Navigation and the Sextant

The sextant is a doubly reflecting navigation instrument that measures the angular
distance between two visible objects. The primary use of a sextant is to measure the
angle between an astronomical object and the horizon for the purposes of celestial
navigation. The estimation of this angle, the altitude, is known as sighting or shoot-
ing the object, or taking a sight. The angle, and the time when it was measured,
can be used to calculate a position line on a nautical or aeronautical chart—for ex-
ample, sighting the Sun at noon or Polaris at night (in the Northern Hemisphere) to
estimate latitude.
Like the Davis quadrant, the sextant allows celes-
January AMBER3
tial objects to be measured relative to the horizon,
rather than relative to the instrument. This allows
February AQUAMARINE4
excellent precision. Also, unlike the backstaff, the March TITANIUM3
sextant allows direct observations of stars. This per-
mits the use of the sextant at night when a backstaff
April PURPLE2
is difficult to use. For solar observations, filters allow May HONEY3
direct observation of the sun.
Since the measurement is relative to the horizon, June NAVY2
the measuring pointer is a beam of light that reach-
es to the horizon. The measurement is thus limited
July SAND3
by the angular accuracy of the instrument and not
the sine error of the length of an alidade, as it is in a
August DIAMOND3
mariner’s astrolabe or similar older instrument. September SCARLET4
A sextant does not require a completely steady aim,
because it measures a relative angle. For example,
October GOLD3
when a sextant is used on a moving ship, the image
of both horizon and celestial object will move around
November PENSADO EQ
in the field of view. However, the relative position December CELESTIAL
of the two images will remain steady, and as long
as the user can determine when the celestial object
touches the horizon, the accuracy of the measure-
ment will remain high compared to the magnitude
of the movement.
The sextant is not dependent upon electricity (un-
like many forms of modern navigation) or anything
human-controlled (like GPS satellites). For these rea-
sons, it is considered an eminently practical back-up
navigation tool for ships.
AMBER3 plugin suite offers an accurate reproduction of JANUARY

an original, pure Class A optical compressor, a redesigned M T W T F S S

iconic EQ and preamp section. We then squeezed all the
1 2 3 4 5
sampled units into a high-performance channel-strip for your
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
own earvana.
13 14 15 16 17 18 19

20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31
FEBRUARY AQUAMARINE4 is a high-end mixing and mastering

M T W T F S S plugin suite which is ideal in virtually all kinds of musical gen-

res thanks to its extended versatility.
1 2
It includes a monster compressor that we sampled from one
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 of the most highly regarded units on the market and an as-
toundingly precise recreation of an ultra-rare American pas-
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
sive equalizer from the 1950s.
17 18 19 20 21 22 23

24 25 26 27 28 29
TITANIUM3 is an all-tube dreamware suite of plugins giving MARCH
you unprecedented sonic power for your mixes. We completely
M T W T F S S
overhauled its original concept to bring you the latest in VVKT
sampling technology, for extended versatility and usability. 1
In addition to our classic 3-band compressor and the single-band
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
compressor, we added extra juicy processors, delivering the leg-
endary tone and features of some incredible tube-based units re- 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

leased over the last 25 years. 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30 31
APRIL
PURPLE2 is a collection giving you the highest number of
M T W T F S S different ‘Purple-style’ [pun intended] equalizers on the market -
all in one place - including some ultra-rare units we managed to
1 2 3 4 5
find and sample for you. If you had to buy all of this in hardware
6 7 8 9 10 11 12 form it would cost you over €10.000! Now you can have all this at

13 14 15 16 17 18 19 a fraction of the price - and no, you’re not going to compromise

on the sound.
20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30
HONEY3 packs all the power and musicality of a world-class MAY
American console, highly regarded by many industry profession-
M T W T F S S
als for its musicality and logical layout.
Honey3 includes 4 separate plugins. A home-brew version of a 1 2 3
famous EQ (CLASSIC), a faithful VINTAGE version of the same
4 5 6 7 8 9 10
unit, a VCA compressor, and a channel strip that includes select
modules, wisely chosen by the Acustica team. 11 12 13 14 15 16 17

18 19 20 21 22 23 24

25 26 27 28 29 30 31
JUNE NAVY2 is not just a series of plug-ins: our goal was to
provide you with a complete collection of inestimable, rare
M T W T F S S
vintage gear, but most of all, modern reissues of exception-
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 al British outboard equipment.
Thousands of records have inherited their “sound charac-
8 9 10 11 12 13 14
ter” from the British gear we have sampled for this incredi-
15 16 17 18 19 20 21 ble suite. You’re going to love Navy’s extensive limiting and

22 23 24 25 26 27 28 compression capabilities, thanks to our faithful emulations

of two cherished modern dynamic processors made in the
29 30
UK.
SAND3 is a plug-in suite which reproduces the sonic behav- JULY
ior of a series of high-end British consoles which have literally
M T W T F S S
dominated the Pop and Rock scene from the ‘80s onward.
Sound engineers from all over the world swear by their forward, 1 2 3 4 5
slightly ‘aggressive’ sound as well as their logical layout.
6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Last but not least, SAND3 packs the experience of 7 renowned
engineers, who have been directly involved in the development 13 14 15 16 17 18 19

of dedicated AI presets, ready for use. 20 21 22 23 24 25 26

27 28 29 30 31
AUGUST

M T W T F S S DIAMOND COLOR EQ-3 is Studio DMI’s signa-

ture sound in a single plugin, the secret ingredient to craft-
1 2
ing heavy-hitting, radio-ready songs that punch.
3 4 5 6 7 8 9 We worked closely with Luca Pretolesi in order to revamp the
original design of this acclaimed processor with new features
10 11 12 13 14 15 16
including an additional HMF band with selectable frequen-
17 18 19 20 21 22 23 cies, a FOCUS control - for precision mastering duties - a

24 25 26 27 28 29 30 Left/Right and Mid/Side selector as well as a complete Cut

Filter section.
31
SCARLET4 suite brings you the sound of two celebrated, spe- SEPTEMBER
cialized mastering devices designed in the ‘70s by two legendary pi-
M T W T F S S
oneers, considered the most ingenious minds in the field of music re-
cording technology. 1 2 3 4 5 6
This bundle will prove to be an invaluable suite that will never disap-
7 8 9 10 11 12 13
point you whenever a delicate, precise yet musical action is required in
your most critical mastering sessions. 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

21 22 23 24 25 26 27

28 29 30
OCTOBER

M T W T F S S

1 2 3 4
GOLD3 reproduces the sonic behavior of an iconic, vintage
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 British console celebrated for its unmistakable warmth and organ-
ic sound. All of its modules have been sampled from the original
12 13 14 15 16 17 18
devices - most of them built during the 60s - and now extremely
19 20 21 22 23 24 25 rare. Gold 3 expands on the previous version by adding an ul-
timate meters section, a new astounding preamp section and 2
26 27 28 29 30 31
incredibly rare EQs.
Acustica Audio and Studio DMI have joined forces with Gram- NOVEMBER
my®-winning mix engineer Dave Pensado (Michael Jackson, Chris-
M T W T F S S
tina Aguilera, Beyoncé) to create a brand new, powerful EQ plug-
in for the contemporary mixing engineer. 1
PENSADO EQ is the first plug-in ever released carrying
2 3 4 5 6 7 8
the signature of Dave Pensado, who is not only one of the biggest
names in the music industry but also co-hosts the most successful 9 10 11 12 13 14 15

weekly show focusing on everything audio and music production, 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

‘Pensado’s Place’.
23 24 25 26 27 28 29

30
 This year, the Acustica Audio team would like to wish you a Merry Christmas
DECEMBER by bringing you a truly special gift. Celebrate Christmas with a brand new,
incredible dreamware plugin suite for your studio, “Celestial” and best of all
M T W T F S S it’s FREE! Once again we are really satisfied with the results and the goals
achieved this year, it has been a year full of many satisfactions. All of this was
possible thanks to all of our supporters and loyal customers. As you know for
1 2 3 4 5 6 a long time, our ongoing mission is to provide you with the best professional
tools available on the audio software market, so rest assured, 2020 is going
7 8 9 10 11 12 13 to be another incredible year and we are already working on several projects
that we consider truly stunning, as always we are striving for perfection and
constant innovation.
14 15 16 17 18 19 20
The Celestial suite consists of:
- The CELESTIAL MIX
21 22 23 24 25 26 27 - The CELESTIAL MASTER BUS
‘Christmas’ has never sounded this good!
28 29 30 31 We wish you a CELESTIAL Xmas and a Happy New Year!
FREE until February 14, 2020*
*Celestial suite includes: CELESTIAL MIX and CELESTIAL MASTER BUS versions. This plugin bundle is a commercial plugin suite that is released as a
free Christmas Gift for everyone until February 14, 2020. In order to obtain Celestial suite for free and use it on your system, you will need to download
Aquarius, our download manager, log in to Aquarius using your Email and Pass­word, download the plugin in the desired format and authorize it by
February 14, 2020 - 11:59 p.m Italian time. After this date, your free copy of Celestial suite will be automatically turned into a commercial version at no
cost. Starting February 15, 2020, Celestial will be included in the current BIG CEIL plugin suite). Acustica Audio reserves the right to change the price of
the BIG Ceil suite at any time after incorporating Celestial.
If you already own the commercial version of BIG CEIL you will be entitled to the Celestial suite for free, no additional cost will be required.
Like all commercial Acustica Audio plugins, a 30-day, fully functional trial will be available for download to let you evaluate it before purchase. Failing
to authorize the plugin before the end of the promotion will invalidate your license and it will not be possible to keep using Celestial suite for free. By
registering an account and downloading Aquarius, you are automatically subscribed to our Aquarius backend services. Therefore, you are accepting our
GDPR Policy and agree to our Terms of Service, which include receiving periodical promotions, commercial communications and occasional discount
coupons. You can of course unsubscribe from our services at any moment by clicking the dedicated link in the communications you will be receiving.
 22 23 24 22 23 24

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 8 9 10 11 12 13 14

15 17 18 19 20 21 16 15 17 18 19 20 21 16

Texture mix processor - Suggested use: single track mixing/bus mixing. Psychoacoustic bus processor - Suggested use: bus mixing/mastering, psychoacoustic effect

DRIVE MID

XOVER

DRIVE FILTERS EQS COMP MID-SIDE PRE-T FILTERS EQS LP SIDE LS DECODER PRE-T

HP HP COMP

Block schematic of the entire processing flow in Block schematic of the entire processing flow in
CELESTIAL MIX CELESTIAL MASTER BUS

1- Harmonics: harmonic gain control; (drive-teal staging section).
2- Low gain: Low Frequency shelf boost and cut; ±10dB of adjustable gain; (infrared equalizer section).
3- High gain: High Frequency shelf boost and cut; ±10dB of adjustable gain ; (infrared equalizer section).
4- Highpass: frequency high pass filter; Frequency range (Hz) : 20 to 40, Off (the first knob step bypasses the HP filter)
(tangerine filter section).
5- Threshold: It sets the threshold of the compressor, ranging from -10 dB to +10 dB (celestial dynamics section, comp).
6- Time: Coupled attack and release times (from Fast to Slow); fixed ratio 2:1 (celestial dynamics
section, comp).
7- Spread: Amount of spread (mid-side) (yellow stereo section, mid-side processing), this knob controls the balance
between full MONO (M) and full SIDE (S) signal.
8- Texture: Global boost of the harmonic content and linear material; (drive-teal staging section).
9- Low Frequency(Hz): this is a Low Shelf EQ. Values: 30Hz, 50Hz, 70Hz or 90Hz (infrared equalizer section).
10- High Frequency (kHz): this is a High Shelf EQ. Values: 9kHz, 12kHz, 16kHz and 20kHz (infrared equalizer section).
11- Lowpass: Low Pass Filter; Frequency range (Hz) : 22k to 400, Off (the first knob step bypasses the LP filter) (tangerine
filter section).
12- SC filter: HP filter for sidechain signal (celestial dynamics section, comp).
13- Make Up: post comp make up gain ( celestial dynamics section, comp). It sets the output gain compensation, in
order to match the level of the compressed signal with the original. Make-up gain range: from 0 dB to +20 dB.
14- Pan: panner (yellow stereo section, mid side processing); This knob controls the left/right signal level therefore the
stereo image.
15- Trim: It controls the harmonic content of the drive section and the preamp with the transformer (preamp T, preamp
with output transformer). The control sets the input level from -24dB to +24dB, and it is used to adjust the internal op-
erational level of the plugin. Note that this is different from a standard input gain control due to the linked output gain
stage, which always ensures that whatever gain change is introduced at Celestial’s input, the output level is automatically
compensated so that there’s no perceived level change.
16- Gain: Output gain (global control), this knob provides ±24dB gain at the output stage of the plugin.
17- Drive button: Activates the drive-teal staging section. The input trim does not affect this section.
18- EQ On button: Activates the infrared equalizer section of the EQ - Low shelf/High shelf
19- FLT On button: Activates the tangerine filter LP/HP section.
20- Comp On button: Compress!!!
21- Pre T button: press this to activate the ‘custom-designed’ transformer circuit emulation which is able to add har-
monic content in the low-end and a favourable top-end phase-shift to the sound and it also adds a mild ‘weight’ thanks
to the underdamping of the sampled transformer.
22- Input (L-R) meters: they display the input levels entering Celestial. Range IN (L-R): -42dB to +0dB.
They are volume unit (VU) led meters (300 ms average) that measures the stereo input level.
23- Gain reduction meter: The Gain Reduction meter measure the gain reduction level applied by the compressor.
The meter indicates ‘0’ in the absence of an input signal or any gain reduction. If the signal exceeds the compression
threshold or limit level, the amount of gain reduction is displayed.
24- Output (L-R) meters: They display the output levels. Range IN (L-R): -42dB to +0dB.
They are volume unit (VU) led meters (300 ms average) that measures the stereo input level.
1- Harmonics: harmonic gain control; (drive-teal staging section).
2- Low gain: Low Frequency shelf boost and cut; ±10dB of adjustable gain; (infrared equalizer section).
3- High gain: High Frequency shelf boost and cut; ±10dB of adjustable gain ; (infrared equalizer section).
4- Highpass: frequency high pass filter; Frequency range (Hz) : 20 to 40, Off (the first knob step bypasses the HP filter)
(tangerine filter section).
5- Threshold: It sets the threshold of the compressor, ranging from -10 dB to +10 dB (celestial dynamics section, comp).
6- Time: Coupled attack and release times (from Fast to Slow); fixed ratio 2:1 (celestial dynamics
section, comp).
7- Elliptic: Amount of spread (mid-side) applied to the output signal of the low pass crossover (yellow stereo section,
mid-side processing). The LP output of the crossover section is always active regardless of the compression, which acts
only on the HP signal.
8- Texture: Global boost of the harmonic content and linear material; (drive-teal staging section).
9- Low Frequency(Hz): this is a Low Shelf EQ. Values: 30Hz, 50Hz, 70Hz or 90Hz (infrared equalizer section).
10- High Frequency (kHz): this is a High Shelf EQ. Values: 9kHz, 12kHz, 16kHz and 20kHz (infrared equalizer section).
11- Lowpass: Low Pass Filter; Frequency range (Hz) : 22k to 400, Off (the first knob step bypasses the LP filter) (tangerine
filter section).
12- Xover: crossover point (celestial dynamics section, comp E yellow stereo section). The low frequencies are not com-
pressed. The compression happens only on the highs..
13- Make Up: post comp make up gain ( celestial dynamics section, comp). It sets the output gain compensation, in
order to match the level of the compressed signal with the original. Make-up gain range: from 0 dB to +20 dB.
14- Dimension: Low shelf with fixed frequency -+3dB on the Side, coming out from the low pass section of the xover
filter (yellow stereo section, mid side processing).
15- Trim: It controls the harmonic content of the drive section and the preamp with the transformer (preamp T, preamp
with output transformer). The control sets the input level from -24dB to +24dB, and it is used to adjust the internal op-
erational level of the plugin. Note that this is different from a standard input gain control due to the linked output gain
stage, which always ensures that whatever gain change is introduced at Celestial’s input, the output level is automatically
compensated so that there’s no perceived level change.
16- Gain: Output gain (global control), this knob provides ±24dB gain at the output stage of the plugin.
17- Drive button: Activates the drive-teal staging section. The input trim does not affect this section.
18- EQ On button: Activates the infrared equalizer section of the EQ - Low shelf/High shelf
19- FLT On button: Activate the tangerine filter LP/HP section.
20- Comp On button: Compress!!!
21- Pre T button: press this to activate the ‘custom-designed’ transformer circuit emulation which is able to add har-
monic content in the low-end and a favourable top-end phase-shift to the sound and it also adds a mild ‘weight’ thanks
to the underdamping of the sampled transformer.
22- Input (L-R) meters: they display the input levels entering Celestial. Range IN (L-R): -42dB to +0dB.
They are volume unit (VU) led meters (300 ms average) that measures the stereo input level.
23- Gain reduction meter: The Gain Reduction meter measure the gain reduction level applied by the compressor.
The meter indicates ‘0’ in the absence of an input signal or any gain reduction. If the signal exceeds the compression
threshold or limit level, the amount of gain reduction is displayed.
24- Output (L-R) meters: They display the output levels. Range IN (L-R): -42dB to +0dB.
They are volume unit (VU) led meters (300 ms average) that measures the stereo input level.