Looking for plugin suggestions now that UAD has disappointed again...

[kittyboy]

I've been holding off buying plugs, hoping that UA would announce the UAD-2 at NAMM, but no such luck.

I know UAD still sounds great but I hate the feeling of being ripped off and buying something that suddenly becomes obsolete.

I've got a budget of roughly $2K, plan to do all my mixing ITB, and have a powermac G5 dual 2.0.

All suggestions much appreciated!

[headz]

who is trying to rip you off?
UA is extremely loyal to it customers, i.e. get one new UAD-card new and purchase a cheap 2nd hand one from somone who moves to PCIe....so you have lots of power on UAD side and all the plug licenses you've bought will follow you to PCIe later if you might go this route.....

get some other nice plugs and you'res et with your budget... no reason to be disappointed about UAD-2....its vaporware until they get a new chip and this might be 1-2 years ahead....

[azwun25]

i'm sooooo tired of hearing this bullshit..UA makes THE best plugs on the native platform..i run full sessions and use a combination of UAD and Waves, PSP, Sonalksis etc. with no problems. if you're looking for a card to take on ALL the processing for your entire system then don't get UAD or anything else for that matter because none of them can. Sure powercore can run more plugs but the plugs on Powercore pale in comparison with the exception of the Sony stuff. Many many UAD-1 users will tell you its one of the best purchases they ever made..myself included..rant over

[Absolute]

Originally Posted by azwun25

Many many UAD-1 users will tell you its one of the best purchases they ever made..myself included..rant over

many will also say its a hassle. Many will also say they are the most overhyped plugins on the market. They are real good..but there is just something real weird and fanatical about how UAD users defend that card.

[SoundUniverse]

If you feel "ripped off" by UA you apparently don't own any Waves plugs!

I own both Waves Renn Maxx and two UAD cards

(I like both really, but only had to pay for the UAD stuff ONCE!!!!!!!!)

[Aearth]

Originally Posted by SoundUniverse

If you fell "ripped off" by UA you apparently don't own any Waves plugs!

I like that.
That's one of the reasons why I bought a UAD card.

Nic

[norman_nomad]

Yeah their card chipset is old... yeah they're slow with driver updates.... yeah the plug-in count per card is pretty limited....

But you can't argue with quality. And their plugs-ins are good. Uniquely good in a market with so very many options.

If they came out with a card that had 4x - 10x the power of their existing cards they'd probably dominate the market.... oh well...

[statikcat]

I was looking forward to a more powerful cpu card.. otherwise they are great. Just sucks running mult cards on a Mac since you have so few slots.

[ryst]

Originally Posted by Absolute

many will also say its a hassle. Many will also say they are the most overhyped plugins on the market. They are real good..but there is just something real weird and fanatical about how UAD users defend that card.

Overhyped? How? People really dig the way they sound. But that has nothing to do with his question.

[lpkyer]

Originally Posted by azwun25

i'm sooooo tired of hearing this bullshit..UA makes THE best plugs on the native platform..i run full sessions and use a combination of UAD and Waves, PSP, Sonalksis etc. with no problems. if you're looking for a card to take on ALL the processing for your entire system then don't get UAD or anything else for that matter because none of them can. Sure powercore can run more plugs but the plugs on Powercore pale in comparison with the exception of the Sony stuff. Many many UAD-1 users will tell you its one of the best purchases they ever made..myself included..rant over

Approved
I just tested Cambridge and I'm speechless. It went top of my priority (ever higher than neve plugins!)

[JimmySX]

But to go back to the poster's original question. Try LiquidMix, Powercore or SSL Duende.

Waves do suck big time!!!!
We had it installed on a PT HD rig. Harddisk died and so did waves. Because it was autorised to disk the waves bundle became useless. No way to install it again!!! In order to get it working again, we had to update the WUP!!!!!How f*cked up is that!!! After that the licenses were transferred to the iLok and now you can use your way overpriced wavesbundle even after your harddisk dies.....

[u b k]

call me a heretic but i prefer the compressors in the powercore to the ones in the uad. eq's are equally useful. uad mod fx are much better.

classicverb and plate 140 make a deadly good combo, each one mono and panned to different sides.

be a good slut, get both.

[lordnielson]

I've had a Uad card now for 1.5 years. I think that for the amount you pay for the card and the plugins it shouldn't be a lottery with regards to compatible hardware/software. The physical card itself is a glorified dongle, not an insanely stable contraption.

The plugins are good. It may be my monitoring situation but I don't find them leagues ahead of other highend plugs. I don't compress a snare with an 1176ln and lean back thinking "ahh, no more need for hardware.." at all.

Alot of Uad-1 users become stupidly protective about their investment. Similar to a classic Mac vs Pc field day. It's good that they like these plugs, but it's also good to let other people have alternative, informed opinions/preferences.

[Synth80s]

Originally Posted by lordnielson

The physical card itself is a glorified dongle

This is a gross misconception. The most likely reason UAD is taking so long to find a more powerful DSP solution to supplant their current hardware is the esoteric nature of the DSP chips they currently use, hence the effort required to port the code to native or another more generic DSP platform.

More information about this technical issue is available on the UAD-1 forums.

-Synth80s

[TonyBelmont]

If you want something with additional DSP... I've been using the Duende and really like it's compressor...

But, here's some native solutions to also look at:

URS Channel Strip Pro... coming soon (hopefully)

Altiverb 6

EMI TG12413

Waves Renn Maxx and Waves SSL

PSP

Oxford

Here's a review I did on the Waves SSL & Duende:

SSL DUENDE & WAVES SSL DEATHMATCH ROUND #1

[headz]

hey kat,
so buy a bunch of sonalksis, URS EQs / comps and PSP plugins, maybe get the waves SSL pack and your done well even without the UAD if you dont like the DSPcard concept....or start mixing some of those plugs with a UAD if you like...

I realy see no problem to talk about much longer....check the demos from sonalksis, PSP and URS (iLok costs $30) for yourself and get happy. leave the UAD lovers behind you if you have a problem with UA or join them and enjoy the nice UAD plugs...

[lordnielson]

Originally Posted by Synth80s

This is a gross misconception.

And it was a gross exaggeration on my part, but I believe my point about the cards dsp advantage vs. hardware headache, came across anyway.

Some say they're just trying to get rid of their vast stock of Uad-1 material. Speculation all the same I guess.

[headz]

Originally Posted by lordnielson

Some say they're just trying to get rid of their vast stock of Uad-1 material. Speculation all the same I guess.

sure thats likely cause the sales of PCi card go down in favor of people getting PCie cards, thats why some dealers like to clear their overstock of PCi cards....

[dstroyallmnstrs]

Originally Posted by lordnielson

've had a Uad card now for 1.5 years. I think that for the amount you pay for the card and the plugins it shouldn't be a lottery with regards to compatible hardware/software. The physical card itself is a glorified dongle, not an insanely stable contraption.

And it was a gross exaggeration on my part, but I believe my point about the cards dsp advantage vs. hardware headache, came across anyway.

If you can name a product that was designed as many years ago as the UAD-1 that's completely plug and play I'll be dumbfounded. It is so rare in the computer world for things to get along harmoniously. Firewire units/cards/chipsets? A pain. USB tends to choke. It's not uncommon to overload a PCI bus. It becomes harder to find PCI slots on computers and in many cases even then only support the 3.3 volt version - and on and on.

Some say they're just trying to get rid of their vast stock of Uad-1 material. Speculation all the same I guess.

You mean Mpact chips? I think that, like most folks, you don't realize how difficult it is to move to a completely new architecture. Chromatic Research is deader than the parrot in a Monty Python sketch. They go native they take the chance of being vilified like Waves or cracked like everything else. IMO they're trying really hard to please their customers while working on their overall gameplan (which I'm reasonably sure includes code optimizations to ease the burden).

But you're right in that there's lots of other plug ins around (and dsp card based systems for that matter - TC, Creamware, Duende etc.)

[Koed]

UAD a glorified dongle?
I don't have the figures right here, but the plugins math are mostly based on Floating point operations. One UAD still outperforms a dualcore in that area as do most graphic chips.
That's why you have a dedicated GPU in your machine.
If your CPU had to do all those floating point operations for video (or plugins) there wouldn't be any power left to run the actual game (or audio sequencer).

It would be nice though if they had a faster card and I'm sure they're looking into it. But saying that the current card is obsolete is pushing it a little.

[SNJ Studio]

Hey just wanted to say I think UAD has some of the best sounding plugs. I hire high end rooms for tracking and mix at home, and the emulations stand up to the real gear.

But you want other suggestions.
URS.
Blue Tubes.
McDSP.
Samplitude's built in stuff.

Check 'em out, they rock my world. Not a huge dfegad Waves fan.

Adam R Barns

[NesNeedsGear]

"ripped off" by UAD. Is there such a thing???

[Led]

Ha, buy a real compressor - you only get to use one instance of it ever, and you get no free upgrades.