UAD still worth it?

[plexuss]

I'm a little hooked. Started with Essential out of curiosity. Was happy with the products and am now looking at upgrading to Signature. I am just demoing some of the Signature products and am equally impressed. I enjoy working with modeled analogue plugins so these products are right up my alley. Looks like Signature will give me around 14 new products I dont have from other devs, about 12 that are redundant but might offer a different vibe, and about 8 that over-lap with other UAD products from Essential I bought. Still for $275 it seems like a good deal. I was just trying the Lexicon 224 and although I have other plugins that are 224-ish, I dialed a reverb in for the Electra 88 and it sounded very sweet, better than any of the 224-ish ones I've heard. I think I'll go for Signature...

[macmuse]

Is there an actual upgrade to Signature? It seemed like it is the same price no matter whether you own other UAD or own nothing.

[plexuss]

Is there an actual upgrade to Signature? It seemed like it is the same price no matter whether you own other UAD or own nothing.

From what I am seeing its $500 right now (in the UAD store, logged out). If I log in, the price drops to $300. On PB and AD's sites, they have the $300 bundle listed as "upgrade from any UAD plugin". So there is an upgrade path to Signature but it's actual value depends on what you already own. Best deal would have been to upgrade when L2A2 was free and they gave a $25 welcome coupon. Then the "upgrade" to Signature would be $250 with stacked coupons (allowed). In my case I bought Essential and Opal for $100. Signature is $275 because I didnt get a welcome coupon because I bought it on PB. so my total outlay would be $375. etc. they dont really optimize their bundles and prices very well taking into account existing users. I am still on the fence about getting Signature...

[macmuse]

Thank you, now I see what my misconception was. I was perpetually logged in when I had checked the sale recently and thought the discounted price I saw there was their holiday sale price, when it was actually my price. My bad.

[Greenstorm33]

I am still on the fence about getting Signature...

[jamcat]

Is it too early to start speculating what the next UAD port will be?

I seem to recall someone from Universal Audio saying they would be releasing new plugins for UADx every 4 to 6 weeks. Anyone have a link to that statement?

[_leras]

I think I'll go for Signature...

Not sure what's already in essential, but it's a cracking bundle in total for sure.

All you'd need for tape, EQ, reverb, compression for channels and bus, plus vocal channels and then all the instruments...

Things 175/176, and the chambers are sleepers imo.

[gaggle of hermits]

Is it too early to start speculating what the next UAD port will be?

I seem to recall someone from Universal Audio saying they would be releasing new plugins for UADx every 4 to 6 weeks. Anyone have a link to that statement?

I’m pretty sure drew has mentioned that kind of timescale a number of times on uadforum and gearspace. but they did a big drop in November to give themselves a bit of space and I think they did something similar around the summer sale. I’d expect posts from Apollo owners about new iLok licences turning up towards the end of next week when the sale is finished (though they might extend it again).

found one of them from around a year ago (it turned up in a search more easily than I expected): https://uadforum.com/community/index.ph ... ost-438477

[plexuss]

I've just started on my journey as a UA customer. I wasnt sure what to expect considering I've read both good and bad things about UA. Right off the bat there was an issue with communication of their offers and coupons. I wont go into details - however I contacted them and asked how it all worked. They got back to me with details. I explained to them where I felt there were gaps and they promptly came up with an more-than-equitable solution. Not only did they happily meet my expectations but they exceeded them. My initial experiences so far are pretty good and am looking forward to digging into these tools!

[elxsound]

I've just started on my journey as a UA customer. I wasnt sure what to expect considering I've read both good and bad things about UA. Right off the bat there was an issue with communication of their offers and coupons. I wont go into details - however I contacted them and asked how it all worked. They got back to me with details. I explained to them where I felt there were gaps and they promptly came up with an more-than-equitable solution. Not only did they happily meet my expectations but they exceeded them. My initial experiences so far are pretty good and am looking forward to digging into these tools!

Seems to be the way they do business and likely no plans to fix it out the gate for any future releases or future sales/promos.

I’m still not happy with the required back and forth to receive a “fair” deal but I am happy with the software.

[jamcat]

I’d expect posts from Apollo owners about new iLok licences turning up towards the end of next week when the sale is finished (though they might extend it again).

Could turn out to be fool’s gold, though, like the ATR-102. They ported that one to LUNA (which generated a new iLok license), but so far, not to UADx.

[gaggle of hermits]

I wouldn't be surprised if January's turned out to be the atr. it would be an easier porting job to just make it for UADx as they've already converted from sharc, they won't revisit or expand the bundles for a year or so and the next big sale would be the midsummer one, so there's guaranteed revenue from one of the more reputed plugins.

they will probably want something "big" to get the money rolling after the sale, so I'd be surprised if it was something more along the lines of the la-3a (though I don't dislike the la-3a the way some do, though it would be fair to say it's a more Waves-like emulation than some - ie it replicates the behaviour if not the precise distortion profile of the real McCoy).

[jamcat]

Something to keep in mind too is a lot of the UAD plugins were developed by 3rd parties, so those won't likely be part of UADx. Many of them are already native, like everything from Brainworx and Eventide. But I was surprised to discover the Dytronics stuff (Tri-Stereo Chorus, Cyclosonic Panner) was actually developed by Softube. And then there are others like Neve and AMS (which technically are the same company) where they seem to be very restrictive about what they can be included in. And that could go for any of the other companies involved. It could even be why Ampex is in LUNA but not UADx/Spark.

[gaggle of hermits]

the Neve preamp is in spark, though this might just be an oddity of how it's licensed from ams/neve.

there was a lot of third-party stuff in the last drop, so maybe it's a uad classic like the precision limiter or the Cambridge eq (though that one's probably not a major draw for newcomers). but, really it's a guessing game right now. I just think looking at the money, they want something tempting in the next couple of weeks.

[mothra]

And then there are others like Neve and AMS (which technically are the same company) where they seem to be very restrictive about what they can be included in. And that could go for any of the other companies involved. It could even be why Ampex is in LUNA but not UADx/Spark.

I'm kind of wondering if this is why none of the SSL stuff has made it too. SSL may have some deal where they can't release that natively.. I was hoping to get the UA's to replace my Waves ones, SSL's E channel is over $300 and that and the 4KB never go on sale.