UAD still worth it?

[original flipper]

Hi

Many years ago I had the 'PowerCore' external 'hardware' box of tricks - and yes, it was great, but ultimately it was probably no better than the standard software my computer could run - why would it be?
Yes, they will tell you that the box of tricks has specialist chips that give you this and that, but truth be told, it is all much the same - the quality of plugins these days is phenomenal across the board.
If you have spare cash great, go buy a new toy, but otherwise there is such a fantastic choice of plugins available now that nothing UAD offers is any better than what is available elsewhere.

[sacer]

I think it's the opposite. Most compressors from other competitors are far better, their code isn't 10 or more years old and they offer features like sidechain. Offering Comps without sidechain feels like the old Waves Plugins. Maybe UAD has modeled better than Waves, but if you take Softube, Plugin Alliance, Trackcomp2, Overloud they have reached the same or better standard. What I realy like from UAD are the presets to quick dial in.

[musicproducerdee]

They've never ever had sales as big as the current sales. A few days back, they had $49 sales, I'm pretty sure they've never done that before. I could be wrong though, I don't know everything obviously xD.

Yes they had.

Through the years i bought lots of UAD plugins for between 20 and 50 bucks each. And you'll get new coupons when you spend money, plus personal bundle upgrade prices.

Some of them (usually the newer ones) never get really cheap tho. Altho i did buy API Vision for 24 bucks not long after it was released, i think that was a short running sale on a different single plugin each day or something.

But once you get into their eco-system you get bombarded with sales, coupons and whatnot. It's pretty annoying sometimes, unless there's something that you crave

Well, that's good to know, since I do plan to getting their native plugins one by one. At the moment Spark will have to do. API Vision for $24 is insanely good deal. They did send me a coupon as well the other day, but it required me to spend at least $99, which I didn't want to at the moment.

[jamcat]

I was UAD sceptic until i tried after it went Native. Plugins are great, but so are non-uad, just UAD are better (Pultec for example).

The NoiseAsh Pultecs (“Rule Tec”) are just as good as UAD.

[Lbdunequest]

I was UAD sceptic until i tried after it went Native. Plugins are great, but so are non-uad, just UAD are better (Pultec for example).

The NoiseAsh Pultecs (“Rule Tec”) are just as good as UAD.

Maybe, but i already got UAD Pultec for 49 eu, so no need anymore for another pultec

[_leras]

I was UAD sceptic until i tried after it went Native. Plugins are great, but so are non-uad, just UAD are better (Pultec for example).

The NoiseAsh Pultecs (“Rule Tec”) are just as good as UAD.

I doubt very much that this is true. I wouldn’t even be sure they’d match the v1 of the UAD pultec.

The UAD ones are good to the level I don’t think I need to try any others.

[_leras]

I looked at UAD some years ago and then looked for the list how much resources each plugin used. Then some time after that listing was gone, nothing they want people to know obviously.

With todays computers they could just as well made all plugins native and not needing the hardware. Back in the day the hardware was needed to reduce cpu on computer daw, but hardly needed anymore. It's basically a 20 year old concept and how strong computers were back then.

EDIT: seems they have native bundles also today, but not sure how much from plugin line that are there. Must check out a bit more.

Also it seems you can use iLok usb dongle according to this
https://help.uaudio.com/hc/en-us/articl ... h-iLok-USB

So might be dependent on which product series you bought.

Thanks for sharing what you looked up a few years ago. Very helpful of you.

Pretty sure they have always said how many instances of a plug in can run on one of their dsp cores. They have always just tried to make the best emulations possible. UAD forums and users mainly want quality above efficiency.

They do have some plug ins native now and more will be ported for sure, but I still like the fact that a bunch of compute is taken off the cpu onto dsp cards, I can run other native plug ins and lots of soft synths as well as my UAD stuff.

[lfm]

They do have some plug ins native now and more will be ported for sure, but I still like the fact that a bunch of compute is taken off the cpu onto dsp cards, I can run other native plug ins and lots of soft synths as well as my UAD stuff.

For those that yet did not discover freeze/bounce options in daw that is essential, of course, thinking all need to run realtime.

Use a daw with one button press to freeze and release resources, and same going other way. Smooth as anything. But have not tried if that release with disable a plugin actually free anything on UAD dsp processors also, or need to be removed.

About "some years ago" it was just heads up that not fresh information and something to check out. A lot of people are not aware there are limitations other than system cpu, but on the dsp processors too. As I wasn't aware some years ago and a turn off IMO.

But a lot of praise for UAD so I am sure good stuff. Just rather pleased with Waves as I learned those plugins well now.

[jamcat]

I was UAD sceptic until i tried after it went Native. Plugins are great, but so are non-uad, just UAD are better (Pultec for example).

The NoiseAsh Pultecs (“Rule Tec”) are just as good as UAD.

I doubt very much that this is true. I wouldn’t even be sure they’d match the v1 of the UAD pultec.

The UAD ones are good to the level I don’t think I need to try any others.

I did direct A:B comparisons.

[hurricaneaudiolab]

UAD versions of the 1176, LA-2A, LA-3A, Pultec, 224, Dimension D, Fairchild, and Space Echo are exceptional, and they're so good that I'm not searching for better, because UAD's versions are already there.

jamcat just seems to have something against UAD, and it's not clear to me why.

[Erik_Lucas]

I've actually stopped using UAD. To be honest, I've stopped using hardware emulations altogether (except for products released by Pulsar Modular, which arent exactly emulations).

[MogwaiBoy]

(except for products released by Pulsar Modular, which arent exactly emulations).

How are they not emulations? Are they 'sampled' like Acustica Audio?

[jamcat]

UAD versions of the 1176, LA-2A, LA-3A, Pultec, 224, Dimension D, Fairchild, and Space Echo are exceptional, and they're so good that I'm not searching for better, because UAD's versions are already there.

jamcat just seems to have something against UAD, and it's not clear to me why.

I have nothing against UAD. Earlier I said UA are one of the few developers who really care about accuracy.

I’m just realistic. UAD plugins have the same limitations as everyone else. They’re always good, but it’s just not true that there aren’t others that are as good or even better. And they really can no longer justify the disparity in price.

Audiority’s Chorus Ensembler is better than UAD’s CE-1 model. Arturia and IK’s 1176 models are as good as UAD’s. But UAD’s 1176 can do any combination of buttons, not just “all in.” That’s what I mean about their attention to accuracy.

IK’s LA-2A is as good as UAD’s, except that IK didn’t include the R37 pre-emphasis, because IK just doesn’t care about accuracy as much as UAD.

UAD’s Pultec is clearly better than IK’s, but not NoiseAsh’s. And the Lindell Audio plugins are on par with UAD.

IK’s Hammond/Leslie are better. IK’s Studer also edges out UAD’s. But it takes 3x as much CPU for a 3% improvement.

And of course Relab’s Lexicon 480L is head and shoulders above UAD’s.

The models I am most interested in from Universal Audio aren’t available for Spark. Things like the Helios channel strip.

[rasmusklump]

AudioThing Space Echo is better than UAs

[ueberlicht_]

I think there are many alternative like PluginAllicance, Slate and some roboters twitsting the real stuff. So iam not hyped to UAD, but i think they are sounding very good. What is hyping me: SSL bought Harrison