UADx Opal Morphing Synthesizer

[simmo75]

I thought UA went native, but I can’t buy because I don’t have there dongle/interface, or have a subscription?

[db3]

I did the Spark trial out of curiosity. Opal sounds really good and the collection of plugins are all good for sure — but not necessary any better than other options making a sub pointless. I'd perhaps buy the odd UA plug if they started selling the native ones individually at attractive pricepoints.

[dubguy99]

I thought UA went native, but I can’t buy because I don’t have there dongle/interface, or have a subscription?

Their system is a bit complicated (I think on purpose, they're trying to transition away from DSP in a way that doesn't upset the people that spent thousands on DSP cards etc). If you don't have UAD DSP hardware, you can only subscribe for native plugins. If you have their hardware, you can buy the permanent DSP version. If you own the DSP version of a plugin and it gets included in the Spark subscription, you get a permanent native version.

[dubguy99]

I did the Spark trial out of curiosity. Opal sounds really good and the collection of plugins are all good for sure — but not necessary any better than other options making a sub pointless. I'd perhaps buy the odd UA plug if they started selling the native ones individually at attractive pricepoints.

I wouldn't say all the plugins are better than other options but some of them are quickly becoming favorites for me. I understand the aversion to subs but I think 20 dollars a month for a growing collection of top tier plugins that used to cost ~150$ each is not a bad deal. It's certainly a better value proposition than the Slate or PA subs, if you ask me.

[_leras]

I thought UA went native, but I can’t buy because I don’t have there dongle/interface, or have a subscription?

Their system is a bit complicated (I think on purpose, they're trying to transition away from DSP in a way that doesn't upset the people that spent thousands on DSP cards etc). If you don't have UAD DSP hardware, you can only subscribe for native plugins. If you have their hardware, you can buy the permanent DSP version. If you own the DSP version of a plugin and it gets included in the Spark subscription, you get a permanent native version.

I think most users fine with the Native Versions. In fact view them favourably. People with cards can still offload some processing to them. Still useful.

There's a less latency now from native and not using the DSP.

I haven't fully looked into this in detail, as a card owner, I can just use the plug ins that I own.

Seems like it's just a subscription? I'm not a huge fan of subscriptions, but if it gets out to the full UAD collection at that price it will be fairly good value. I'm sure most UAD users spend more than that on average per year.

[dubguy99]

I thought UA went native, but I can’t buy because I don’t have there dongle/interface, or have a subscription?

Their system is a bit complicated (I think on purpose, they're trying to transition away from DSP in a way that doesn't upset the people that spent thousands on DSP cards etc). If you don't have UAD DSP hardware, you can only subscribe for native plugins. If you have their hardware, you can buy the permanent DSP version. If you own the DSP version of a plugin and it gets included in the Spark subscription, you get a permanent native version.

I think most users fine with the Native Versions. In fact view them favourably. People with cards can still offload some processing to them. Still useful.

There's a less latency now from native and not using the DSP.

I haven't fully looked into this in detail, as a card owner, I can just use the plug ins that I own.

Seems like it's just a subscription? I'm not a huge fan of subscriptions, but if it gets out to the full UAD collection at that price it will be fairly good value. I'm sure most UAD users spend more than that on average per year.

I meant that it would've pissed some people off if they had released the entire collection at once. I think they're drip feeding plugins to the sub so they can phase out DSP without destroying their premium image/brand. At the estimate of 1-2 new plugins a month given by UAD it will take years for the full collection to be native.

[_leras]

I meant that it would've pissed some people off if they had released the entire collection at once. I think they're drip feeding plugins to the sub so they can phase out DSP without destroying their premium image/brand. At the estimate of 1-2 new plugins a month given by UAD it will take years for the full collection to be native.

I think it's just the rate they can port them over and test them properly tbh.

I think existing owners lean on the side that having them native as well as on DSP is a good thing. The discussion on what would replace UAD2 has been going on for years now.

[_leras]

If you think a sub to UAD might work for you and like analog sounding synths I really recommend giving this a try. Cause it sounds divine. Even just the basic oscillator and filter tone. It's sort of a RePro5 meets Massive X. And it has dual continuously state variable filters, which neither of those have. FM and Sync sounds are some of the best I've heard. Great internal FX including an awesome comb filter. Wavetable part is a little rudimentary compared to others but I can live with that given how good it sounds.

I just got this in the UAD sale today. I think it sounds very good. Alive. I'm very impressed from a first quick session with it.

Pro5/Massive X is a fairly good description. I thought some tones overlapped with the Arturia buchla easel as well.

It's not as wide ranging as Massive X, but it's core tone is a bit more real and analog. The filters are pretty clean, but there's two to massive X's one. Some great distortion tones.

[zerocrossing]

Just tried Opal. The sound is amazing, but sadly, no polyphonic aftertouch means no purchase. I hope they update it soon to at least support the basic MIDI spec.

[nusound mind]

One of my top synths now. I made a patch with it that tipped the scales on getting a uad bundle. Glad they went native w/ out the sub, it's perfect having uad w/out the need for hardware or a sub. Opal can crush cpu though if you max out voices. The sound is among the best I've heard itb.

[Sinisterbr]

The demo needs to be connected to the internet to run. Does the purchased version need as well?

[zerocrossing]

I'm aware this one will be a miss for a lot of people, cause UAD, subscription, iLok, who needs another Wavetable synth, yada yada.

But.

If you think a sub to UAD might work for you and like analog sounding synths I really recommend giving this a try. Cause it sounds divine. Even just the basic oscillator and filter tone. It's sort of a RePro5 meets Massive X. And it has dual continuously state variable filters, which neither of those have. FM and Sync sounds are some of the best I've heard. Great internal FX including an awesome comb filter. Wavetable part is a little rudimentary compared to others but I can live with that given how good it sounds.

I'm really surprised there's virtually no discussion about this thing online. I guess nobody needs another Wavetable synth. But yeah. If you're willing to put up with the caveats and care about analog sonics this is definitely worth a try.

Yeah, that’s my take on it too. I’m a UAD Apollo owner and even I was basically “ho hum,” but 5 minutes into a demo I was blown away. Throw a distortion in between the filters and a whole lot of magic pops out.

[LFO8]

I'm giving the demo a go. Sounds nice. Very annoying that you can't double click on a parameter to reset it.

[zerocrossing]

The demo needs to be connected to the internet to run. Does the purchased version need as well?

It's iLok, so I think if you put it on your USB dongle you should be good to go off the internet.

[LFO8]

The demo needs to be connected to the internet to run. Does the purchased version need as well?

It's iLok, so I think if you put it on your USB dongle you should be good to go off the internet.

What I am seeing is that it loads UA connect in the background every time you open a session with UAD plugins.