I'm giving up on UAD. Now what?

[lasso]

For verbs it's gonna be hard. I have a quad just for the reverbs. I use the 244 A LOT for long character verbs and the 250 for just the opposite. THe 140 when something needs that - not often. But I can't see myself replacing those with anything native. Don't use a lot of their other plugs though.

What is it you find particulary pleasing about the massive passive as opposed to other eq's?

[pdiddy boy]

Don't do it ! You have the Quad card ! You've come too far, yes their plugins are getting up there in price but all I can say is I've found thier quality and level of service as a company excellent especially in comparison to a certain competitor whom I shall not mention. They are always doing decent deals too. I'd say stick with em.

[days]

Originally Posted by lasso

What is it you find particulary pleasing about the massive passive as opposed to other eq's?

It rounds off the harshness and reins in the stridency between 1500 Hz and 3500 Hz better than any other EQ I have. It is by far the most "analog"-sounding of all my EQ plugs. I dunno why, but on vocals and acoustic guitars, in particular, it seems to work like magic.

[devastat]

I don't own an UAD card, but for an analog sounding EQ you should definitely try the new Softube EQF-100.

[Ivorydom]

I totally feel how you feel mate. I had the exact same feelings when I had to give up Powecore.
Believe me, until now I have found no native plugins that do the same as MD3 Mastering plugin, the VSS3 and Classic Reverbs. Uh...

However, as hard as it is to part with these plugins, I would never EVER go for a DSP based solution. I totally agree with you that the CPU's are so powerful these days that dedicated DSP cards can only sound as a bad joke to me. Sorry but no matter how good their plugins are (I've used them extensively in studios I have worked in), I am not going to invest on a DSP processor again. And native plugins are becoming more and more powerful.

In my opinion, sell this thing now that you can. Even if I try to sell my Powercore now, I will not get even half the price of my investment (just MD3 cost me 1200 euros alone), let alone, no one even wants to buy it.

[Leras]

I don;t see what you would gain from going native if you already own it.

Massive Passive IS magic like you describe. You probably won't get much at all for resale... You'll have to pay full whack for any new native plugs...

If I were starting from scratch I'd go fully FabFilter... but they don't have the same range of flavours that UA have...

[devastat]

UAD would make so much more money if they would just do what Duende did, and let people run their plugins natively. it must happen eventually tho..

[gregerlindberg]

Nebula has a beatiful 140. Nothing comes even close, in my opinion. As well as a massive passive that is awesome as well.

[blackcom]

Originally Posted by devastat

UAD would make so much more money if they would just do what Duende did, and let people run their plugins natively. it must happen eventually tho..

Never gonna happen as long as ppl continue to buy their cards.

[days]

Originally Posted by devastat

I don't own an UAD card, but for an analog sounding EQ you should definitely try the new Softube EQF-100.

Thanks for the tip. This EQ looks interesting.

[days]

Originally Posted by Leras

I don;t see what you would gain from going native if you already own it.

Massive Passive IS magic like you describe. You probably won't get much at all for resale... You'll have to pay full whack for any new native plugs...

Right. If I'm not going to get enough for it at resale, I probably won't do it.

[Jorg]

Not sure about Massive Passive but for the 250 you might find a convolution reverb with Impulses of the 250. Not ideal but might work.
I'm in the same boat as you. For me its the soaring prices in the middle of the biggest recession of our generation that makes me go more and more native now.
I was hoping that UA, just like Waves did, would come to its senses and adjusts its prices. Seems like the opposite is true.

[Jeezo]

Resale it ...take mercury and you will have every new waves plugins everyyears for 200$

Reverb , consider :

Softube tsar
xverb (ssl duende)
Lexicon
And Tc , i m pretty sure they will be ported native , but i use convolution of tc 6000on my perfect space reverb (convo verb in sonarx1by voxengo)

Eq :

Softube eq , yep very smooth
Eosis AirQ : uneMatched by any and more to come!!....a beast
SPL passeq is also excellent
XEq (ssl)
fabfilter proQ

I had excatly the same feelings (before buying the appollo) but drivers , plugins price and the new plugins dsp hit made me go Mercury +all softube + Slate (VTM,VCC,FGx) = heaven ! Zero trouble and my quadcore are joking , chilling ....

Oh and yeah , try the UBK1and you will start to smile !

Also you will have access to great processing only availlable in native like drMS ,vertigo,fabfilter line plugins series...ect ... All fun going native fo real ...

[barryjohns]

Why give up on them? That's insane, just keep using what you have and supplement with other Native plugins. Trust, UAD plugins have next to no resale value, neither do their cards.

[E.rOk.stA]

Originally Posted by devastat

I don't own an UAD card, but for an analog sounding EQ you should definitely try the new Softube EQF-100.

And it's passive, so very similar character.

Jeezo's pretty much right on.

Softube + Slate + Soundtoys + Lexicon + Duende end up on all my mixes with no sacrifice of quality. Seriously.

[Tui]

For EQ, try the Softube Passive-Active Pack. It's three EQ's that are quite different and complement each other well. First native EQs where I thought, wow, this sounds like analogue.

The Tsar reverb is good, too. Quite dense, not that clean but lively sounding.

[targa2]

The Steinberg Portico eq will replace the Massive Passive. This is according a very serious mixer I know who has both.

[phas3d]

For EMT250 get this one.

EMT250 reverb in native form: The ERS EMpTY 250

For Massive Passive that's another ball game.

[abechap024]

G-Sonique Pultronic sounds really nice.

I sold my UAD too. The straw for me was once I bought a plugin, I couldn't resale it unless it was with ALL my other plugins and my card. Just feels like a rip off. If I pay to OWN something, I want to OWN it. And have the choice to sell it when I choose.

[TNM]

Empty Rooms make quite a lovely EMT 250 plugin although the UAD has a minor edge.

I adore the SPL passive EQ which is a different beast to the manley passive but still quite wonderful, much less latency and you can run a gazillion of them

[A Fak]

Yup sold mine too, about 3-4 years ago (started with the Mackie UAD1..). It was a little rough in the beginning but now i'd never go back. DSP cards in this day and age, with the kind of CPU power we have is ridiculous. Why would you want to handy cap yourself??

Plugins have come a long way and thou UAD makes great plugins there are other people making equal and in some cases better sounding plugins:

Slate Digital, Waves, DMG, Softube, Sonnex, BrainWorx, VahallaDSP, SKnote, Klanghelm, Cytomic, Toneboosters, Soundtoys, Kush Audio, SSL, Fabfilter, Empty room systems, Abbey roads, Lexicon, Eventide, etc...

So many quality options you'll have all your bases covered.

[jjdpro]

i've been on the UAD fence since it's inception. But, I've always gotten the job done with the natives. And just like A fak stated, the native plugin options today really does cover all of the bases, and covers them well. I like the options of different manufacturers take and spin on a given effect.

And, Waves Ren Comp still finds its way on every project

Originally Posted by A Fak

Yup sold mine too, about 3-4 years ago (started with the Mackie UAD1..). It was a little rough in the beginning but now i'd never go back. DSP cards in this day and age, with the kind of CPU power we have is ridiculous. Why would you want to handy cap yourself??

Plugins have come a long way and thou UAD makes great plugins there are other people making equal and in some cases better sounding plugins:

Slate Digital, Waves, DMG, Softube, Sonnex, BrainWorx, VahallaDSP, SKnote, Klanghelm, Cytomic, Toneboosters, Soundtoys, Kush Audio, SSL, Fabfilter, Empty room systems, Abbey roads, Lexicon, Eventide, etc...

So many quality options you'll have all your bases covered.

[lllubi]

Originally Posted by Leras

I don;t see what you would gain from going native if you already own it.

think a Quad will hardly manage a couple of BX Rockracks in realtime on the Apollo

[Melgueil]

Dump the dongle(s) - because you are right - in the last 5 years in particular - your host machine will stand up to any daughter card solution. No logic to hanging on to another piece of hardware. With native, you are more or less free to choose. See how "locked in" you feel ? The reason I would not consider an Apollo for example. All of your mixes are tied to that box. You sell it .....

There are mind blowing plugs that are available from the likes of Softube (such as the aforementioned TSAR - for my money - rivals any verb plug in at any price - demo it - you'll see). Sell it and don't look back. It`s not 1999 anymore.

Cdlt

[TNM]

very happy i never jumped on the UAD bandwagon, watching how the pricing structure has gotten more and more ludicrous for what's on offer and how many i could run. No thanks.

[mista min]

You guys do know that they will develop some other card that runs better then their current solution, which in my mind is ENOUGH dsp. There is an advantage to mixing with a DSP card, your computer never misses a beat. I don't use the UAD cards at home, but we have a duo at the studio, which I still don't use because I don't need to and I can say the lack of DSP is not the problem. It's the fact that thy are the most expensive plugins I've seen out side of Sonnox and now they re on the UAD. Sorry, but $299 for a compressor or eq seems a bit steep. :/

I know guys that mix at 88.2 on a quad without a hiccup, but they utilize their resources intelegently.

But yea, Native all the way

[CassidyGT]

I gave up too. $300 per plug with limited instances. No thanks.

[DaveE]

I gave up too a while back for the same reasons. Too many other awesome plugins out there and I never needed the DSP.

[superwack]

If you can get a good amount for your cards, there are great Native solutions although (a) the 2 you mention EMT250 and MP are two of the best/hardest to replace in my opinion and (b) you won't get a good amount for your system. For some reason the market is not very good - ironically at least partially due to the number of threads like this one complaining about the lack of power and expense.

I totally understand not buying in, but you are in already. Since you can only sell your card or your card+all the plugs, I guess you could sell your Quad for about $900-$1000 buy a SOLO for $275 or so and have one instance of MP to still use - while all of your other plugs sit in the unused (unable to perform due to DSP folder) but, honestly, you should probably just use them, don't buy any more plugs/cards from UA and wait for either the native versions to come out (which I don't think are actually going to come - especially with the new trend of current native plugs like SONNOX going TO the dongle of UAD but that's another debate) or until your card - and mine - become unable to run due to slots/OS/etc. issues.