UAD still worth it?

[TMaudio]

Who cares about a 1 second blur, jeeeez

[djanthonyw]

I recently demoed a bunch of their plugins since they're having their sale and they are good, but there's still better options that don't require using ilok. I was mainly interested in the Minimoog and SSL bundle, but Arturia's new Min V4 is just as good and there's still not anything that touches Acoustica's Sand for SSL.

AFAIK, you can now use machine activation with UAD plugins.

Yes, but it's still through PACE/iLok.

[jamcat]

But why does iLok matter, if it's machine authorization?
The rap on iLok was always that you had to buy it, keep it connected to your computer, and it was a liability that could get lost, stolen, or damaged. Machine authorization is totally transparent. Unlike iLok Cloud, it doesn't even require an internet connection to use.

If you're against machine authorization too, then at that point you're just complaining.

[bnz]

Has anyone ever tried to buy a custom bundle with the Apollo versions of Neve 1073 and/or 1084 despite not having an Apollo interface to get the native versions? There is a message box "Products in your cart require an Apollo or UAD hardware, but you don't currently own one. Please remove products to continue." on checkout, but the process seems to not be interrupted. There is still the "Pay now" button clickable.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Has anyone ever tried to buy a custom bundle with the Apollo versions of Neve 1073 and/or 1084 despite not having an Apollo interface to get the native versions? There is a message box "Products in your cart require an Apollo or UAD hardware, but you don't currently own one. Please remove products to continue." on checkout, but the process seems to not be interrupted. There is still the "Pay now" button clickable.

First, there is no native 1084. At all. Doesn't exist. Has not been ported to native. So what would you be buying? A DSP only plugin for a DSP processor you don't own?

And I'm not 100% sure the 1073 would work at all if it's not registered to UAD hardware. So you'd be taking a huge gamble there. And they're going out of their way to warn you about that with that message.

Either find alternatives for both, or just buy ANY piece of UAD hardware and register it. Or, if the problem is that you have money you really don't want, send it over here. I'll put it to much better use.

[bnz]

So your answer is that you don't know. But thanks for the pointer with the 1084 not being native. That I have indeed misunderstood.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

So your answer is that you don't know. But thanks for the pointer with the 1084 not being native. That I have indeed misunderstood.

Ok, I'll give you my best answer to the only question in your original post, "Has anyone ever tried to buy a custom bundle with the Apollo versions of Neve 1073 and/or 1084 despite not having an Apollo interface to get the native versions?" Answer: I have no way of knowing but it would be really dumb to try for the reasons I stated.

Are you sure that's the question you meant to ask? Or did you mean to ask, "can I ignore all the warnings and buy the 1073 without owning DSP hardware and have the native version work anyway?"

The answer to that is, almost certainly not. UA knows which accounts have UA hardware registered to them and which plugins are registered on each piece of UA hardware. That's a requirement for the 1073 plugin. If you don't meet that requirement, it won't work. Otherwise, it would just be a native plugin for sale to everyone. For whatever reason, AMS-Neve doesn't want it available natively to everyone, so they've limited it to being a native freebie for anyone with the DSP card+1073 plugin.

But try anyway. I'd love to see what happens!

[bnz]

Yes, I know all that. In case you didn't notice, I have asked whether anybody has tried this because I don't want to spend my own money for that gamble you are so keen to point out multiple times.

[martinjuenke]

There are so many Neve 1073 emulations on the market, why not use one of them?

[jamcat]

The native UADx 1073 most certainly works without a dsp card registered to your account. It’s included in Spark. You can buy it from a 3rd party vendor and register it to your uaudio account. Universal Audio just won’t let you buy it from uaudio.com without qualifying hardware. All of this has been confirmed on Gearspice.

[Uncle E]

Gearspice is a way better name. “He who controls the spice, controls the universe.”

[stoopicus]

I am sure it's been covered in the 114 previous pages that I am way too lazy to read but I just wanted to mention that UAD's plugin version of the Distressor is outstanding.

[jamcat]

Gearspice is a way better name. “He who controls the spice, controls the universe.”

You may recall this exchange...

[Uncle E]

You may recall this exchange...

Company officials coming here to invade our space.

[jamcat]

And our spice!