KVR Audio

deadmichaelp · Post by **deadmichaelp** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 2:24 pm

hey, 've been trying to find a way to use my PCI UAD card with my laptop... the only way I 've found so far is an adaptor from magma ( http://www.magma.com ) priced at almost 1000 US$

!!!!! This seems to me quite unexplainable expensive... in fact it costs more than a brand new external UAD card!!!! Any help??

BertKoor · Post by **BertKoor** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 2:31 pm

It's easy to explain: Low production volume + High development costs = High shelf price.

There's not much demand, so this is only for people that really really need it.
Maybe your UAD fits in a Shuttle PC? Or build a rack-mountable PC

deadmichaelp · Post by **deadmichaelp** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:05 pm

this sucks....

and it's only company who makes this kind of adaptors, so you can add the "no competion" parameter to your equation so it will sum up to 1 grand! ... FFS

beej · Post by **beej** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 5:32 pm

Magma is the only solution, and I outright *refuse* to even comtemplate paying the outrageous prices they ask for them.

They also have the technology patented from what I understand, so no other company can release a similar product.

UAD's forthcoming Xpander is a partial solution - not PCMCIA, but will work on the current Expresscard laptops (Macbook Pro etc) but the annoying thing is I couldn't just use my existing card, I'd have to rebuy a new UAD card (the one inside the Xpander) and then sell the old one.

The Xpander hardware is licensed from Magma I think, and so you couldn't just buy the box without a card and use your own card in it.

The UAD1, *fabulous* though the software undoubtedly is, is becoming a chain around my neck....

inf0tr8r · Post by **inf0tr8r** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:05 pm

get a fast track pro

http://www.m-audio.com/products/en_us/F ... -main.html

beej · Post by **beej** » Thu Jun 21, 2007 6:46 pm

inf0tr8r wrote:get a fast track pro

??

That sounds to me like you don't understand what we are talking about at all...

deadmichaelp · Post by **deadmichaelp** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:13 am

My thoughts exactly beej...

olepro · Post by **olepro** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 9:38 am

UAD should have made a box solution like the Magma for the pci card.
This would give them more costumers i think !

beej · Post by **beej** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:01 am

They can't, because Magma own the patents.

johnnytluxury · Post by **johnnytluxury** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:23 am

Would that be a PCI to PCMIA adaptor? I mean the newer cards hvae ExpressCard, which is essentially PCIe in a compact form factor. They cant have the patent on that, now if someone made such an adaptor....
You know what? Im tired.

olepro · Post by **olepro** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:24 am

beej wrote:They can't, because Magma own the patents.

Ahh yes.
It shure looks like they have patented the whole story !

beej · Post by **beej** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:42 am

johnnytluxury wrote:Would that be a PCI to PCMIA adaptor? I mean the newer cards hvae ExpressCard, which is essentially PCIe in a compact form factor. They cant have the patent on that, now if someone made such an adaptor....

I don't know the specifics on the patents. It may well cover the whole "connecting a mobile computing device with an outboard externally housed PCI card device" thing in it's entirety, with specifics covering specific interfaces. I don't know.

The UAD Xpander is a Expresscard to PCI (or PCIe) device, but even that is a licensed Magma deal from what I understand - even though the price is much less than the regular Magma boxes - and you also get essentially a UAD Project Pak included. It shows (as I've said for years) that the technology isn't expensive to make, it's just Magma put on a high badge price on it because they can.

At this stage, I'm going to be getting a Macbook Pro, but haven't decided yet whether I get a UAD Xpander when it's released, and sell my current UAD-1 to offset the price a bit, or whether it's time to abandon UA completely. I'm a bit annoyed I essentially have to re-buy something I already own, just to continue to use it on more modern hardware, but that's the price of technology I guess...

johnnytluxury · Post by **johnnytluxury** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:51 am

beej wrote:I don't know the specifics on the patents. It may well cover the whole "connecting a mobile computing device with an outboard externally housed PCI card device" thing in it's entirety, with specifics covering specific interfaces. I don't know.

The UAD Xpander is a Expresscard to PCI (or PCIe) device, but even that is a licensed Magma deal from what I understand - even though the price is much less than the regular Magma boxes - and you also get essentially a UAD Project Pak included. It shows (as I've said for years) that the technology isn't expensive to make, it's just Magma put on a high badge price on it because they can.

At this stage, I'm going to be getting a Macbook Pro, but haven't decided yet whether I get a UAD Xpander when it's released, and sell my current UAD-1 to offset the price a bit, or whether it's time to abandon UA completely. I'm a bit annoyed I essentially have to re-buy something I already own, just to continue to use it on more modern hardware, but that's the price of technology I guess...

I ask because Im droppin my desktop for a lappie soon, and neva thought about it, the whole conversion thing. I was gonna go FW and sell my Emu card, but upon hearing about a lil flaw in FW or the boxes that use FW that says you must have a TI chipset FW connection in order to get true latency settings, its nice to have a backup. But nobody makes an ExpressCard sound card, besides UAD (sell the house!) or if such an adaptor exists I could keep my EMU. But, alas, it does not. And whats the PCIe soundcard front look like? UAD, MOTU (sell all the houses!) and Creative (and lil known company called Meridian) is all I know. Man we should make our own connection of such. Cant be too hard. And patent it? Ohhh!

beej · Post by **beej** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 10:58 am

johnnytluxury wrote:But nobody makes an ExpressCard sound card, besides UAD (sell the house!)

UA do not make *any* soundcards.

If you are going laptop, you generally need a FW audio hardware solution - although there are a few PCMCIA solutions such as Hammerfall etc - not sure whether they do Expresscard versions...

Can the people reading this thread who still think the UAD-1 is a "sound card" please stand up...

johnnytluxury · Post by **johnnytluxury** » Fri Jun 22, 2007 11:23 am

beej wrote:
johnnytluxury wrote:But nobody makes an ExpressCard sound card, besides UAD (sell the house!)
UA do not make *any* soundcards.

If you are going laptop, you generally need a FW audio hardware solution - although there are a few PCMCIA solutions such as Hammerfall etc - not sure whether they do Expresscard versions...

Can the people reading this thread who still think the UAD-1 is a "sound card" please stand up...

Well bless my nuts an call me squrriel, Xpander aint a soundcard. Heh. DSP addon that sucks up an ExpressCard port. Neva liked UAD much anywho. Still there genius in the idea of making a PCI to ExpressCard convertor.

UAD PCI card to PCMCIA