

Only what I saw on KVR: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=534519

3. Roadmap, pricing and all

Our plan is to go public beta in mid December.

We hope to be ready for release mid of January.

Until release, the price stays €149, then (mid of January) goes up to €199. (Consider the current price tag an introduction offer to V2.0)

The upgrade is free for existing owners of a 1.x license.

There are experiments with a rack version. We will let you know if and what we do with it as soon as we are sure that it's what we want it to be.

Aaa. Yeah. Saw that too. Wondered just if they were any closer to release. I’ve got the full suite in both RE and VST format.

In the meantime, you can help test them: https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/viewtopi ... 1&t=536689

[MrFigg]

Well...finally found a patch I love. "Long delay at 5th" under Pitch. Amazing on guitar...I think so anyway.
Just wondering though...the pitched 5th has a sort of tremolo wavering thing going on which I'd really like to get rid of. I've tried twisting some knobs but can't isolate it. Anybody help me out or is that just the nature of pitch shifting? Thanks.

[MrFigg]

Back to this thread. Just wondering if anyone is managing to get any use out of Excalibur...because I'm not.

[Loque]

Back to this thread. Just wondering if anyone is managing to get any use out of Excalibur...because I'm not.

Tbh, this is one of the things i probably never use. But lessons are now learned. I never gonna buy any stuff if i cannot imagine to use it.