KVR Audio

Esgalachoir · Post by **Esgalachoir** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:23 am

I have a question and it is this:
Does anything purely software compare to DSP powered effects, such as Powercore and UAD's stuff, or does the DSP powered stuff simply blow any native software out of the water?

susiwong · Post by **susiwong** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:37 am

Those who are using DSP cards will say "no way", those who don't will swear xy native is much better.
While there's no technical voodoo in those cards it's kinda hard to beat the manufacturers (or collaborators with them) of the original hardware (UA, SSL, TC verbs) at their own game, don't you think ?
Cheers,
susiwong

sophtrazor · Post by **sophtrazor** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:38 am

Watch out for that question people round these part see UAD's DSP as an expensive dongle with lots of hostility

susiwong · Post by **susiwong** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 2:41 am

That said, there is some great native software round if you don't need precise emulations, check out bootsie's stuff and the TbT plugs, not emus but equally good sounding.

Cheers,
susiwong

Esgalachoir · Post by **Esgalachoir** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:10 am

If I could get demos of the DSP powered plug-ins in action, I'd be able to draw my own conclusions, preferably whole tracks in wav format or something...

jkleban · Post by **jkleban** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:15 am

Well, don't want to start the UAD dongle wars but I will say this....

I have many many software only plugs and some of them sound excellent... but....

Everything on the UAD platform sounds GREAT and very musical... expensive but worth it.... when I first starting using the UAD2 stuff, it was like HDTV for audio for me.... I was truly blown away. But now, I don't even use any software plugs anymore except AMPLITUBE and its flavors, I just reach for a UAD EQ or COMP and off I go.

Bad thing about the UAD2 stuff is that you can't demo them without the card, but once you get the card, you will WANT every single UAD plugin. I suggest you go to the Universal Audio site and watch the videos (I did) and they weren't stretching how good these plugs really are and I enjoy the extra CPU power left behind since this stuff is processed off line on the CARD.

Jim

sophtrazor · Post by **sophtrazor** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:35 am

UAD stuff is awesome. Sometimes i sit and stare at the site looking at the Mutiband Dynamics and the Precision Bus Compressor and wish i could afford a $200 dollar comp. But Native stuff is amazing too if you have the processor capability.

chilln · Post by **chilln** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:36 am

UA just release an SSL 4k channel strip and 4k compressor!

AND a Cooper Time Cube MKII for the UAD platform!

sophtrazor · Post by **sophtrazor** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:41 am

chilln wrote:UA just release an SSL 4k channel strip and 4k compressor! AND a Cooper Time Cube MKII for the UAD platform!

just saw that too damn they look siiick

chilln · Post by **chilln** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:43 am

jkleban wrote:expensive but worth it....

I totally agreee with you on the love of UAD, but I hardly find it expensive for the quality of the results. I definitely view it as an investment.

UA could easily charge a lot more and their plugins (and hardware) would still sell. Folks spend small fortunes on Pro Tools TDM software. I think it's amazing that UA makes it so affordable for everyone to get into (those that really want to use them).

It's not like having to save up for their hardware counterparts or a TDM system.

I've been a UAD-1 customer since 2001. I've NEVER reqretted the purchase, even after all of the advancements on the native side of things, the UAD just sounds damn good, IMHO.

Now to find a way to afford those SSL plugins!!

susiwong · Post by **susiwong** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:47 am

sophtrazor wrote:UAD stuff is awesome. Sometimes i sit and stare at the site looking at the Mutiband Dynamics and the Precision Bus Compressor and wish i could afford a $200 dollar comp. But Native stuff is amazing too if you have the processor capability.

If you need a really fine multiband comp for little money check out the Sonitus.
I have both this and the Precision Multiband and both are equally useful imho though they sound different of course.
The PBC would be harder to replace for me.
Ymmv,
susiwong

chilln · Post by **chilln** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 3:49 am

sophtrazor wrote:
chilln wrote:UA just release an SSL 4k channel strip and 4k compressor! AND a Cooper Time Cube MKII for the UAD platform!
just saw that too damn they look siiick

OH YEAH! The Neve 88RS channel strip sounds sooooooo damn good (the gate especially), so I can only imagine what the SSL sounds like. I'm scared to try the demos; I'll want to buy them now, I just know it.

There's a 20% coupon and a $25 coupon to use this month, too. That's another thing, UA is continously so freaking generous and loyal to their customers. I know of no better company, IMHO. I love UA folks.

Damn, I have to afford one of those SSL channel strips by end of the month.

Funkybot's Evil Twin · Thu Mar 26, 2009 4:45 am

If you ask me, the UAD stuff goes from very good (at worst) to amazing (at best). That being said, there is also native software that is just as good, and the UAD platform in and of itself has flaws (latency, number of instances). The biggest difference is that the UAD stuff is consistently very good whereas there's some native crap, and some great native plugins.

I run a combination of both UAD and native effects. For instance, Cytomic's The Glue is great, the last two PSP offerings (Mixpack2 and sQuad) are great, Pro-C is versatile and clean, the Sonalksis stuff is up there too. But the UAD platform has some great effects.

In the end, I could live without a UAD card, but I wouldn't want to. I couldn't however rely solely on one. There's no voodoo: well written plugins are well written plugins regardless of what platform they're written for.

Esgalachoir · Post by **Esgalachoir** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 6:27 am

I'm extremely tempted to go UAD. The only thing is this, I'm not sure if I want to be patient and save up for a UAD-2 Quad Flexi package, or go with the Duo package sooner with less cash...Thanks for the input everyone, always enjoy hearing others opinions!

chilln · Post by **chilln** » Thu Mar 26, 2009 8:04 am

Esgalachoir wrote:I'm extremely tempted to go UAD. The only thing is this, I'm not sure if I want to be patient and save up for a UAD-2 Quad Flexi package, or go with the Duo package sooner with less cash...Thanks for the input everyone, always enjoy hearing others opinions!

Ahhh, get a Duo and add another one later on. You could always transfer your plugins to a quad later, and sell your duo.

Join in the party! You'll LOVE it.

By the way, UAD-2 Duo is the same as having 5 UAD-1s! I'm only running a few UAD-1s and I'm more than happy with them.

Native vs. UAD, comparisions....