UAD1 installed...initial impressions

Got my UAD1 today, figured I'd post my initial impressions.

1. Both software and hardware installs were seemless. Videos on UA site very helpful. I expected install glitches and was pleasantly surprised that there were none.
2. I could use the included plugs even though the card transfer process hasn't completed....strange.
3. Unless I am placebo effecting the heck out of myself, the "these are the bees knees" crowd is correct. I mainly played with the LA2A and 1176LN. Unbelievably "musical" for lack of a better word. Really stunning how they could add life to tracks that I already thought were "there"(specifically drums and piano). I think those two plugs were worth the $240 for the card all alone.
4. Card is still underpowered...6 plugs got me to 75%.
5. While I still think it is a PCI dongle, given that it isn't a iLok and that is works seemlessly with my system, I don't have much concern.
6. Had some glitching with the ReaverbPro...but enabling the "Sonar Compatibility mode" seemed to help....what is the deal with this setting anyway? Didn't seem to affect the compressors at all.

I have yet to try the EQ's or try low latency performance(based on posts at the UA forums this will probably be disappointing). All in all...pretty happy. I'll post again when the UAD2 gets here...

ORIGINAL: Frank Haas

yepp, the LA2A shows you what a compressor is

Only two knobs and that's the beauty of it.Tweaking can be a distraction.

Have to say I am halfway to being a convert from my previous skepticism. The UAD plugs I have used have mostly been impressive and definitely above the standard fare, just as many have said. I still would never have purchased a UAD1....way underpowered(1 instance of Nigel and 1 instance of the Precision maximizer take it over 60%), but the UAD2 Quad looks like it has enough for my current needs and seems to integrate seemlessly into SONAR(it basically crosses my "minumum power needed" threshold so I don't have to think about DSP usage, just like native). I would also never have been happy with a Solo or a Duo....clearly not enough power above the UAD1 to be worthwhile IMO. Interestingly...with the Quad at 10X the power of the UAD1 it tracks better with what should be expected over this miuch time(although still below the Moore's law curve...) since UAD1 was released. Only glitch so far is that I cannot use UAD plugs on a Surround bus with the SONAR LP64 plugs. Has some kind of buffer mismatch error. Still haven't pushed low latency. I'll play some with that this week. I am also going to keep my UAD1 for a while as well...gotta play with Nigel and have something to run the Precision Maximizer on...

OK, so the UAD1 seems to do fine at low latency. I played with Nigel for a while tonight at 64 samples...worked fine. Nigel is actually a pretty nice guitar rig...not as good or versatile as Amplitube or Gearbox...but good. Has one of the best bell strat tones(Bad Strattitude is the basic preset IIRC), although I still like Flying Haggis for strat-like clean-crunch sounds. Didn't try any UAD2 stuff at low latency yet...maybe this weekend.