Tell me about UAD.

[zerocrossing]

So, I’ve been thinking about an Apollo interface or maybe even a PCIe card. I’ve been listening to demos and I’m mostly very impressed. I run Bitwig 3 on a Windows machine and I have hardware and software instruments and effects. What should I know beyond the marketing stuff?

[vurt]

check the thread about the flanger in effects for some info
i cant say myself, never used it.

[zerocrossing]

Bump! Anyone?

[zvenx]

Buy into it if you like the quality of their products (for many of them I find them top of their game),
Also the console allows you to record a lot of stuff thru their audio interfaces with minimum latency (akin to what pro tools HD systems did back in the days (or maybe still does)).
Their DSP is underpowered compared to native cpu these days though, despite how much smoke they try to blow up your ___ about that.
A happy UAD-2 X2 user.
rsp

[bM3w]

Bitwig 3 on a Windows PC here as well. I'm a long time user of a UAD-2 Solo PCIe and a Thunderbolt Satellite Quad and just replaced my audio interface with a Apollo Twin MKII Duo last week. So far I'm loving the Twin. I mainly bought it to track guitars at low latency AND be able to run them through the Apollo's unison preamp channel. Coming from a strictly DAW only workflow it took a few days to understand the routing and working with the Console. Still learning, but it looks like it was worth the money.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

So, I’ve been thinking about an Apollo interface or maybe even a PCIe card. I’ve been listening to demos and I’m mostly very impressed. I run Bitwig 3 on a Windows machine and I have hardware and software instruments and effects. What should I know beyond the marketing stuff?

Their DSPs are weak, which makes the interfaces overpriced from the perspective of being DSP accelerator cards for mixing. It's bordering on criminal at this point that a UAD-3 hasn't been released that runs on modern chips - but if people are willing to pay for the old ones, why not keep selling them?

That said, the new interfaces seem pretty nice. You know they'll be supported, they have nice feature sets, and having on-board DSP for processing on the way in (if you're willing to print effects) will reduce the need for more effects in the mixing stage.

Their homegrown plugins are excellent. Really terrific sounding. Complex models. They really know what they're doing when it comes to DSP/modeling. Cannot fault them here.

The instance counts of some of those plugins are TERRIBLE. Especially the newer ones. So great, you've got a fancy new compressor or preamp/eq and you can run an instance per chip. So you'll have to be VERY selective about what you use and how come mix time.

Their plugins are stupid expensive. They run regular promotions and will throw you a $25 voucher month, but that doesn't fully negate the fact they'll charge $349 regular price for a reverb, and that's not an outlier in terms of pricing.

I'd also say AVOID third-party UAD plugins with native alternatives at all costs. Why on Earth anyone would feel the need to buy a UAD plugin when there is a native alternative is completely beyond me! The UAD versions are usually expensive, don't include a license for the native version, and you'll be able to run a lot fewer instances compared to native while using DSP resources that could be used for other things.

I think that's about everything you could ever need to know about UAD. I have a UAD-2 Duo (had a UAD-1) and I think the last plugin I bought was the LA-2A collection many, many years ago. It's just not worth investing in the platform for me. But, like I said, the plugins are excellent and the interfaces seem really nice. I'd totally consider an Apollo if they had USB3 versions, but I'll probably stick with RME for my next interface and just go on buying native plugins.

[GNXT]

Buy into it if you like the quality of their products (for many of them I find them top of their game),
Also the console allows you to record a lot of stuff thru their audio interfaces with minimum latency (akin to what pro tools HD systems did back in the days (or maybe still does)).
Their DSP is underpowered compared to native cpu these days though, despite how much smoke they try to blow up your ___ about that.
A happy UAD-2 X2 user.
rsp

This!!
Best purchase i ever made my Apollo twin quad MK2 and a few UAD plugins.

[Vectorman]

EvilGeniusUAD.jpg

[Scotty]

I have been on UAD since early UAD-1 days when they were owned by Mackie. Presently own Apollo Twin Quad and 5 UAD-2 cards.

My advice.... don't do it unless you are wanting the benefits of the preamp modelling meaning if you are only wanting the plugins and don't want or need one of the Apollo interfaces.
The UAD-2 cards aren't a good investment at this point.

At one point they were industry leading in quality. Now the native plugins have largely caught up with a few exceptions ( the verbs and delays are still at or near the top of heap).

UA is very slow in updating their plugins... the older catalog is largely not HDPi friendly and they are very small on most large monitors. Updating these doesn't seem like a priority for them. There is no midi learn functionality and no VST 3 support either.

There is one exception in my view... if you were going to buy a piece of UA hardware and they were having a promotion where you got a card for free the math may change for you and it may be worth it. I got one of my UAD-2 quads free with a 417-D premap/convertor box. Presently they are giving an Octo free if you were buying a 6176 channel strip.

[khuzdul]

I thought about getting a UAD to be a outboard DSP. After totaling up the price of hardware and the plugins, I'm leaning more to buying a used Eventide Eclipse and playing around with the customizability of the user pre-sets. Even though it is old also and the interface and programming looks daunting, it looks a lot more flexible.

[reggie1979]

I just can't get over the price of the interface, the price of many of the plugs and how few instances of something max the cards out. I too have been tempted because the demos sound great but realistically you can get what you need native with something like the Slate bundle.

I don't have enough money for them even if they were ace. Years ago I ponied up for an RME and I can't really see myself switching from such a masterful card just for DSP. I'd rather build a new computer (which I think might be cheaper

[mxjohn]

Got the duo, used it for years. Early on, realized to fully utilize their plugins to their full potential I'd need to invest deep into their hardware collection. Decided against that, using the duo alone is a pain, but you get used to its limitations.

[zerocrossing]

Thanks everyone. The more I learn, the more I’m leaning towards bypassing this idea. Mostly because it seems like for the money they are charging, you should be able to run more than a few instances of their new plugins. I dealt with a similar issue with a SonicCore XITE-1, and I vowed I’d never go through that again.

I think I’d be better off slowly putting together a collection of hardware compressors and saturation devices.

[tapper mike]

Re Preamp Modeling...

Yamaha THR
It sends separate clean and processed signals If you want to either reamp or use the straight guitar signal in. The speakers send the modeled sound to your ears... So set the channel in on your host to mute and you won't have to deal with hearing latency.

The THR software editor allows you to edit your amp/effects/speaker settings. It also has mini stereo in if you want to connect from other hardware. and... you can do reamping with it.

[tehlord]

UAD is a very expensive way of buying plugins that are alternatives to, but not better than a thousand native alternatives.