UAD still worth it?

[Uncle E]

Got it. You should be OK here. Any improvements have been minor and free. There was a $10 charge for owners of the DSP versions of the SSL's to get the native versions, and also a charge for Neve 33609 owners to get the Neve 2254, but I think neither of these applies to your concern.

UA would have a tough time charging big money for upgraded algorithms because they're already at such a high level. Yes, there is still room for improvement but nowhere near as much room as when they released MK2 versions of their DSP plugins, which were game changers.

[docbot]

I have only starte UAD native plugs this year and found them absolutely worth it. I know how compression works, but I find it much easier to dial in settings with their hardware emulations like the manley varimu or the la series than using one of those modern compressors with a gazillion settings. They sound good as well to my ears and I just find them easy to dial in settings.

[martinjuenke]

Good stuff.
But unsure when to buy.
Too many sale options.
Overwhelming.
Will do nothing.

[Scotty Ellis]

Good stuff.
But unsure when to buy.
Too many sale options.
Overwhelming.
Will do nothing.

As in the movie Wargames, the only way to win against UAD is to not play.

[Razzia]

Good stuff.
But unsure when to buy.
Too many sale options.
Overwhelming.
Will do nothing.

If I were going to buy more UAD (I'm not, but mostly because I bought a bunch of stuff 5+ years ago when their steepest sales were still around $150/plugin and paying the same as everyone else for bundles I own half of galls me too much) I'd go for the sale at Plugin Boutique. There was a bundle there for $300 that purports to contain over 50 plugins and contains some of the best older plugins and many of their new ones. I think they're calling it Signature Edition 2 or something

[_leras]

Well, the intention was to just show you, that you do not have any logical arguments to why UAD is so amazing other than “ great emulation software” and as long as somebody else critiques or have a different opinion you will argument for the sake of arguing? It just flew over your head. Sorry.

Well, you're missing my point just as much then. If you own the UAD pultec theres really not much to be gained chasing, marginal (if any), improvements from another vendor. If I'm not liking the Pultec on something, I'll just use a different EQ.

I have many plug ins from other vendors that are of high standards too, so I'm hardly in a UAD bubble.

I've used UAD for years, their plug ins (especially the ones developed in house) have always been top tier. They have also always been extremely reliable. The bundles they are offering now are amazing value. I genuinely couldn't think of a single reason not to recommend them to people.

UAD don't cover everything, but what they do have is great. I use them in every mix and I'm constantly impressed at how they sound.

I'm honestly not sure any 'logical arguments' are needed to confirm the UAD standards. It's been obvious for years.

[_leras]

Nah - I don't buy that - dude quoted someone else who claimed that a different Pultec emu was "just as good" as the UAD one with the reply "I doubt it". That's not coming from someone who means "best for me personally" when he claims that something is the best. Dude meant best as in objectively the best - without even having tried the other stuff.

There's just no sane way of defending that sort of ignorant bollox.

If you're talking about me, I said I don't feel the need to chase small improvements for a Pultec EQ as the UAD is very good. It's not an area I need to spend time and energy on.

(I do also doubt the Noiseash pultec is really a step up. You may have tried and have a real opinion?)

Am I missing something and people use and need Pultec on every thing in every mix? No, probably not.

I do also own many non UAD plugins. Overall, I can quantifiably say UAD have the most impact ony mixes by a mile. EQ, comps, channel strips, reverb delays.

Mastering chain, actually not quite so much for whatever reasons.

UAD are at least 'one of the best', and their recent bundles must be 'the best' in terms of value for quality plug ins.

[TmS1]

Well, the intention was to just show you, that you do not have any logical arguments to why UAD is so amazing other than “ great emulation software” and as long as somebody else critiques or have a different opinion you will argument for the sake of arguing? It just flew over your head. Sorry.

Well, you're missing my point just as much then. If you own the UAD pultec theres really not much to be gained chasing, marginal (if any), improvements from another vendor. If I'm not liking the Pultec on something, I'll just use a different EQ.

I have many plug ins from other vendors that are of high standards too, so I'm hardly in a UAD bubble.

I've used UAD for years, their plug ins (especially the ones developed in house) have always been top tier. They have also always been extremely reliable. The bundles they are offering now are amazing value. I genuinely couldn't think of a single reason not to recommend them to people.

UAD don't cover everything, but what they do have is great. I use them in every mix and I'm constantly impressed at how they sound.

I'm honestly not sure any 'logical arguments' are needed to confirm the UAD standards. It's been obvious for years.

I am not refuting UAD's software emulation standard. thy is not related to the end product exposed to the audience targeted by the end user, In a macro scale the consumers are not producers they do not hear Compression neither do they hear differences in harmonic content created by these emulations. There is no science that support this argument, thus ending road is sophistic (Fallacious).

It's important for you, but does not necessary lead to benefit the discussion in a macro level of a ''community'' as KVR.
In other words your subjective view does not contribute to anything other than yourself, along your expressed inability to search out side of the ''box'' (That you seem as correct) also expresses the building stones of the character you portray.

beliefs rather than understanding

I led a conversation based in Customer loyalty, debunking market dynamics which was thrown as means to argument in behalf of UA, debunking subjective views, debunking Moral in business & strategies used to drive sell and last not least debunking subjective attachment to tools regarding personal experience.

Which lead to emotional responses when challenging thus biases.

[Scotty]

Many of us who have been on the platform since the early UAD-1 days (Mackie) have determined that the competition is fierce and UA are just one of many with compelling products. I still like their reverbs and delays but I've moved to IK for their tapes. They were never best in class in the guitar amp sim category and again I give that to IK with Tonex and various others that do component modelling. For EQs and Compressors we have so many choices now. There are countless ways to add a touch of saturation if you want that vibe. I have the UA hardware, 6176 and a pair LA2610s and there are several vendors that do a credible job with those. Their Avalon 737 emulations is pretty close to my pair of hardware 737Sps so I use those now more than hardware. It took UA a long time to get to VST3 and to support resizing. It also took them a long time to model saturation properly and then they resold us new versions and marked the originals which were supposed to have been inspired by god as "legacy". That tells you what you need to know about the effectiveness of their very slick marketing. I do like their products but with a few exceptions here and there they are not "all that". I own a lot of it and I own 6 UAD-2 cards split into two groups. You could do better.

[TmS1]

Many of us who have been on the platform since the early UAD-1 days (Mackie) have determined that the competition is fierce and UA are just one of many with compelling products. I still like their reverbs and delays but I've moved to IK for their tapes. They were never best in class in the guitar amp sim category and again I give that to IK with Tonex and various others that do component modelling. For EQs and Compressors we have so many choices now. There are countless ways to add a touch of saturation if you want that vibe. I have the UA hardware, 6176 and a pair LA2610s and there are several vendors that do a credible job with those. Their Avalon 737 emulations is pretty close to my pair of hardware 737Sps so I use those now more than hardware. It took UA a long time to get to VST3 and to support resizing. It also took them a long time to model saturation properly and then they resold us new versions and marked the originals which were supposed to have been inspired by god as "legacy". That tells you what you need to know about the effectiveness of their very slick marketing. I do like their products but with a few exceptions here and there they are not "all that". I own a lot of it and I own 6 UAD-2 cards split into two groups.

You could do better.

I agree with you, Rather Achieving a macro perspective is often difficult, and in my case, it only became clear after facing economic consequences along with the ties to such policies. This makes the use of unethical marketing tactics to drive sales even more frustrating, specially when they hinder the ability to contribute to a better customer experience. These two cannot coexist. I should have seen that coming.

I have taken that responsibility on my end, recognizing this have led to the duty to provide objective, valuable information to new users rather than relying on my own/ any perception.

I truly appreciate the time and effort you dedicated to deeply explaining and highlighting other existing options. Ours and past interactions have contributed to invaluable knowledge across multiple areas as these events unfolded.

Great feedback, Thanks again!
Until next time.

[VitaminD]

Has anyone here seen an issue with UA Connect where it offers a 'Download' button to update a plugin, but when it is clicked, it downloads the file then goes back to offering you to 'Download' it again? It never completes the update.

This is after reinstalling UA connect with the latest version and rebooting.

Update: I figured out the issue and a solution -- there is a secondary UA Helper process that was disabled. I enabled it and opened the UA connect app and went through the download process. This time it had no troubles.

[_leras]

I am not refuting UAD's software emulation standard. thy is not related to the end product exposed to the audience targeted by the end user, In a macro scale the consumers are not producers they do not hear Compression neither do they hear differences in harmonic content created by these emulations. There is no science that support this argument, thus ending road is sophistic (Fallacious).

It's important for you, but does not necessary lead to benefit the discussion in a macro level of a ''community'' as KVR.
In other words your subjective view does not contribute to anything other than yourself, along your expressed inability to search out side of the ''box'' (That you seem as correct) also expresses the building stones of the character you portray.

I totally disagree. Music consumers may not know what compression is, but they absolutely do hear and feel the difference in sound quality. Even if they only pick it up subconsciously. Don't forget it no coincidence that pop music mixers are the most well paid. Even if you don't like pop there no doubting the mix and production quality of most hit records.

And regarding me, you're again jumping to conclusions. I'll try all sorts of different tools and techniques to make things sound better. What I don't feel the need to do is reach for a maybe better version of something I already own a good quality version of i.e. pultec EQ. But it doesn't mean I won't try other or novel eqs.

(Err... And also doesn't hold for 'flavour' plug ins like distortion, saturation, reverb, delays, which I have too many of. I do feel like I have enough EQ and compression though)

[TmS1]

I am not refuting UAD's software emulation standard. thy is not related to the end product exposed to the audience targeted by the end user, In a macro scale the consumers are not producers they do not hear Compression neither do they hear differences in harmonic content created by these emulations. There is no science that support this argument, thus ending road is sophistic (Fallacious).

It's important for you, but does not necessary lead to benefit the discussion in a macro level of a ''community'' as KVR.
In other words your subjective view does not contribute to anything other than yourself, along your expressed inability to search out side of the ''box'' (That you seem as correct) also expresses the building stones of the character you portray.

beliefs rather than understanding

I totally disagree. Music consumers may not know what compression is, but they absolutely do hear and feel the difference in sound quality. Even if they only pick it up subconsciously. Don't forget it no coincidence that pop music mixers are the most well paid. Even if you don't like pop there no doubting the mix and production quality of most hit records.

And regarding me, you're again jumping to conclusions. I'll try all sorts of different tools and techniques to make things sound better. What I don't feel the need to do is reach for a maybe better version of something I already own a good quality version of i.e. pultec EQ. But it doesn't mean I won't try other or novel eqs.

(Err... And also doesn't hold for 'flavour' plug ins like distortion, saturation, reverb, delays. I do feel like I have enough EQ and compression though)

'Feel' is not objective. If you wanna discuss consumer/audience that's irrelevant to this topic, thus use as mean of argument is fallacious along with the subjectiveness that surrounds it. Consumers do NOT hear UAD plugins, matter fact most of pop mixers use ''Waves plugins'' in the box and across genres, That opened a window for Plugin alliance to compete and get the customer attention as UAD couldn't compete remotely so they got behind due to the nature of their business. They missed the train and now they are trying to pick it up with marketing going native.
Irrelevant to this topic again, just a reminder. Pop mixers success again is not tied to the tools, in that case we would all be famous by by now.

I am not going to be discussing this with you going forward.

[_leras]

I have taken that responsibility on my end, recognizing this have led to the duty to provide objective, valuable information to new users rather than relying on my own/ any perception.

I truly appreciate the time and effort you dedicated to deeply explaining and highlighting other existing options. Ours and past interactions have contributed to invaluable knowledge across multiple areas as these events unfolded.

Great feedback, Thanks again!
Until next time.

Have you even used UAD plug ins? I can't believe you have.

I don't see how it's possible to be so negative about UAD and objective at the same time while the offer such amazingly good value bundles.


You seem so set against them it's frankly a bit ridiculous. Especially when you also say you don't refute their emulation standard. What exactly are you trying to refute?

[_leras]

I still like their reverbs and delays but I've moved to IK for their tapes. They were never best in class in the guitar amp sim category and again I give that to IK with Tonex and various others that do component modelling. For EQs and Compressors we have so many choices now. There are countless ways to add a touch of saturation if you want that vibe.

It took UA a long time to get to VST3 and to support resizing. It also took them a long time to model saturation properly and then they resold us new versions and marked the originals which were supposed to have been inspired by god as "legacy". That tells you what you need to know about the effectiveness of their very slick marketing. I do like their products but with a few exceptions here and there they are not "all that". I own a lot of it and I own 6 UAD-2 cards split into two groups. You could do better.

I am more of the opinion that the few exceptions are the ones that are not all that.

I run dual 2k screens and the sizing, though small at times (i.e. la3a) has always been ok. You just have 4k screens. And the VST2 versions have always worked fine for me, so I haven't been too bothered.

I'm a bit surprised you can complain about the MK2 versions. UAD1 came out in 1999, and the updated (non legacy) versions were all a good step up but also well over a decade later....!!! Should they have never updated these?But you know, some of those early versions like the original LA2A, 1176, pultec are still very useable. The EMT 140 plate reverb is still my favourite plate reverb.

And look they don't have the most obvious saturation offerings, but what they have is great, their tapes can saturate very well, the culture vulture is incredible and the Moog filter has one of the very best ITB distortions, then if you add the various preamps they have added there's a whole different bunch of tones available.

Their more recent stuff has been very very good too. distressor, chambers reverb, API,

Anyway they aren't the only show in town, but they do have some of the best value packages and best quality plug ins. As someone who's invested a lot in UAD over the years and also has hardware cards (though not 6, lol), I think people are being offered amazing packages and will make better quality music. What's not to like.