Thinking of buying RoughRider RE, talk me out of it...

[Popey]

Trying to be helpful here but also appreciate I am failing miserably at the post title.

I think you should buy it if you can afford it without it negatively impacting on your financial situation. You have mentioned twice above trying to recreate it with other comps but not getting quite there.

Buy it and you can always get there easily.

[Theo.M]

It's fun but I am the type of person that can't spend 50 AUD on a product that has a more up to date and free version.

If I end up going Reason, I too am going to move to an all RE setup as *much as I can*. Note the last bit. I don't think just say 4 folders added via vst section will hurt my workflow in any way.

Let me explain.
I'll be using external synths, I am keeping some of them after all.
So I am going to invest in midi quest at the end of the year (Xmas and birthday money) and that is a VST that will give me total recall and editing of all my hardware synths in Reason. So I will see a "soundquest" folder in my plugin list.

Then there's UAD. I will always track to tape (so to speak) with Oxide which saves my CPU. I have used UAD since 2015, and I toyed with selling it all (2 octos, 2 quads, 2 apollo 8 quad, twin duo, so 30 DSP total, allows a LOT of effects) but instead I will just sell one Apollo 8 since I am slimming down my hardware synths, and the octo and quad satellite, so will be left with 16 DSP (apollo 8 + twin + one octo)

Uad can only do 512 plugins no matter how much DSP or hardware you have, and I can get 7 stereo instances of Oxide per DSP, so that's 112 and if it's only my usual 50 ish track project, plenty of room for other stuff.

So I will have universal audio and sound quest folders, and also UAD x, as no way I am going to give up native versions of UAD and all the synths which are superb. NO way. Paid for them, will use them (well ok I got most native for free, true).

I can't think of anything else, yet, that can't be replace by RE.

I just don't see the big deal of having 3 VST manufacturer folders in the plug in list and everything else RE, when it's going to allow me to properly integrate my hardware synths in Reason and save me a bucket ton of CPU cycles.

Maybe if you can, think that way re Rough Rider and save the money. I would, and I am OCD remember - I have been up front about this before, but I suffered as a child and then was diagnosed as having top 2% worst OCD cases worldwide, and am on the maximum dosage of meds till I die, which just helps me get by. My point is, if I can do it, so can anyone, and this does sound a bit OCDish if you don't mind me saying, just "absolutely no vst whatsoever".
You can limit it to almost nothing, it doesn't have to *BE* nothing.
My 2c.

[crimsonwarlock]

If you're feeling like it, load up this combinator and hit the "swap" button a few times while listening (I used drums, if that matters).

Thanks for your effort. I tried it on the default drum-loop in OctoRex, and with the settings in your combi it was completely off between the "swap". But I could indeed tweak the Mclass comp to get fairly close. The point (to be expected) is that when I dial in a different sound on RoughRider, it takes quite a bit of tweaking to get close to that same sound again with the Mclass comp. Same goes for every other compressor I tried, obviously you can get close, but it takes a lot more work to get 'that' sound. Of course, this is why using different comps for certain things makes sense, as they all have their strengths and weaknesses.

But your test gave me a new appreciation for the Mclass comp

Buy it and you can always get there easily.

This is what it's about, isn't it? I like the sound of RoughRider on certain material. And being able to grab it and have that sound right away, instead of trying to find that sound using another compressor (including the whole decision process of selecting a compressor that comes close for that particular source), does have its worth.

It's fun but I am the type of person that can't spend 50 AUD on a product that has a more up to date and free version.

I don't have money on piles either But I do have a little cash occasionally to put towards my ultimate DAW setup. Because that is what's going RE-exclusively is all about for me.

Many years ago, a Windows update completely borked my studio computer, and I had to reinstall everything from the ground up. I used a lot of commercial plugins at that time (running in Reaper), and reinstalling all the plugin managers, licenses, and loads of plugins from separate developers, was a complete nightmare that took several days. I decided then and there that I didn't want that again, and over a period moved to using only freeware plugins that didn't need any form of activation. A simple backup of my plugin directories was all I needed to get up and running again.

Fast forward to just a few years back when I moved to Reason. Mainly because Reaper had become more problematic than useful for my composing workflow, and Reason turned out to be what I needed. I also didn't like all those floating VST-windows, as that also interfered with my workflow. So, long story short, I hate floating windows and very much like the Reason alternative (the rack). I also have a problem with managing all the dependencies on many separate devs/vendors, and therefore I like the single entry point for managing REs. And finally, with all the hassle around 32bit plugins that were never updated to 64bit and VST2 plugins that will never become VST3, the fact that Reason Studios guaranties backward compatibility for older, even unmaintained Rack Extensions, makes that alone enough reason for me to go RE-exclusive.

[crimsonwarlock]

Oh, and in the meanwhile I bought RoughRider RE, as several suggested here

[selig]

If you're feeling like it, load up this combinator and hit the "swap" button a few times while listening (I used drums, if that matters).

Thanks for your effort. I tried it on the default drum-loop in OctoRex, and with the settings in your combi it was completely off between the "swap".

Well there you go, I used the same exact audio source and found them to be unexpectedly close to spot on, to the point I'm OK admitting I could be fooled in a blind test. I'll live.

[crimsonwarlock]

Thanks for your effort. I tried it on the default drum-loop in OctoRex, and with the settings in your combi it was completely off between the "swap".

Well there you go, I used the same exact audio source and found them to be unexpectedly close to spot on, to the point I'm OK admitting I could be fooled in a blind test. I'll live.

I expected them to be very close, or you wouldn't have posted the combinator. So I think something went wrong in the one you uploaded. Maybe download it and see what's going on. It's not that they weren't close, the volume output of the Mclass was 10 dB lower, basically because the threshold knob was all to the left (at -36 Db).

[selig]

Well there you go, I used the same exact audio source and found them to be unexpectedly close to spot on, to the point I'm OK admitting I could be fooled in a blind test. I'll live.

I expected them to be very close, or you wouldn't have posted the combinator. So I think something went wrong in the one you uploaded. Maybe download it and see what's going on. It's not that they weren't close, the volume output of the Mclass was 10 dB lower, basically because the threshold knob was all to the left (at -36 Db).

Wow, you just found a huge BUG!

None of the settings matched what I saved, even though the knobs read correctly. If you take the file I sent you, and note the exact position of each knob with the tool tip, then move each knob back and forth once and return them to the original position you will hear a MUCH different result. Check the output level with RR selected (SWAP button lit/on), then check it again after moving those knobs back and forth. That is the HUGE difference you were hearing…

Another test: open the original combinator and RESET the Rough Rider. Do this with audio playing, because you will see all the knobs move but you won't hear anything change with the audio.

Which leads me to believe that when saved in a Combinator, the RR settings revert to the defaults internally somehow, which is a shame because you cannot otherwise save patches except for in a Combinator with this RE!

I guess this is one way to talk you out of it!!!

[crimsonwarlock]

Wow, you just found a huge BUG!

Yep, confirmed (but technically, YOU found it by making this test-combi ). Just to be sure, I saved a project with the combinator to see if that would load correctly, and it does. So it is only when saving it in a combinator.

... which is a shame because you cannot otherwise save patches except for in a Combinator with this RE!

Not really an issue for me because one of the things I like about it is how easy and fast I can dial up the sound I want. So, no need for presets on this one (for me).