** Audio effect processing on your video card **

[Amberience]

Me too!

[xg2]

that's what I was asking myself - could you use an old mpact2 card to run the ua software on it?
Could you maybe 'quadpunp' it on your own?

If so it would mean you could buy one uad-1 to get the software and then 'upgrade' the cpu easily by just putting anoother one of those cards inside your machine.

It probably isn't that simple, or is it?

yeah I'm wondering this too..


but so far I havent seen any proof that says UAD was an old video card.. just a lot of heresay and no proof... not to say it isnt true but lets see the facts for ourselves - where are they?

Well, they're certainly not on the UAD-1 website, since the manufacturers skate nicely around the simple question: what DSP is on the card!!!

Because it's a $5 chip, no doubt.

[xg2]

Thats why this GPU/audio thing sounds great If it can give the UAD, Powercore etc some competition, they may be forced to actually make cards with decent technology for a fair price!

Here, here. But I'd prefer to see them go bust because they refuse to bring down the price of their $10 UAD-1 card to something more reasonable. If BionicFX can do what they say they can, it will mean the UAD-1 and Powercore will have to drop their prices through the floor to compete - everybody's got a 3D graphics card, and probably a quite powerful one at that.

[xg2]

Well done BrianBrian!
Notice the similarity in the two cards below?







I remember when I was telling the 'Clique' on the SOS forum that the UAD-1 card was way overpriced, they defended it to the hilt, I said I bet the DSP was a $5.00 one that was so old that's why Universal Audio were afraid to tell their customers what it was, but I couldn't find out what the chip was - and now you've solved the whole mystery with one picture! Way to go!

[xg2]

You've got a point... but if this thing were able to run Voxengo quality plugins (I would've said Waves, but they're shit in my opinion!) and stuff like Torben's plugins, then thats gotta be competition for the Powercore and UAD1.

Plus a quality graphics card is WAAYY cheaper than a UAD1.

A whole PC is WAAYYY cheaper than a UAD1, or a Winfast S800 graphics card from 1997...

[Amberience]

[jens]

I remember when I was telling the 'Clique' on the SOS forum that the UAD-1 card was way overpriced, they defended it to the hilt, I said I bet the DSP was a $5.00 one that was so old that's why Universal Audio were afraid to tell their customers what it was, but I couldn't find out what the chip was - and now you've solved the whole mystery with one picture! Way to go!

I don't think it's overprized - you pay for the fx not for the card - the card is a dongle which even gives a bonus instead of just eating up an usb-slot

[EKen]

http://www.sonicstate.com/articles/article.cfm?id=24
"Now, the Powercore has 5 discrete processors - a PowerPC and four Motorola 56k DSP's, which computer nerds the world over will tell you is a lot of DSP power and about the equivalent of a 2.8MHz computer."
The element is about $650. The key to this GPU technology is the fact you already have a video card, and laptops have no PCI slots and most are using NVIDIA chipsets. The Powercore comes with 7 or 8 plugins and basically a second computer. If someone writes 7-8 good plugins that use a NVIDIA GPU and sell them all bundled for $100 they will sell alot of them and make some money. If they sell them for $200-800 a piece, a few professionals might buy them, but who else. Sell five hundred at $300 or sell thousands for $75-100. NVIDIA would make out if they bought out the company and included them with the high-end cards. Some of these companies do not understand the market very well. There are hundreds of thousands of home musicians, who have a tough time forking out 200-300$ for Sonar or Cubase. If my core recording system is $300, what fraction of that is reasonable to spend on effects? If I spend $1000 on a guitar and $1000 on a Marshall stack, am I going to spend $10,000 on pedals? The hardware versions of digital effects are running software (albeit firmware) and include the hardware. A software effect should be cheaper than the hardware version, especially if the hardware is digital and has spidf out. Someone needs to find the "sweet spot" in pricing and the market will follow. In the end it is about the quality and price.

[Amberience]

There are so many people out there making music that to charge extortionate prices for this technology is business suicide.

I'd buy a £400 graphic card. But I would not buy a £600 DSP card.

Remember a graphic card is going to do the audio stuff as well as the visual stuff. Plus if you get a dual-head... two monitors.

I think this technology is the future of DSP.

[meister eder]

Notice the similarity in the two cards below?

Not really. Care to enlighten me?

[defjamm]

brianbrian quoth Universal Audio's UAD-1 dsp card is really a hacked graphics card running UA's drivers and software..

Proof?

There's a lot of speculation about this around.

What we do know is that UAD1 is based on a "scrap yard" chip that nobody else but the UAD1 inventor thought would be suitable for audio use. They "quad pumped" it to 1ghz from 250mhz to make it even faster.

Can't remember his name but it's the same guy who designed Oasys (among other things). There's an interview about this on the net.

There are literally thousands of DSP chips around suitable for audio. Who knows what theirs really is...

It's based on such a crappy chip that they won't even tell their customers what it is - because it probably only costs $5.00...

i don't care about the chip because the emulations smoke everything else out there. you pay for the software, not for the dsp, the card is only a dongle, and a great one in ua's case, because it works. and it isn't even expensive, people should be thankful to the low prices. stop the uad-1 bashing and look at powercore, now that's what i call expensive(but not for pros).

[Amberience]

£740 is expensive in my book. Compare that to the price of a decent graphic card to power this upcoming tech.

I've got a feeling that the effects are going to kick ass. But I also think that if some good companies get on board, then we could have some extra impressive effects.

[Sicklecell666]

yeah..so far sounds pretty good...






























for me to poop on

[VitaminD]

Thats why this GPU/audio thing sounds great If it can give the UAD, Powercore etc some competition, they may be forced to actually make cards with decent technology for a fair price!

Here, here. But I'd prefer to see them go bust because they refuse to bring down the price of their $10 UAD-1 card to something more reasonable. If BionicFX can do what they say they can, it will mean the UAD-1 and Powercore will have to drop their prices through the floor to compete - everybody's got a 3D graphics card, and probably a quite powerful one at that.

do you really believe that? with big (known and respected names) like tc, access, and novation, sony oxford line of plugins and synths for one powered card

and mackie (well known and respected) with their card creating models of UA and Pultec equipment..

...well BionicFX have their work cut out for them if they REALLY wish to make both of their competitors lower their prices anymore... especially when you need a specific line of videocard (nvidia) that is current line (old $50 440mx wont cut it)

even though its currently beyond my budget I still personally think $400 (what it costs currently with the rebate) for a powercore is right about where I'd price it.. it (or its own successor) is on my list.

[Robert Randolph]

mackie has nothing to do with the uad-1. They distributed it for a while... that's all.

Universal Audio does it.. heance UAD-1

great company