Sound Machine Wood Works®
Customer Reviews
Sound Machine Wood Works
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R. Richard
Better that some of these reviews
After reading the negative comments here, I was prepared to not like this. And at first I wasn't impressed either. Being lazy, I threw it at the first few acoustic guitar tracks I found lying round. Not good. I wonder if that's what some of the previous users did as well. Finally I tried it out the way it was meant to be used -- on a piezo pickup (an L.R. Baggs iBeam in a Larivee L-05) direct into my DAW. Very good! The same guitar also has an L.R. Baggs Element, which doesn't need this kind of help. Even so, I appreciate having 16 sounds to choose from. I do find that I usually want less of the effect and am mixing the plugin output with some of the the dry signal, which gives even more flexibility. In V2, olease add a wet/dry mix control.
D. Thompson
Was a little dubious at 1st... but
This plugin is worth the purchase, but as many others have said, it takes a little time to play around with the settings. It also does in fact sound pretty nice when you find the settings (which you save).
My only gripe is it takes a while to find the right setting, and the price, it is not worth that. I think UAD could come up with a much better solution.
But I'm giving this 4 stars as it actually works and does produce a nice sound for your acoustic guitar when DI'd
T. Schuster
This is a mix tool, not recording.
This is an amazing tool like most things UA produces. Take a recording of a acoustic guitar or really any wooden acoustic instrument. Buss it too an aux track with this plugin on the insert and mix it in. I usually have it about 6-8db lower than the dry track. It adds realism and attack. You might need to eq to fit your mix. It's not meant to record threw...and yea it does sound really bad when you throw it on the insert of the track. But the lack of wet/dry mix in the plugin should be a red flag that it needs to be auxed and mixed in.
T. Schuster
This is a mix tool, not recording.
This is an amazing tool like most things UA produces. Take a recording of a acoustic guitar or really any wooden acoustic instrument. Buss it too an aux track with this plugin on the insert and mix it in. I usually have it about 6-8db lower than the dry track. It adds realism and attack. You might need to eq to fit your mix. It's not meant to record threw...and yea it does sound really bad when you throw it on the insert of the track. But the lack of wet/dry mix in the plugin should be a red flag that it needs to be auxed and mixed in.
J. Wall
What a bargain
Wow! Only $300 to make your DI'd acoustic guitar sound even worse. The demo, as mentioned above sounds terrible and I'm pretty sure any of us out here could use stock plugins to do the job better than this "specialty" plug. Boo :( Putting out substandard software like this (at astronomical prices) tarnishes UA's reputation for quality.
D. Thompson
I don't like this at all....
So ...demo'd Ocean Way's, ended up buying that straight away. What a stupid mistake buying this plugin!
It was very hard to get a decent sound from it, it felt ok at the start,until I found myself constantly tweaking at the knobs. Maybe it's my acoustic guitar, who know's. But I don't like the sound this brings to my acoustic as much as re-mic with Ocean Ways which just instantly gives me what I want.
Maybe someone else finds good use of this but for me it's a no go and I wish there'd be a plugin give back policy for a time frame.
S. Foley
good to fix engineering mistakes, not great "go to" choice for tracking
I typically record the DI of an acoustic guitar "just in case" I need to get a little clarity or do something funky with the sound, but you can't beat the sound of microphones on an acoustic. This plugin may get you out of a jam if you are mixing something live, have a tracking scenario with a lot of bleed in acoustic mics, or someone (maybe you???) just screwed up in tracking.
It is not, however, an acceptable replacement for an acoustic guitar with a microphone on it's own. If you want to be able to make an acoustic album with only your DI out, you will be disappointed.
A. Han
Expectation failed
I felt relief to know that this plugin was not designed by Universal Audio.
I do trust everything that Universal Audio designs.
When i first saw the advertisement of this plugin, I thought "UA did something cool again!"
As I was demoing, It just didn't feel right. It just doesn't sound good.
Then I found out that this plugin was not designed by UA. It's a good thing. I still can trust UA.
.
Wow....$250 on sale?!
Don't get me wrong, I love my UAD stuff! But holy crap, how could anyone actually pull the trigger on purchasing this when even the demo clips sound awful! I haven't even downloaded the demo version solely based on what I'm hearing in the demo clips. They sound exactly like what it is....plug in an acoustic direct, then "try" and add some mic mojo to the signal. It's so far off it's kind of comical.
You just can't emulate an acoustic guitar, recorded with good acoustic mics....just can't.
So based only on the sound clip demos.....1 star :(
I. Papagiannidis
great tool!
great tool for adding extra character to the acoustic gt. especially when its not so well recorded.
a must have plugin
www.johnjefftouch.net
S. Higgins
Does what it should
I have now used this plug on a number of piezo tracks. It needs a little work to get the correct sound, and some of options can sound down right horrid, but I always get a sound that I am happy with.
F. Schoffelen
Not as good as expected
Tested the plugin thoroughly with luthier steelstring guitars with fishmann pickups, German handmade classical guitars with Baggs pickups, Yahama APX 10 Classic with proprietary pickups ( body and saddle) and even an electric guitar with Piezo on ech bridge saddle ( Godin). I had high hopes for this plugin to "rescue" some recordings that had been done with stereo mikes and direct in setups. The R88 ( AEA) or AT4060 duo sometimes caught a bit of sneezing (Live) . For various reasons this did not work out. For the price it has very few models compared to for instance the Fishman Pedal ( AURA DI) and secondly they just sounded harsh compared to all other modelling attempts. I went with the AURA instead.
T. Liljegren
Turn your Martin D35 sound like a dull Dobro?
Yeah! That's what this plug-in does to my acoustic steel string.
I was sceptical when I read about it, but UA use to surprize me quite often so....
Demoed it - inserted it on an pietzo-recorded ac-guitar channel and it all got totally spoiled.
Didn't matter how the neck and body knobs were blended.
$300 for this one is throwing the bucks in an open fire.
This is the lousiest plugin released by UA of all time.
J. Cox
Strange resonances
Using it with my paul reed smith p22. I haven't tried it with any other guitars but with this one it's not great. I'm hoping I can get some use out of this plugin live. Using my studio monitors or headphones I can't get it to not sound odd.
Perhaps through a PA it will sound better.
B. Herle
Got some nastyness...
I can't imagine being able to achieve a good result by using this alone. It's got some nasty phasyness going on seemingly with every setting. That being said, blending it with the clean DI track I found it to be helpful in giving it some realism, but that was after spending a lot of time getting a somewhat usable sound out of the plugin first. Not sure if I'd pay much to have this plug in my collection...
K. Dietz
Try it on Upright Bass!
Just found a great use for this plugin - I have 6 live performances to mix for a "Live In the Studio" online show. One band has an upright bass. The spill from the drums into the bass mics makes them unusable. Luckily there is a DI from the upright! The DI sounds good on its own, but lacks the "wood"...so I duplicated the track and popped on Wood Works. It sounds great! Using "The Littlest Giant" preset and tweaking from there. Combined with the straight DI, this saved the day. Works incredibly well! Haven't tried on acoustic guitar DI yet but will be doing so soonest. Try it out on bass/violin/viola DI, it's working great for me!
H. Bourgault
surprised !
I'm a good fan of UAD product usually, but here I have to admit that I was really surprise how badly this plug-in sounds. We loose the transients, making a good guitar sound bad.
I think the idea itself is almost impossible to realize, piezzo is not perfect, but it's always possible to add a extra microphone (even a relatively cheap one, cheaper than the plugin anyway).
Anyway, I'm just really surprised on this product really.
T. Monti
Way to lame
I can't get this plug to do anything that the demo shows. I really wanted to buy this one just based on principle. I
ve demoed it twice. Just doesn't work. I wish it did. lIf it worked the way it didi in the demo I'd own it now, it just doesn't. Try it first. I can get no difference in sound and I can't get the neck/body, In/out to make any changes, no matter how much I move the knobs.... No change. I am a major fan and have been on board since forever. This is really disappointing.
I have been looking for a reason to buy it...... Can't find one. after 2 demos.
Peace,
Tab.
D. Springer
Finally!
I think we can all agree that even the best Piezo pickup still sound a bit wrong so If you want your artist's DI'd acoustic guitar to sound like the real thing then I can tell you that this plug in will make you smile:)
As a FOH mixer that has worked with Acoustic artists for 10 years I can honestly that that this plug in that is a game changer when it comes to getting an acoustic sound that sounds real.
Plus, It's interface is simple so it takes no time to select the appropriate preset and turn it up which is essential for live work.
K. Boyev
A solid "meh"
This plug-in can be useful if you are in a hurry and want a basic acoustic guitar track quick and dirty through the onboard electronics. Is it better than $299 worth of microphones? Maybe about equivalent, but then, you don't have to do the work of placing them and perhaps you don't have a decent room to record in. I would definitely demo before you buy. I used it on a Gibson SJ200 with onboard Fishman using straight pickup without any of the models. Still want to run a few more guitars through; I may end up revising this review.