UAD Spark Subscription model opinions?

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Their plugins are very good, among the best in the industry, but there's a few companies already putting out plugins at or near that quality these days.

do you mean stuff like ? any others you mean?

Sure, you've got companies like DMG Audio, Kush, Softube, PSP (the E27 is up there with any UA EQ), Pulsar, U-he, Relab, even IK Multimedia if you look at their Tape Collection (which is better than the UAD Studer by a long shot), etc. Acustica is kind of it's own thing with their own quirky pros and cons.

There was a whole UAD alternatives thread a while back where lots of examples were given but if you name a UAD plugin, there's usually something in native land of similar quality.

thanks, i havent tried dmg or pulsar (except for the free smasher but heard good things about the vari mu), been meaning to get round to it, havent seen any dmg saturation though

for me in terms of analog sound quality/how close it gets to real analog id say it goes

• acustica/nebula libraries

• softube, uhe, slate about equal

• arturia

• lots of others on a similar level that are all good in different ways - eg psp, soundtoys, ik, audiothing, kush, fuse, black rooster, kazrog, eventide, overloud, tal, sonimus, waves, klanghelm, xln, audified, a few pa ones, klevgrand, wavesfactory, kuassa etc

We'll all have different opinions there. When it comes to Acustica stuff, it really depends on what you're doing. The compressors I've used from them have been super jittery in a very non-analog way. Their preamps are great, EQ's good, their tapes are ok but don't do noise, wow & flutter. So they're not "OMG it's exactly like the hardware". It's more like, "it samples the sound of the hardware but has other flaws." And that's before you get into the latency and CPU. Honestly, 99 times out of a hundred I'll take a good algorithmic over Acustica, but I still will bust out Gold every now and then.

Softube stuff is good, but I can point to where the models fall flat in some areas. Things either not producing THD where they should, or not responding exactly like they should. But overall, high quality plugins. Slate stuff is generally good, but I'd put them on par with Softube. I'd put Kush and Fuse above both. Kush doesn't even claim to do "circuit models" - they'll outright tell you they don't - but their plugins sound incredibly analog to me and respond incredibly well. Note: I test for them. DMG's TrackComp stacks up with the UAD comps IMO. Tone Projects Unisum and Kelvin are just absolutely top-notch and while there's no UAD counterparts, I'd rate them at the very top of the heap. Tokyo Dawn Records is another one. Anything TDR is great and I'd put up there against any UAD plugin. Pulsar made the Arturia compressors from what I recall, their Mu is also really nice, their 1178 [and the Arturia 76] both don't quite saturate correctly though. And when it comes to reverb, you've got Relab, Valhalla, etc. So much good stuff.

I tend to look at individual plugins though. Like I mentioned IK's Tape Collection. While I think most T-Racks plugins have been bettered elsewhere and don't use much of what comes up with T-Racks, their Tapes are top-notch. Eventide's SplitEQ is mind-blowing, Sound Theory's Gullfoss is another. Such a great time to make music.

[j wazza]

We'll all have different opinions there. Tone Projects Unisum and Kelvin are just absolutely top-notch and while there's no UAD counterparts, I'd rate them at the very top of the heap. Tokyo Dawn Records is another one.

yeah its all subjective and out of everything mentioned here that ive tried i rate them all, theyre all different and good in their own way
tdr also great and ssl too
just tried the demo for kelvin and its quality, definitely gonna get that
for effects i mostly just get saturation or weird experimental fx these days as im pretty set for everything else with what i have but you can get so many different flavours of saturation
thats why im not shelling out for uad though as not sure its worth the super high cost just for even more saturators

taipei for nebula is incredible though, it can morph between high end and degraded tape, the other acustica tapes have good depth but are basically presets, and i love crimson, would love verona tube for nebula if it worked properly on my pc, but kelvin actually sounds quite similar, and alexb vinyliser is great, that with taipei can make things sound almost exactly like an old record

[trackbout]

Regarding the returning the hardware approach: why risk it? They could probably pull licenses from iLok accounts in the future for people abusing the system and then you'd be up a creek without a paddle. Either go all-in and get the hardware to keep, or stay out. I wouldn't recommend anyone try to be cute and game the system as that's liable to blow up in your face down the road.

To be fair, there’s nothing in the official response from Universal Audio that in any way implies they consider it abuse, it’s a pretty matter of fact response: https://gearspace.com/board/showpost.ph ... count=1232

I think they’d have a hard time yanking any licenses after that public response. That said, the hardware return strategy does seem like a pretty dumb idea regardless of how UA view it.

I do think UA will live to regret this whole strategy though. Trying to tie 3rd party DSP chips to an iLok license will likely be a total kluge as there will naturally be hardware resales and legitimate returns over time. Seems like they put up one gate too many.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

I do think UA will live to regret this whole strategy though. Trying to tie 3rd party DSP chips to an iLok license will likely be a total kluge as there will naturally be hardware resales and legitimate returns over time. Seems like they put up one gate too many.

My gut feeling is this is meant to be temporary and transitional. Allows them to do their toes in the native and iLok waters without upsetting the existing user base too much and pull back without too much damage done if iLok were to be cracked. But I think if this goes well, they'll ditch the hardware requirement.

[trackbout]

Ya I would not be surprised by that outcome, hope you're right. For my money the ideal iLok strategy is what Eventide, Softube, and Soundtoys do; machine based, perpetual licenses, easy peasy. I don't expect UA to ever go quite that far, but if they do, for native, they will get a bunch of my money.

[noiseboyuk]

Ah, Gotya. They also make other hardware products that use UAD-2 though, not just satellites and apollos, so it looked kinda misleading.

I am not aware of any hardware with DSP other than Apollos and Satellites. What do you have in mind?

Live Rack was a biggie, now discontinued. I was also remembering Arrow, but I see that’s rebadged Apollo Solo.

[DCrown]

Indeed as a 17 year uad veteran gone are the days when they were the only great plugins in town.

Rsp

UAD has a pretty good reputation as for quality. Never used them and do not know them. So I got curious when I heard UAD will release native versions. But then I saw the list of plugins that UAD is going to release. Not sure whether I will even demo now.
I use Waves a lot and am fine with their plugins, do not need more plugins twice or thrice...

[electro]

The 17 are just to start. More later.

[zvenx]

Indeed as a 17 year uad veteran gone are the days when they were the only great plugins in town.

Rsp

UAD has a pretty good reputation as for quality. Never used them and do not know them. So I got curious when I heard UAD will release native versions. But then I saw the list of plugins that UAD is going to release. Not sure whether I will even demo now.
I use Waves a lot and am fine with their plugins, do not need more plugins twice or thrice...

Maybe the newer Waves are indeed in the same category, but for sure, to me the older ones are definitely not.
rsp

[electro]

Compared to the hardware, how good is the mkII CL-1b compressor from Softube.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Compared to the hardware, how good is the mkII CL-1b compressor from Softube.

There’s some YouTube shoot outs.

[ghettosynth]

I think they’d have a hard time yanking any licenses after that public response. That said, the hardware return strategy does seem like a pretty dumb idea regardless of how UA view it.

Unless you're willing to do it more than once. Or, you don't care about all of their plugins. I have a zen interface that I use for a specific purpose, I have no interest in new plugins for that interface.

To be clear, I don't give two shits about UAD plugins, but I do find their interaction at GS to be a bit over the top.

[trackbout]

I think we're basically in agreement. UA does make awesome plugins, but there are LOADS of native developers that make plugins that are as good or better than UA's at this point, so the idea of buying and returning hardware, just to get access to some UA plugins, is about as dumb a thing as you could possibly do with respect to buying plugins.

GS gets zero respect, they are absolute corporate pawns.

[electro]

I think we're basically in agreement. UA does make awesome plugins, but there are LOADS of native developers that make plugins that are as good or better than UA's at this point,

UA has some wicked analog emulations that surpass native like that Type 69 Helios EQ as well as digital exclusives. Not every UAD plugin is the best in its category like it was back in 2002 but there are still enough exclusives to make the hardware worth it. Being away from AMS RMX-16 Extended and SDD-3000 hurt.

[trackbout]

I was specifically talking about the buy-and-return-loophole being a bad idea, but of course if someone has a strong preference for one UA plugin or another, buy and keeping the hardware may be worth it to them. I think there are 20 or 30 native devs that are easily on UA's level, so I personally can't imagine doing it.