Opinions please: Is a UAD 1 card worth grabbing with X2?

By "fully loaded" do you imply that it comes with a bunch of licensed UAD plug-ins? Depending on the number & types of plug-ins, it might be a good deal to just to create a UA account/register the card and then pickup a cheap SOLO card and do a free license transfer to the bigger and better UAD-2 card (DSP and functionality wise). Once transfered over, you will get access to all of the newer UAD-2 plug-ins and then free x64 plug-in compatibility. Is the UAD-1 a PCI or PCIe card? The reason I ask is the much older PCI cards can be prone to IRQ issues. The PCIe versions are pretty much plug & play. A SOLO card can be had for around $260 US street and it includes a $50 plug-in coupon. So it might be worth it for the extra plug-ins alone.


Cheers,

Billy Buck

I had a UAD 1 card and I liked it, however, considering the price, I was dissapointed. It didn't provide the "bang for buck" that I'm used to with cakewalk products. I invested in a waves suite and sold my UAD card. Very powerful processors are a dime a dozen now, so UAD's added processing power isn't as attractive as it once was. But since you are getting a great deal, you don't have to worry about the cost ratio as much. They make GREAT plugs, of that there is no doubt. If I could grab some cheap, I probably would. Unless you need 64bit, of course.

You should be fine as long as you are running X2 32 bit. Only when using Bitbridge in X2 64 should you encounter anomalies with older UA drivers. It doesnt play well with UA vs non-UA plugins or VSTs on the same track.  Intermittent crashing and stalled drivers.

I have one system running with a UAD1, on Win7 x64.... runs very well. though not very powerful, compared to my other system with 2 UAD2 duo.  

Still these are nice, timeless plugins IMHO. but if you can get the licence transferred to your own account, by all means, buy some other UAD2, to be able to use all those plugins that you had for so cheap, on a bigger UAD system.

On the minus side, the UAD are great, but kinda of a money pit. plugins are expensive, 
so is the hardware to run it. (thus make the portability of your projects more complicated). but I think the UAD plugins truly make an appreciable difference in the mix over native plugins. 

Cheers ! 

V

As long as you have got a spare older PCI slot and Sonar X2 will play nice with it.

I would say there are two answers to this question. I picked up a standard UAD 1 card for $100 and it has only got the standard bundled plugins that come with it but I must say I am very happy to say the least. It was a perfect purchase for me. I have become very proficient at using firstly the CS 1 channel strip. It has got 4 plugins within it and they can all or some be used. The EQ is excellent and can do most of your EQ duties well. The compressor is OK too and I have pulled some killer snare and kick sounds out of that compressor. I don't use the time based parts of the CS1 so much. You can have many instances of these especially with just EQ and dynamics engaged. Even a UAD 1 card will relieve your CPU of much native usage leaving our CPU free for other stuff perhaps.
The Pultec EQ and 1176 compressors are very nice and very useful in many parts of your mix. RealVerbPro is also very capable and can be used to create one or two or more very nice acoustic spaces. I don't use Nigel so much as I have some other great guitar VST stuff. If your proposed card has the other plugs that too would be a bonus. Used in mastering some of the plugs you can buy would be very good. And you don't need so many mastering instances either.

But at $625 you are also well on the way to getting a UAD 2 Duo and that would be a better option perhaps. Especially for the newer plugs that only run on a UAD 2 card. Sweetwater is selling UAD 2 solo for $300 and Duo for $699. But that is without the plugs of course. (Although the standard bundles plugs are excellent and serve most purposes I have found) It might be good to get this card even if you transfer the plug ownership over to a later model card it might still be worth the purchase. I suppose the best thing to do would be to do the maths and add up all the plugs cost etc..Hey I will buy the UAD 1 card from you and run two that would be cool and you can keep your plugs and buy either a newer UAD 2 Solo or Duo if you can afford the extra.