Help selecting a plug-in pack

[BezO]

I'm not asking for opinions regarding the sound of the 2, though feel free to provide one. I'm asking more about CPU usage, ease of use, ect.


UAD-1 vs. Waves

I've heard mixes that used both and I was equally impressed. But...

My understanding of UAD-1 plugs is that they're VST and I would need a wrapper (Pro Tools supports RTAS & Audiosuite). Pardon my ignorance, but I've never used VST anything. Should I consider the needed wrapper as an additional cost? Is it something that would drain more CPU? Any disadvantages?

On the other hand, UAD-1 uses a DSP card, which I understand powers the plugs as opposed to the plugs using the CPU. I'm assuming this is a huge plus.

So, if the sound they produced (Waves and UAD-1) were identical, which way would you go? And why?

[kritikon]

I'll be buying a UAD card very soon now. 3 things made me do it.

1) The quality of the plugins. Not that Waves are bad, they just seem to be mostly precision and clean - which is not my 1st choice for things like compressors.

2) The EMT plate plugin on UAD.

3) Waves are PACE. Irrespective of anything els, be it cost, quality, fancy GUIs...they could even give away free blow jobs with Waves and I wouldn't touch PACE with a very long pargepole.


The DSP card itself processing the plugins is just an added bonus - sure it'll be nice to free up that little bit extra CPU, but that wasn't a major issue for me. When you look at the plugins available on UAD - most of them are real character FX. The EMT plate, Dimension D, Space Echo, LA2A, Fairchild, Pultec etc etc...alot of it is down to taste. I can see why people use Waves - they certainly are clean, and mostly capable plugins - but to me they just sound....bland is the right word, I think.

[Scotty]

Don't underestimate the DSP savings. Run a few high quality verbs and then load a UAD verb. You'll be pleasently surprised.

[beej]

It depends on your tastes and requirements really.

I like the Waves Renaissance compressors and will use them when I don't have access to my UAD-1 card (ie on a laptop).

UAD's compressors are just fantastic though, they really are. If you are doing "band" type music, rock, guitar, indy, alternative etc then the UAD character is perfect for that. For more electronica type stuff I don't know.

So it depends what bundles you are comparing and what kinda of effects you want to use...

I regard the DSP part of the UAD insignificant - it's the quality of the plugs that counts, taking the load of the computer is not really a problem.

BTW So far I've had no Pace problems with my Waves plugs, it's been transparent and works fine.

[billybk1]

The DSP card itself processing the plugins is just an added bonus - sure it'll be nice to free up that little bit extra CPU, but that wasn't a major issue for me. When you look at the plugins available on UAD - most of them are real character FX. The EMT plate, Dimension D, Space Echo, LA2A, Fairchild, Pultec etc etc...alot of it is down to taste.

I regard the DSP part of the UAD insignificant - it's the quality of the plugs that counts, taking the load of the computer is not really a problem.

That is what I always try to tell prospective UAD-1 users, you don't buy the UAD-1, for the obvious native CPU savings, (although that is a nice bonus ), you basically pay for the great plugin algo's, of which, there are no native equivalants and then UA tosses in a DSP card to run them on.

Here is an excellent article, from last February SOS, about UA and "Modelling Classic Hardware in Software", you may find interesting:

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/feb05/a ... laudio.htm

[dusted william]

This to me is a no brainer,

UAD

I'm pretty damn sure UAD can be used in protools

dw

[beej]

The UAD-1 comes in RTAS versions, so should be no probs at all in PTLE...