UAD-1 ver 4.1 to discontinue support for DX

[Stupid American Pig]

Honestly I think that in many ways direct x was better. I dont really like haveing to maintain a "vst Plugins" and would rather install things according to how much space they use. Direct x allowed that with no hassle. Plugins like Jamstix have to have the plugin *and* content installed in the vst plugins folder, filling up my C partition.

Not sure why people dislike direct x, in my experience, the performance of each is the exact same. That said, if all devs move to Vst, that is fine, and if it leads to better plugins since they dont have to split resources and port code all the better.

[AndrewSimon]

Plugins like Jamstix have to have the plugin *and* content installed in the vst plugins folder, filling up my C partition.

I am only familiar with Tracktion but....
You don't have to use C partition for your VST folder.
You don't have to use just one folder for VST.
You can have as many VST folders as you want on as many different drives as you wish.
Just specify all locations in setup and they will all work simultaniously.

[Jason Brian Merrill]

i think many plugin companies will be doing this... i don't see the point in having both DX and VST now that Sonar 5 has native VST implementation.

native? hmmm, in version 5 there is still a wrapper.

it still converts all of your vsts to DX -- which sonar and other applications can see.

not really native, no.

but, a bit more hidden.

[Jason Brian Merrill]

... sorry.. mentioned already.

[Aleksey Vaneev]

Jason, using Cakewalk's adapter is about the same as having native plug-ins. In reality, most audio hosts have internal 'adapters' since they are using some internal API to communicate with plug-ins. Cakewalk is using DX API for plug-ins and so they need to convert VST plug-in calls into DX. I bet Steinberg does the opposite - it converts DX calls into VST calls for DX plug-ins.

Cakewalk's approach is more flexible as it allows you to use VST plug-ins in almost any DX-supporting host. Since to my knowledge their adapter has been debugged a lot, in some cases it can be a 'lifesaver' when native VST support of some hosts does not work correctly in their current version.

[CANE CREEK]

"Simple - the time wasted on coding and support for a near-dead architecture would be better spent on their VST versions. "

Like I said I'm fine with UA not continuing with DX. I agree that it would be better spent on their future VST versions. However, when I download version 4.1 my current DX versions are gone, and so is years of work. Like I said before, don't spend time updating DX, but let me keep what has already been coded. Every mix that I have done since 2003 will be unusable. So this is crystal clear, I agree with UA's decision not to update or make any new DX plugs, but I feel that because of the issues written in my last post that when I go to download the new vst versions in 4.1. I should be able to download the dx versions of 4.0 (which does support dx) as well.

I'm going to write UA and explain my problem and I encourage anyone else who is in a similiar position to do the same. The age of the dx format is coming to an end and I'm not fighting that, but I hope that developers understand that a gradual tappering off instead of a sudden end will help evryone in the long run.

Just freeze all the tracks that use the DX plugins at least that way your tracks will always open and play ok , obviously you won't be able to tweek them any more.
if your storing projects over a long period of time its always a good practice to freeze them all to guarentee they'll open ok in the future as it saves your host looking for plugins that you may no longer have.

[Zauni]

Plugins like Jamstix have to have the plugin *and* content installed in the vst plugins folder, filling up my C partition.

That's incorrect. You can move the Jamstix folder anywhere you like and keep only the jamstix.dll (and audioM8.dll) in the VST plugins folder. During the next launch Jamstix will ask for the new data location and that's it.

[billybk1]

In reality, most audio hosts have internal 'adapters' since they are using some internal API to communicate with plug-ins. Cakewalk is using DX API for plug-ins and so they need to convert VST plug-in calls into DX. I bet Steinberg does the opposite - it converts DX calls into VST calls for DX plug-ins.

In fact, if you really wanted to get picky, the only truly "native" VST hosts are the Steinberg apps (SX & Nuendo). Afterall, they developed VST, they license it, they update it and have had it programmed, into their host apps, from the very dawn, of VST. Everyone else just trys to make/keep their hosts VST compatible. I could care less if the VST implementation is "native" , internal or external, as long as it works.

Cheers,

Billy Buck

[CANE CREEK]

In reality, most audio hosts have internal 'adapters' since they are using some internal API to communicate with plug-ins. Cakewalk is using DX API for plug-ins and so they need to convert VST plug-in calls into DX. I bet Steinberg does the opposite - it converts DX calls into VST calls for DX plug-ins.

In fact, if you really wanted to get picky, the only truly "native" VST hosts are the Steinberg apps (SX & Nuendo). Afterall, they developed VST, they license it, they update it and have had it programmed, into their host apps, from the very dawn, of VST. Everyone else just trys to make/keep their hosts VST compatible. I could care less if the VST implementation is "native" , internal or external, as long as it works.

Cheers,

Billy Buck

yes agreed thats why every vst on the market works perfectly in cubase and if you read magazine reviews of a vst plugins/instruments 99.9% of the time the test machine is running cubase , because it runs them best.

as for your sonars/abletons etc they still don't run every vst on the market perfectly , ive noticed a few sonar users having problems with the new UAD-1 4.1 software which came as no suprise to me.

probebly one of the worst bug riddled vsts on the market is the powercore/virus however it still works ok in cubase , i also own ableton live 5 and the powercore/virus runs terrible in that you get big PC CPU hits for a kick off when the virus should be using the DSP card for its power.