Waves or UAD2 Card?

[PhilippE123]

I am trying to decide between a UAD2 card or a Waves bundle. I am most interested in getting some new compressors, EQs and reverbs. With the exception of the UAD2 card having its own processing power, can anyone give some advice on which sounds the best? Is there a difference in sound quality between Waves plugins and those of Universal Audio and is one generally regarded as better than the other?

Any advice or tips would be really great!

[matt thomas]

tip: use the search function. This is one of the most discussed topics on this forum

matt

[Lenzo]

I have a couple of waves bundles and 2 UAD-2 cards. I have most of the UAD plugs. I tend to go to the UAD stuff. Some of the new stuff like fatso and the EMT250 are very good. A lot of their old stuff is very good. Waves makes good plugs as well and I would think it's a pretty subjective thing as to which you would like better. For me, I probably won't buy any more waves plugs, but am pretty sure UAD is going to throw out something pretty tasty in the next year.
L.

[TheMarqueeYears]

In answer to your question

UAD-2, no brainer.

EMT 250 is stunning.
Fatso - say no more
Copper time Cube - you'll love it.

Neve 1073 - brilliant

All the plugs are fabulous, I personally find the DSP to be very handy, the QUAD is very powerful (10x UAD-1) and for reasons I can't explain after hours of testing sounds better to me.

Highly recommended.

TMY

[EddieTheRed]

In my opinion, the best compressors on the market are Waves CLA and the UAD Fatso and 33609. I was thinking seriously about picking up UAD-2 just to run the Fatso, 33609 and Transient Designer.

The EMT-250 is pretty good, but I don't personally think UAD or Waves make the best ITB EQ or reverbs out there.

For EQ, Nebula by AcusticAudio is absolutely untouchable. The BAE1073 and API550 programs in the commercial library are great, and the AnalogInTheBox programs (DW Fearn, API 550, Massive Passive) are incredible.

For reverb, I'd wait on the Lexicon PCM bundle (or the new IK Lex480 emulation). Altiverb is unbeatable for classical/acoustic/jazz stuff where you want the sound of a real room, but doesn't do the big, flatering Lexicon thing for rock.

Serious advice: hand on heart, if I had $2000 for new EQ, compression and reverb plugins I'd buy:

Nebula 3 with the AnalogInTheBox EQ's - approx. $100
Waves CLA compressors - approx. $400 from Tony
Lexicon PCM96 plugin bundle for reverb - approx. $1500 from Tony

These plugs really are the best on the market right now.

(I'd also pick-up the AlexB console emulations for Nebula - you wouldn't believe how much bigger, and wider, and deeper they make your mixes sound.)

[mavano]

New product alert!

[SEB]

100% agreethumbsup

Nebula with Angel and AlexB samples have finallly made ITB as good as anything. Especially the tape, eq and console samples.
Waves CLA, Vitalizer and PCM Native completes 2009 as an amazing year for plugs. My EQ, Compressor and Reverb-racks has thinned out big time this year - I have yet to regret any of the sales.
I would add Soundtoys Echoboy and Softubes Focusing EQ with the amazing hi and lowpass filters to this list. And ofcourse Brainworx Dyn EQ for much easier drum eq-ing.

[UnMix Studio]

Go UAD. You will only pay once.
With Waves you will keep paying them. Say u buy Gold Bundle for $1000, that's the money down then you gotta pay them every time they have a major upgrade version.
Search Waves WUP. LOL

[SEB]

UAD is nice, got UAD-2 myself, but I would not sell any of my hardware cause of it..

[clonewar]

Originally Posted by UnMix Studio

Go UAD. You will only pay once.
With Waves you will keep paying them. Say u buy Gold Bundle for $1000, that's the money down then you gotta pay them every time they have a major upgrade version.
Search Waves WUP. LOL

Sure. Tell that you everyone who dropped $1500 each on a UAD-2 Quad (up to four supported in one system!) so they could run more instances of plugins that they already own.

Waves subsidizes their ongoing development and upgrade costs through WUP, UA does it though hardware upgrades. With both it still means that at some point you'll have to pay more to run plugins that you already own in the future.

To the OP.. they both make excellent plugins. Do a search here and you'll find tons of topics on the subject.

[Animus]

Originally Posted by SEB

100% agreethumbsup

Nebula with Angel and AlexB samples have finallly made ITB as good as anything. Especially the tape, eq and console samples.
Waves CLA, Vitalizer and PCM Native completes 2009 as an amazing year for plugs. My EQ, Compressor and Reverb-racks has thinned out big time this year - I have yet to regret any of the sales.
I would add Soundtoys Echoboy and Softubes Focusing EQ with the amazing hi and lowpass filters to this list. And ofcourse Brainworx Dyn EQ for much easier drum eq-ing.

Nebula is "good" if you can put up with the many "cons". It's a real pita to work with ranging from latency to memory and cpu resources.

[zaphod]

Originally Posted by Animus

Nebula is "good" if you can put up with the many "cons". It's a real pita to work with ranging from latency to memory and cpu resources.

Agreed. I add: latency and memory are not a trouble using the right computer. So if you save money and you buy a good computer with a 64 bit OS you'll not have issues: memory is not a trouble if you can address all memory available (for example 6 gigabytes), CPU is not an issue if you have a new i7 and latency is not an issue since you can lower it as you want using the right CPU.

[TheMarqueeYears]

6 minutes impressive

TMY

[Svein]

Wait until namm maybe?

[danger]

Originally Posted by EddieTheRed

For reverb, I'd wait on the Lexicon PCM bundle (or the new IK Lex480 emulation). Altiverb is unbeatable for classical/acoustic/jazz stuff where you want the sound of a real room, but doesn't do the big, flatering Lexicon thing for rock.

the Lexicon 480 emu is not from IK, it's from Relab.

[JPeters86]

Each one has its advantages and disadvantages. The DSP limit on the UAD stuff is what made me sell them. But that was back in the UAD1 days. You should also know that the older UAD plugins are not on par with some more recent stuff, like the ones from Waves or IK Multimedia, when it comes to the accuracy of modeling analog stuff.

[Squawk]

The OP was asking specifically about UAD and Waves, giving some indication that he/she has narrowed their preference down to those specific products. No disrespect, but why does every one of these topics turn into a Nebula discussion? Does anyone even know if the OP is on Mac or PC, or what the specs are? When Acoustica gets their new "proper" website together and proper OSX support, then it's maybe more warranted, and I know I'll be looking forward to it.

Anyway, to answer the original question, I'd go waves personally, especially this month with the discounts. Get the demos and try them out to see if they work for you. Hell, if you are on PC, download the Nebula free one as well and try it out also. Demo what you can first.

[TranscendingM]

Originally Posted by mavano

New product alert!

Yah! I've been waiting for this to come out! thumbsup

[ProducerBoy]

Waves has been making some impressive stuff lately, but I'm one of those crazies that doesn't dig the idea of paying 25-30% of my original purchase price when it comes time to upgrade. (Would have hit me up for about $400.) I'd rather invest that money in hardware.

OTOH, I really enjoy the new UAD plugs. The EMT 250, Fatso, Cooper Time Cube are great. The LA2A is totally satisfying. The Neve stuff is cool too.

[bmanic]

Originally Posted by EddieTheRed

AnalogInTheBox programs (DW Fearn, API 550, Massive Passive)

Can't find the Massive Passive on their site. Is it really already released or are you beta testing it?

I'm really looking forward to somebody sampling the massive passive.. I have access to the real deal as well but it's such a PITA to sample EQs that I'll gladly pay for somebody else to do it but I'm not going to wait much longer. My patience is running out and I have some free time right after Xmas to do the sampling. So, any info on the availability of the Massive Passive would be greatly appreciated!

Cheers!
bManic

[on the run]

Originally Posted by Squawk

The OP was asking specifically about UAD and Waves, giving some indication that he/she has narrowed their preference down to those specific products. No disrespect, but why does every one of these topics turn into a Nebula discussion? Does anyone even know if the OP is on Mac or PC, or what the specs are? When Acoustica gets their new "proper" website together and proper OSX support, then it's maybe more warranted, and I know I'll be looking forward to it.

Anyway, to answer the original question, I'd go waves personally, especially this month with the discounts. Get the demos and try them out to see if they work for you. Hell, if you are on PC, download the Nebula free one as well and try it out also. Demo what you can first.

"The OP was asking about waves and UAD, why has it turned into a nebula discussion?"

"I suggest you try out nebula free"

[Kayo]

Originally Posted by mavano

New product alert!

hahahahhaa... that's exactly, what i was thinking

Anyway, just go UAD... if you can keep affording their incarnations. Waves is great too. Millions and millions of waves users. great plugs period..

KAyo

[Squawk]

Originally Posted by on the run

"The OP was asking about waves and UAD, why has it turned into a nebula discussion?"

"I suggest you try out nebula free"

What makes you think that I haven't? It's not ready for primetime yet on OSX, and I don't use windows. Crashed Logic and PTHD repeatedly when I tested it. When there's an official OSX release, I'll happily buy the commercial version. In the meantime, I'll wait.

The Waves Studio Classics bundle that I've been testing is quite nice, and I can run numerous instances of eq's and comps with no issues or crashes. Nebula may sound better to some people (I haven't been able to a/b yet so I couldn't say), but I much prefer a smooth hassle free workflow at this point.

[on the run]

Originally Posted by Squawk

What makes you think that I haven't? It's not ready for primetime yet on OSX, and I don't use windows. Crashed Logic and PTHD repeatedly when I tested it. When there's an official OSX release, I'll happily buy the commercial version. In the meantime, I'll wait.

The Waves Studio Classics bundle that I've been testing is quite nice, and I can run numerous instances of eq's and comps with no issues or crashes. Nebula may sound better to some people (I haven't been able to a/b yet so I couldn't say), but I much prefer a smooth hassle free workflow at this point.

my point was you criticized people for recommending nebula in this topic then went ahead and did the exact same thing

[dino321]

Originally Posted by clonewar

Sure. Tell that you everyone who dropped $1500 each on a UAD-2 Quad (up to four supported in one system!) so they could run more instances of plugins that they already own.

Waves subsidizes their ongoing development and upgrade costs through WUP, UA does it though hardware upgrades. With both it still means that at some point you'll have to pay more to run plugins that you already own in the future.

To the OP.. they both make excellent plugins. Do a search here and you'll find tons of topics on the subject.

This is not a fair comparison. Four UAD-2 Quad cards gives you more processing power than a Protools HD 3 system. That's huge. Whenever UA updates their plugs it is free. I have read many many reports of the way Waves does business and have given all my business to UA. In my opinion they are a great company with a great product and they have very fair business practices. From years of reading about Waves I've decided never to do business with them. Plus I don't want a USB dongle. Some people call the UAD cards a "dongle" but I disagree here too. Even with my Quad Core system I greatly appreciate the DSP on the UAD cards. My advice is to go UAD all the way. YMMV

[Kyle Ashley]

This entire thread should be moved....this is the New Product Alert section.

[SWAN808]

Originally Posted by EddieTheRed

In my opinion, the best compressors on the market are Waves CLA and the UAD Fatso and 33609. I was thinking seriously about picking up UAD-2 just to run the Fatso, 33609 and Transient Designer.

The EMT-250 is pretty good, but I don't personally think UAD or Waves make the best ITB EQ or reverbs out there.

For EQ, Nebula by AcusticAudio is absolutely untouchable. The BAE1073 and API550 programs in the commercial library are great, and the AnalogInTheBox programs (DW Fearn, API 550, Massive Passive) are incredible.

For reverb, I'd wait on the Lexicon PCM bundle (or the new IK Lex480 emulation). Altiverb is unbeatable for classical/acoustic/jazz stuff where you want the sound of a real room, but doesn't do the big, flatering Lexicon thing for rock.

Serious advice: hand on heart, if I had $2000 for new EQ, compression and reverb plugins I'd buy:

Nebula 3 with the AnalogInTheBox EQ's - approx. $100
Waves CLA compressors - approx. $400 from Tony
Lexicon PCM96 plugin bundle for reverb - approx. $1500 from Tony

These plugs really are the best on the market right now.

(I'd also pick-up the AlexB console emulations for Nebula - you wouldn't believe how much bigger, and wider, and deeper they make your mixes sound.)

Bang on.

[Squawk]

Originally Posted by on the run

my point was you criticized people for recommending nebula in this topic then went ahead and did the exact same thing

Fair enough. I was just making a general observation about these threads. I don't wan't to come across as discounting Nebula as a product (which is why I mentioned it) since it was already brought up anyway. It's just not ready yet for OSX, and the OP was trying to decide between waves and UAD. I understand many people's love for Nebula, so please don't take it as criticism, just an observation. I'm sure when it's ready for OSX, I'll share the love

[OMU]

It is ready for my OS X, the vst version, I mean. Works like a charm. And I'm working a lot with the UAD-2 Quad Omni. It's not even close to Nebula, regarding the eqs. But, anyway, for compression, neither UAD or Waves sounded to me as good as the Softube comps.

And if you're only interested in AUs you should take a very good look at the Passive-Active Pack. I like it more than the UAD eqs. The SPL Rangers also sound nice. Having these is better than a UAD-2 card from my point of view, and I'm an UAD user.

[Squawk]

Originally Posted by OMU

It is ready for my OS X, the vst version, I mean. Works like a charm. And I'm working a lot with the UAD-2 Quad Omni. It's not even close to Nebula, regarding the eqs. But, anyway, for compression, neither UAD or Waves sounded to me as good as the Softube comps.

And if you're only interested in AUs you should take a very good look at the Passive-Active Pack. I like it more than the UAD eqs. The SPL Rangers also sound nice. Having these is better than a UAD-2 card from my point of view, and I'm an UAD user.

Yeah, it's the wrapping that's probably the big issue still, esp. with vst-rtas.

The big drawback with UAD is you are tied to the card, which for me is not as ideal as running native plugins.