Rumoured for months, the 'powered by Acustica' virtual mixer is now close to release — and SOS were treated to an exclusive test drive!

We don't often 'preview' a product rather than review it upon its release, but if anything warrants an early look I feel Modula does. Soon to become available under the 'Quantica: Powered by Acustica Audio' name, there have been rumours of its arrival for over a year but, with little to go on other than tantalising glimpses on Acustica's Instagram feed, it's not always been obvious exactly what it will do! My interest piqued, I persuaded the developers to grant SOS exclusive access to a late prototype, a month or two before the product's scheduled release. And having now used Modula intensively for a couple of weeks, I feel it's already worth shining the SOS spotlight on it.

First, the branding warrants a quick explanation. Quantica is a company formed to house this joint venture between mixing and mastering house Studio DMI (https://studiodmi.com) and plug-in developers Acustica Audio. The pair have worked together previously to develop Acustica's impressive Diamond Color EQ (first version reviewed in SOS July 2017: https://sosm.ag/AcusticaDCEQ ), Diamond Lift EQ and El Rey compressor. All Acustica's plug-ins are high-quality emulations of real analogue gear, created using a very different technique from that used by most developers. We've described their approach many times so I won't go into detail here, but as a basic understanding is required to 'get' why Modula might be a big deal, here's a quick overview. Essentially, instead of measuring analogue gear and modelling its behaviour in code, Acustica capture thousands of impulse responses and use a proprietary engine based on their 'Vectorial Volterra Kernels Technology' to determine which impulse(s) will be used to process a signal at any given time. You can learn more about it at www.acustica-audio.com/pages/engine if you want but the key 'take-away' is that while it's a relatively CPU-intensive approach, it's capable of remarkably accurate emulations.

What Is Modula?

Essentially, Modula is a touchscreen–friendly virtual mixer whose channel strips are Acustica plug-ins with a custom GUI. But the bigger picture is more nuanced. Modula was conceived as a companion to your DAW rather than a replacement for it, so it doesn't do any actual mixing — the channel routing and summing is left to your DAW — and it doesn't (yet?) offer any DAW control facilities. Rather, it acts as a convenient control surface for Modula-compatible plug-ins that are hosted in your DAW.

The idea is that by laying out many channel strips of Acustica processing, with every strip offering a choice of preamp, EQ and dynamics emulations, you can enjoy both a convincingly 'analogue' sound and a speedy, intuitive analogue-style workflow. I don't think the developers would mind me saying that there's still plenty of potential for further improvement — they already have a long list of features they plan to add over time — but I believe that if you make the effort to develop a suitable workflow, Modula already delivers the intended benefits. How else would you fit 15 separate channel-strip plug-ins on-screen at a size that makes them all usable? Even if you could accommodate that many instances, you'd be very hard-pressed to arrange the GUIs in a way that allowed space for your fingers to operate a touchscreen.

In some respects, then, Modula is competing with other channel-strip products like Harrison Mixbus, say, or Softube's Console 1 controller. And Modula's touchscreen friendliness might put Slate's Raven or Devil Technologies' DTouch in mind. But really, it's very different from any of those — and, of course, none of them have been designed to work with Acustica's unique plug-ins.

OK Computer

Modula's 'mixer' can scroll in banks of 15 channel strips up to a number that would exceed the capability of pretty much any current computer — if there is an upper limit, I never reached it. This brings us to the question of computing horsepower, because although the Acustica engine is frequently updated, and each refresh brings efficiency gains, these plug-ins still consume more CPU cycles than equivalent modelling plug-ins.

Until recently, my studio machine was a nine-year-old Windows 10 computer based on what was once a high-spec processor — a first-generation Intel Core i7 965, with four 3.2GHz cores (eight threads). Like my 2018 MacBook Pro (six-core Core i7, 2.6GHz), this could run enough Acustica plug-ins to be useful in mixing or mastering but nowhere near enough to support, say, a 48-channel Modula console. Indeed, for mixing with Acqua plug-ins on these machines, I've used my DAW's freeze/bounce facilities often, reserving 'live' Acqua processing for group busses, the stereo bus, and major elements such as the lead vocal. The quality of the Acqua plug-ins justified that approach.

But computing power has moved on. Recently, I invested in a PC with a Core i9 9900K eight-core (16-thread) processor, built and overclocked to 4.9GHz by UK-based audio-PC experts Scan. It's a great machine but not expensive as professional machines go — you can buy more powerful models. This PC doesn't break a sweat running Modula with many channel strips: I gave up counting when I got to around 45 instances of Magenta 5 (see 'Pricing & Bundled Plug-ins' box) with preamp, EQ and compression all engaged. Running with Cockos Reaper, Windows 10 Home, and an Audient iD4 interface with a 256–sample buffer, Reaper's performance meters told me this was using about 48 percent of the CPU. So running something like a 24-channel mixer should be well within the capabilities of a more modest machine, particularly if you were to increase the buffer. But if computing power is a concern (perhaps you're running other thirsty plug-ins too), it's worth noting that Quantica have plans to implement a server version in the near future, rather like Acustica did with Nebula 3, and I'm told that will allow you to run Modula processing on a networked computer, taking the strain off your DAW.

Strip It Good

Modula is a standalone application, which you must boot before firing up your DAW project. When I ignored the instructions and booted in the incorrect sequence (I had no manual to hand, but I'm assured one is being written) I observed some glitchy behaviour of controls and meters. When I got the sequence right, these problems were absent. To close Modula, you must first close your DAW session: Modula will unload its channel strips, and you can then close it from the system tray. Modula's settings, including the channel order, are remembered when you next load the same DAW project.

The application initially presents as an empty virtual mixer frame, in the gorgeous-looking skeuomorphic style I've come to expect from Acustica; you even see the 'sockets' where the virtual strips will be 'plugged in'. At the bottom, each slot has the same set of controls. There are mute and solo buttons, a mute/solo group function (solo a channel and only others in its group will be muted), and a channel label that's empty by default. Once the mixer is populated with channel strips, three buttons allow navigation of each strip's three sections (the leftmost and rightmost channels in the current bank have a two-button scroll/tab facility, with the third button becoming a bank-scroll facility). And you can grab and move a channel to reorder the mixer.

With Modula running, you load your DAW project and instantiate your chosen Modula 'Skin' (their term for a Modula plug-in) in the usual way. 64-bit AAX and VST2/3 formats are available for both Windows and Mac, as well as AU for Mac only. You can easily spot these Skins in your DAW's plug-in list by typing 'M4' in the display filter — all Skins' names include that phrase. Each Skin has two GUIs: one in your DAW, where it functions like any other plug-in, and one in the next available slot in Modula. These are sync'ed, so that tweaks made using one are reflected in the other; they control the same underlying processing.

The version in the DAW is divided into three vertical sections — Pre (preamp), EQ, and Dyn (dynamics) — and you see all three simultaneously. So it's basically an Acqua plug-in with a different GUI. The GUI in Modula has the same layout, but displays only one of these sections at once; Pre (which includes not only the preamp emulation but also the pan and fader controls) is the default view. The aforementioned three buttons at the bottom of each channel allow you to choose which section of its Skin is displayed. This neat arrangement allows a narrower GUI, and thus those 15 channels to be accommodated on screen. It works well. My only criticism is that I could find no way in this prototype version to switch the view for all instances at once; I hope that feature will be considered, perhaps as part of a more generally beefed-up grouping facility, as it could be a real time-saver.

I enjoyed getting hands-on with the touchscreen in a way that I find I don't with DAWs... and the layout encouraged me to stay focused, avoid distractions and thus make decisions quickly.

Touch & Go

One of the most enticing things about Modula is that the GUI has been designed for touchscreen use. You aren't required to use a touchscreen, but if you do it will make a whole lot more sense. A 27-inch 1920x1080 touchscreen like my Acer T272HL is perfect, making all the buttons, faders and knobs the optimum size, and putting sufficient space around each control that you aren't forever hitting the wrong thing. It also means that the faders are about the same size as typical long-throw faders on an analogue console. I wouldn't recommend using a smaller touchscreen, and while it will work on a larger one there's little to be gained. I'm told that in Acustica's studio, they have a system with five screens, three of which are touch-capable... the mind boggles!

It's intended that Modula will eventually support full multi-touch operation, which would allow you to adjust multiple controls or faders simultaneously, but at the time of writing this was not yet the case — I could only move one control at once, and I don't believe this will have changed by the time Modula is released. That might not please those who dream of grabbing fistfuls of faders, but I don't think most of us work like that in the real world; although I often hover my fingers over a few controls I very rarely move two simultaneously (it's one reason I gave up on multi-fader control surfaces; they occupied more space on my desk than I felt they justified).

DAW Integration

That Modula works alongside rather than within your DAW raises questions of workflow — what will you do in your DAW, and what in Modula? At the present stage of development, with various features yet to be implemented, those questions are particularly important. For example, there are limitations to how Modula plug-ins work with your DAW's automation; they'll respond to automation but cannot write it. The write facility is planned but won't be implemented for the initial release. Why? Well, the channel strips are essentially repackaged Acqua plug-ins, and this has long been a limitation for them because Acustica's impulse–based approach to their emulations, with mostly switched rather than continuous controls, doesn't really lend itself to automation. And, in any case, most controls aren't the sort of things you're likely to want to automate; it's not like we're dealing with instruments, or out-there delay effects and filter sweeps.

That said, people will undoubtedly hope to use Modula's faders for level automation — it would allow you to do more mixing jobs, such as refining level automation in multiple passes, without leaving Modula. So even if write-automation were implemented only for the channel strip faders in the first instance, I think it would be a significant improvement. That will come in time — but meanwhile Modula doesn't prevent you doing this side of things in your DAW, and it's one of the few things that I find touchscreens are good for in most DAWs.

Another important function your DAW must take care of is transport control, as there are currently no transport or marker facilities in Modula — if Modula is in focus, your DAW isn't, so your DAW's shortcut keys can't be used. It was never conceived as a DAW controller (each Modula channel corresponds not to a DAW channel but to an individual plug-in) but some global DAW-control facilities, particularly basic tape-style transport controls, would mean a lot less switching between Modula and your DAW. In the meantime, I'd consider using a second screen for your DAW, or using a small control surface (eg. an Avid Artist Transport or a PreSonus Faderport), or perhaps a tablet/smartphone-based MIDI controller, as a sidekick for Modula's touchscreen GUI. Alternatively, Cmd/Alt+tabbing between Modula and your DAW could become almost second-nature!

Modula Workflow

So, that's what Modula does and doesn't do, and how it relates to your DAW. But what of the experience of trying to mix with it? Despite this software being at such an early stage of its evolution, it's honestly a real pleasure. I enjoyed getting hands-on with the touchscreen in a way that I find I don't with DAWs (even those that claim to have been designed with touch in mind), and I found that the layout encouraged me to stay focused, avoid distractions and thus make decisions quickly. Apart from the obvious lack of tactile feedback, the experience is closer to that of using an analogue console than I've experienced with any other software or control surface. I can see so clearly what it is I'm tweaking, can hop from channel to channel without opening and closing windows, and I don't see all those tiny details in the DAW that can lure me down mixing 'rabbit holes'. As I mentioned earlier, I missed the ability to write fader automation and often wished for a touchscreen transport control, but I still managed to establish an efficient workflow.

I had access not only to the Magenta 5 and Diamond Color EQ3 Modula Skins that will be included in the price, but also to prototypes of the wonderful Water and Taupe Skins, so I could experiment with different configurations in the mixer. For example, I could construct a mixer mostly out of Magenta (emulated Manley) channel strips, and have the project's master-bus signal flow through Diamond Color EQ3 and then into Taupe. Imagine what that mixer would cost in the real world, even if you could build it!

It took a little while to grow accustomed to having two separate 'strips' for the single master bus in this setup, and I found it helpful to visually separate the two master bus channels from others, either by placing an empty channel strip between the master section and other channels or by inserting the bundled M4Chan utility channel on a project's effects returns, and placing those between the master bus and other channels. Ideally I'd like the ability to 'dock' master channels on the right or left of the mixer so it can be seen irrespective of the bank that's selected — there are plans to develop some sort of master module in the future, but don't yet know if it will make this possible

I should note a couple of GUI quirks, which will hopefully be addressed soon. Much of the gear being sampled — and certainly the bundled strips — is stereo mastering-oriented gear, and there are separate polarity invert switches for the left and right channels. That makes good sense for mastering, of course, but if working on multitrack drums it's a little fiddly having to press two buttons to check for the best phase relationships between channels; a single-button polarity option would be welcome. I also noticed that some common functions, such as the dynamics on/off switch, were in different places for different Skins, which can slow you down a touch. (I'm not comparing the final Skin versions, though, and this sort of thing is easily fixed.)

My biggest challenge was to figure out precisely when I should turn to Modula, and when to use the DAW. Typically, I'll break mix projects into a few stages. First, I'll attend to housekeeping and 'problems' (eg. edits and comps, mutes, de-essing, breaths and pops, and 'cleaning' EQ). Then I'll try to build a 'faders up' mix without any major processing, other than a touch of compression where it's obviously needed to tame things, and basic pan settings. It's an attempt to establish a sense of which tracks need to sit where in the mix, and to provide a meaningful context for later mix decisions. From there, I'll move on to what I think of as 'real mixing', working more on the tonal shaping side of things. Typically that involves broad EQ moves, some use of compression and saturation, and sending various sources to effects. For this, I'll often work top-down from the stereo bus, through the group busses, and then to any individual sources which require further attention; I find I end up mixing quicker and with less processing this way. Finally, I'll move on to detailed level automation, often using a control surface to refine that automation over several passes.

Modula already slots neatly into the 'real mixing' stage. I use my DAW essentially to prep a mix, tackling problems and using clip and channel gains to establish my faders-up mix, and rig up some delays and reverbs as send effects. Then I can spend plenty of time in Modula, massaging the sound and static levels, for which having access to all those EQs and compressors on a touchscreen GUI is a dream come true for me; I can work through things with refreshing speed. I'll have an M4Chan utility plug-in for each effects return and for some critical channels on which I don't want to use any Acustica plug-ins. Then, I'll return to the DAW to micro-manage the details of things like parallel distortion and level automation, before returning to Modula for final tweaks to the master bus processing. (I realise mixing isn't usually quite as linear a process as I've just described, but I do generally break it down into broad phases like that; hopefully you get the idea.)

Verdict?

It's the job of a reviewer to pass judgement, but you must bear in mind that I'm evaluating a prototype here — that there's plenty yet to come, in terms both of refinements and of new features. I look forward particularly to the prospect of DAW write-automation support, and hopefully some form of transport-control too; I suspect those two features alone could turn an already attractive product into a no-brainer for many people.

But the bottom line is that while Quantica Modula isn't yet perfect, it already works brilliantly in so many respects. It really can put the sound and workflow of a high-end analogue mixer at your fingertips. I have a feeling I'll be using it on every mix for the foreseeable future, and may very well consider adding a second touchscreen to put more channels at my fingertips...

I'd happily use Modula with the bundled Magenta, Diamond EQ and Gold 3 strips alone. (OK, maybe Taupe too!) But Skins are planned for all Acustica's Acqua range, raising the prospect of creating 'sampled' vintage Neve, API, SSL or Harrison consoles, or crazier setups you'd never find in the real world — an 80-channel GML or Sontec console anyone? The looming possibility of using additional computers as a DSP farm for your Acustica processors is also tantalising.

In terms of value for money, it's tricky to assess at this stage. But if you want accurate software emulations of analogue gear, I reckon Acustica are out there in front at the moment — certainly they're amongst the very best, as our reviews of their plug-ins testify. They're also prolific in terms of new releases and updates, and have a track record of providing free updates as the technology evolves. After the initial discounts, the asking price might be a stretch for the average home studio, but it's a professional tool with a 'wow factor', and if you're working commercially Modula could justify the investment, particularly given that Modula Skins will be more affordable than the Acqua equivalent. Well worth checking out!