Antares Microphone Modeler DirectX

I play Chapman Stick, bass, guitar, keys & loops. Only began DAW stuff a yr ago. Prior to that it was cassette 4 track or ADAT (10 yrs ago). Run PC, 3.2 P IV, EMU 0404, Cubase SX2, Acid Pro 5, Reason 3.0 to Wharfdale 8.2 monitors. Mic is an MXL 990 (cheap but does surprisingly well) run into an Aphex 207D tube pre digital and analog out to 0404.

Easy to set up and get running.

Unlike the other reviews, I've had great results from this thing. Vocal tracks get an added authenticy. I usually run it after a Waves C4 compressor. Fav vocal model is the TELEFUNKEN. I've also had good success running on a POD XTL guitar track, running the guitar direct into the tube pre. It really takes the edge off the sterile nature of the POD going direct.

I'll adore this thing until I can afford a real Neumann or Telefunken. And that'll be a long while.

I use this with Sonar. I've been using it to help my lack of different mics.

Really easy. ALMOST like the POD of mics. I said almost. You have to know a bit about mics to use this.

I agree with another reviewer that it won't transform your mic. The thing is that the sound of a mic is so dependant on so many factors...like the room, the pre the engineer's choice of placement. It will help your demos a bit...but it won't give you a sound that rivals a 10000 mic in a million dollar studio. But it will give you some options that your budget limits.

Great for demos and basement studio budget concsious engineers. Buy this until you can get a better room and some more mics. The best thing to do is get a 2 or 3 different mics ( of varying kinds ex. a condenser, a omnidirectional etc) and use the plug in to help a 200 dollar CAD sound like a 1000 dollar AKG. This will help. But a SM58 is simply not physically capable of sounding like a condenser mic. No matter what the manual says.

I've been playing guitar and singing for some 30 years.
I've been working with digital audio since 1997.
I use Sonar ver 2.1
The music I record is mostly easy listening pop orientated.
My computer is a custom rig using Win 98SE.
My equipment is an Egosys WT2496 sound card, Mackie VLZ 1202 mixer, Behringer DEQ 2496, Roland SC-8850 midi sound module. All my gear has been modified my me to improve it's performance.

The copy protection on this software is of the worst type, it is the Pace interlock. They call it challange reponse. Some people in the past have reported horrible troubles with this software protection scheme causing problems with their system. I never had a problem with it however.
I bought this software with a discount for $230. At the time it normally went for $270 if believe. Who knows what it sells for now.
There is a rather respectable manual in the box. I give a low rating here for the software protection. If your hard drive crashes out you'll need to go back to Antares to have them re-authorize the software so you'll be able to load it on your new hard drive.
Also if you wanted to sell this software, you can't. They do not allow their software to be resold. Your stuck, for better or for worse. You have a 10 day free period to evaluate it then after that you have to buy it to continue to use it.

I bought this at a time when I wasn't getting as good a recording out of my DAW as I thought I should. When I tried this software I felt it had improved my tracks. I was only fooling myself as my monitoring was not so good at the time. This plug in only caused my tracks to change flavor. I mistook that for an improvement. This all occurred before I learned to modify my gear to improve it's output.
One thing they don't bring up on the package and that is this plug in only works on mono tracks. It will not work on stereo tracks at all. Even if you force stereo operation on a mono track this plug in will not work.

As you may well guess I am not happy with this plug in after extensive A/B ing it to find the magic. There is none. In fact I was so disgusted with it, I deleted from my machine and threw it out.
It's not a CPU hog nor had I had a crash problem with it. It just gives you the impression that you can have a whole locker of expensive mics a your disposal. Well, if great mics could be simulated in software then the companies that make those mics would slowly go out of business. Such is not the case. It is NOT possible to simulate in software the sonic character of differing microphones. Period.
There is an "implied" understanding that you can take any one mic and make it sound like another better one. It just ain't happenin. You are never gonna make an Oktava Mk-319 sound like a U47. If you are like most home studio types, you don't have a $1000 preamp. A great mic sounds much better through a great preamp. If you are pluggin a Marshall MXL mic through a Mackie VLZ and select the Neumann U87 mic in this plug in, you are not gonna sound like a high end studio. There is an "implication" that you are gonna sound great using this plug, no matter who you are or what you've got for gear. You won't.
Many of the microphone types sound very similar to each other. The changes in sonic character that occur with this plug could be done with a decent EQ. As you can tell I am not happy. It cost way to much and I got sucked before I knew more about digital audio gear than I do now. I thought I was solving my poor tracking problem at the time. Your money could be better spent on a real physical decent microphone. And that you can resell on ebay if you want different microphone. This software is lost money if you never use it. Like the other poster stated, there is no magic going on here.

Professional radio producer for ten years.

Probably too much simple to be really effective

Don't dream ! Such a plug in just can not transform your dirty old SM7 to a splendid vintage U 67, you know. But, in a way these plug could give some boost to your sound. Something near the warmth of a tube. You had to work very hard on your fav EQ plug in to sound like hell, but it could be usefull occasionally.

There's is no miracle.

Professional musician 18 years, guitar, piano. Plug in is Microphone Modeler for PC. Running Sonar 2.0 XL. Win XP, AMD 1600+, 512 RAM, Delta 66 card, M-Audio SP-5B w/SP-8S monitors.

Installed the demo version from their website. Was very easy to use and understand.

I found the models to be good, but frankly found that I could get nearly the same results simply tweaking the stock Sonar parametric EQ to get nearly the same results. I do notice the tube simulation to be a nice feature. Do not like the fact that it is ?on axis? only.

I found that this would be nice to have but really don?t see the $300.00 MSRP to be realistic. I?m sure the research and technology is pricey but the final result I found to be generally nominal. I really liked the tube simulation but doubt I would spend the money just for that; I would rather have a good, affordable tube mike in my collection.

Overall I think the deciding factor for me is Antares? poor customer service and anti-piracy policy. On the version of Auto Tune I have I have run out of ?reinstall? options on the key disk and never get a response from Antares support team. Also had some problems with Auto Tune early on and got very little support from them; basically the ?could be any number of things, but we would need your system to diagnose? advice. Never have received any response to e-mail requests.