Universal Audio Signature Bundle for £299 instead of £8716??

[Dirtgrain]

I also will not buy more UAD until they allow machine authentication--my internet is spotty.

[martiu]

my internet is spotty.

spotify?

[nusound mind]

What an ordeal this turned out to be. I'm lurking a thread at uad forums and UAD is having the proverbial trains run on them and tbh I think for many I'd say fair play if you bought a bundle mere weeks (days?) ago for the same price you can now get dozens more plugins for in these repackaged bundles.

How would people rank this compared to the infamous Waves and other similar software plugin controversies recently? On principle this is up there w/ dick moves imo.

I paid more myself but didn't fare as badly as some and have great UAD plugins to work with so it's a wash to me. I only pay attention for a mix of schreudenfraude (spelled that wrong, probably) and sympathy w/ the batch of newer customers who got rug pulled hard.

[jamcat]

Universal Audio is teaching their customers and potential customers to hold on to their money and wait for a better deal just around the corner. I won't be spending any money with Universal Audio again for at least 6 months. I think a lot of other people will be doing the same. Once bitten, twice shy.

[noiseboyuk]

How would people rank this compared to the infamous Waves and other similar software plugin controversies recently? On principle this is up there w/ dick moves imo.

For me, it not the same. But it does fascinate me.

(puts kettle on)

When the first UAD deals came out, people here couldn't believe it. Wow, look at this amazing value from the best developer! People were falling over themselves to get the rolling voucher deals, sharing all the tips in the gamified system. Then the bundles came along, and those deals were even better. Those who went for the rolling bundles looked like suckers. Then the NEW bundles came along and the second wave looked like suckers.

From those first deals, looked at from one perspective, UAD were shafting their existing user base who had spent many many thousands. And the reaction from the newbies wasn't sympathy for the old loyal customer base, it was "ha ha suckers I just got a great deal".

And then they came for you.

But on the other hand... what is the actual worth of these plugins in the first place? There's been - seems to me - a presumpation for years that UAD are better than, say, Waves, almost entirely based on cost, psychologically familiar UIs and famous branding. Oh, and originally that there was hardware involved, which always felt satisfyingly real even if that was an illusion too. I've always felt that in a double blind test, few of us could actually tell the difference with a good - and much cheaper - competitor. So was it, in fact, the people who paid full whack for comforting psychology that are the real suckers here?

DISCLAIMER - not saying that there is never any difference. But am saying there's always been a huge, huge psychological component to brand worth, and most customers don't fully recognise that.

UAD have moved to a different business model, and the peasants are revolting. I can understand why. But as a consumer, you have to reject the "no brainer" temptation that because something was once "worth" one amount, it has to be a good deal now it is a lot less. Really? Do you NEED it? Or will it just make you feel good for a moment to see those lovely realistic UIs?

Conversely, if you picked up 30 plugins last month for a song that you really value, then just be happy with that. They're exactly the same products that you paid for. Jesus told a parable about this, incidentally. He would clearly have made a lousy plugin developer and would have got crucified.

Oh.

Every deal, every purchase is Las Vegas. We don't know what is coming. If you REALLY care about devaluation, then just stick to the very few companies who never do sales, like Spectrasonics (always admired how canny and consistent they are, and how they add worth through free feature updates, not discounted deals). Otherwise at some point you're gonna get burned by no-brainer deals. Or at least you will feel burned. How much that actually pisses you off is up to you.

None of this has anything to do with some of the other 2023 dramas imo, it's a totally different thing. In the case of Waves, they would have made your existing purchases redundant in time when lost in an OS upgrade. Kinda theft. With Minimal, they tried to force customers into a very expensive rental model. With NI, they wanted to mandate advertising in your paid plugin. All of these things actively devalue or eliminate your paid purchase without any regard to someone else getting a better deal, which in the end is just envy.

Incidentally, I have used the UAD LA-2A on every vocal track for years. Absolutely love it. I could probably exchange it for others and not notice, but I don't want to cos why should I - the UAD looks and feels right (sucker is me). Then UAD release a free version, and I discover to my joy I can machine license this on my macbook. Terrific! And look, it's only $30 to update to the full LA-2A bundle! No brainer! But I actually didn't take that - those $30 deals are iLok Cloud licenses, and I only use one model anyway. The free one is worth more to me than the paid.

[nusound mind]

Personally I'm looking forward to the day when I can get the culture vulture, that moog filter and the timecube for $14. Aside from that another reverb or compressor or eq is the last thing I want or need. I personally love the sound of UAD as well incl. their synths and their organ so they get alot of mileage already, I just wish more of their compressors had external sidechain, esp. the DBX, 1176, 176 and la2a's. The API one works well enough I don't get why they can't slap it on the other ones too.

[koalaboy]

I love UAD because the hardware takes some load away that I don't need my PC to cope with. I also love the Moog filter and a few of the other plugins.

I hate them because Windows has long been a second-class citizen (no chance of Luna), and if you buy a USB DSP-based device, it won't ever work on Mac, as the don't provide drivers - only for thunderbolt. I hate them because their recent synths are not DSP capable.

Aside from the above, I honestly couldn't care less. The hardware was what I bought in for, and it lives alongside everything else. I will still use the DSP plugins, because that's why I bought them. I do support smaller devs a lot more, but brand loyalty is futile, as the wonderful Benn Jordan

[nusound mind]

I completely forgot the thing I found most egregious and that is the bit about deleting things from forums and their website and going so far as to ask other posters to delete their own posts that included the UAD's rep quotes and the whole wayback machine alleged proof of such behavior. IF that is true, then that's the real rub imo. All the rest is buyer beware, market forces at work kind of thing. Waves plugins once cost a pretty penny too and devalued over time.

[jamcat]

What do you mean by this?

and if you buy a USB device, it won't ever work on Mac.

[koalaboy]

What do you mean by this?

and if you buy a USB device, it won't ever work on Mac.

Sorry - I forgot that they make non-DSP USB devices now. I meant the DSP devices - those (like Apollo or the DSP Satellites) with USB are Windows only. I'll edit my post.

[pavvel]

I have found the software ilok pretty good. Much better than when it was dongle based. I haven’t really had any probs with it.

I assume you're talking about iLok Cloud since that is what UAD uses, and I haven't had any issues with it either. I will never use machine authorization again after losing a Mac and having it take months to get my licenses back.

Yes ilok cloud

[beely]

I see people are stating the UADx plugins are "iLok Cloud" licenses. They are protected by iLok, and can be activated to two of the three activation destinations supported by iLok - that is, a physical iLok USB dongle, *or* an iLok Cloud session (which requires being online).

The only thing UA don't generally support is machine activations (alas, as it is my preferred choice), because it is seen as less secure than the other two methods - with the one exception being the free LA-2A, which supports dongle and machine activation (no iLok Cloud, because it's more expensive to implement, which they decided they didn't want to do for a free plugin).

Honestly, I'm happy with my pretty inexpensive UADx haul I picked up over the summer, and the bundle thing doesn't affect me (although some of UA's recent marketing choices have been, umm, let's say "eyebrow-raising" recently...)

[hmusic]

just bought this for $240. First time using UAD and am very very impressed with the plugins.

Messageboards are a shitshow though.

just checked my email and looked through the UAD promotions. Can understand why people are upset.

They really pushed "Bundle month" where you could get the Diamond bundle (28 plugins) for $399 a week ago. Now the new Signature bundle (44 plugins) is $299. And UAD is offering people who bought Diamond the chance to upgrade to Signature for $150.

That is very nasty.

It's probably going to be 54 plugins for $200 for Black Friday and I'm going to feel like an idiot.

[medienhexer]

schreudenfraude (spelled that wrong, probably)

Schadenfreude


I myself was rather cautious. Only handed them 50 bucks for the whatever bundle because the LA2As don’t seem to suffer from getting narrow and muffled when compressing hard and the plate reverb sounds just lovely.

Now they know what they’re doing because the Distressor alone is basically worth the signature bundle price. Or used to be. But by not giving any discount for what you already have, they’re basically ascribing zero value to it in the future. Makes you wonder.

It’s a shame because their stuff seems to be really good, perhaps actually better than the Waves and PA stuff. But at this point, who doesn’t have more tools than they need? Even the DAW-internal stuff is SO GOOD now…

[pavvel]

just bought this for $240. First time using UAD and am very very impressed with the plugins.

Messageboards are a shitshow though.

just checked my email and looked through the UAD promotions. Can understand why people are upset.

They really pushed "Bundle month" where you could get the Diamond bundle (28 plugins) for $399 a week ago. Now the new Signature bundle (44 plugins) is $299. And UAD is offering people who bought Diamond the chance to upgrade to Signature for $150.

That is very nasty.

It's probably going to be 54 plugins for $200 for Black Friday and I'm going to feel like an idiot.

Definitely a weird pricing structure going on but I can’t see it getting less than this price. Which ever way you look at it it’s pretty good value…for now.