Bapu , prepare yourself to buy steven slate VTM ....;)

Up until  ~ 4 / 5 years ago, I could sort of understand why UAD plugs were so reveered / gushed over.

In the last few years however there has been an absolute avalanche of awesome sounding native plugins that do everything the UAD stuff does  [ and more ]  and all without a dongle [ ie: UAD card ].

It staggers me  (i) how much their plugs / cards cost (ii) how utterly unuseable they are in a very-low-latency environment  and (iii)  how resource hungry they are with their own dedicated DSP / how few instances you can run of some of them.

Its exaclty like the old Pro Tools argument ....remember the Pro Tools " myth "  ..... "  pro's use Pro Tools because it sounds better because it is tied to its own hardware and DSP cards " ...... then wham ...... it goes Native and everyone realizes that the hardware and DSP cards were nothing more than dongles.

UAD are still selling their " myth " - I just cant believe in this day and age that people are still " buying " it.

Tim

yep i feel you 100 % specially after trying PT 10 !!

Didn't tried uad stuff and i don't want simply because what i can have native ...just got Waves Mercury V9 , all the softube , and slate things (i'm also testing the Tape from Slate , that's why i said to Bapu , prepare to buy it , pure beauty !!)

yorolpal

Before you drop your dime on the UA delays at least check out SoundToys EchoBoy.  With it and Timeless 2 you'll have basically any delay type sound covered.
 

Or maybe he should actually learn to use the great delay plug he already has ( Valhalla UberMod, cough, cough).
 
 
 

 

This is absolutely right and fair to my audio experience.

timboe


Up until  ~ 4 / 5 years ago, I could sort of understand why UAD plugs were so reveered / gushed over.

In the last few years however there has been an absolute avalanche of awesome sounding native plugins that do everything the UAD stuff does  [ and more ]  and all without a dongle [ ie: UAD card ].

It staggers me  (i) how much their plugs / cards cost (ii) how utterly unuseable they are in a very-low-latency environment  and (iii)  how resource hungry they are with their own dedicated DSP / how few instances you can run of some of them.

Its exaclty like the old Pro Tools argument ....remember the Pro Tools " myth "  ..... "  pro's use Pro Tools because it sounds better because it is tied to its own hardware and DSP cards " ...... then wham ...... it goes Native and everyone realizes that the hardware and DSP cards were nothing more than dongles.

UAD are still selling their " myth " - I just cant believe in this day and age that people are still " buying " it.

Tim

 
I do agree with some of your points. I have a few DSP powered options, I've tried many demos native and powered and so far most of the DSP powered ones are the ones I choose to stay with. I don't know if they sound better to me because I already have a workflow going or because of the software engineering or the hardware. For the most part the DSP powered plugs and demos sound better to me. JMO . Not all UAD though.
 For channel compressors, I much prefer the Focusrite Liquidmix but that is the one device that is not working well on my new build. Its importance to me is diminishing a bit now with the Pro channel.
 For reverb, I've never heard anything that sounds more to my liking than VSS3  It will be in my main reverb buss for some time to come.
 The UAD plugs I love most are Dimension D, Harrison EQ . There are more I love that I don't have yet... C'mon black Friday sale....
 
Point 1) cost of hardware and software.
 Depends where you get it I guess. I picked up my first 2 UAD-1's from e-bay bundled with LA2A and 1176LN for about $100 each used. Register them, took a survey and got a $50 coupon.....Never paid full price for a plug here yet. When my old P4 died a few months back ,I had no PCI slot available for my UAD's luckily for me they had that trade in saving me half on my new UAD-2.  UAD has been very good to me.
 
utterly unusable latency
 I certainly have less latency issues with powered plugs. That was pretty much the whole idea when I had a P4. I could record in a project that already had plugs loaded. I was able to track with all 3 liquid mix, powercore and UAD plugs already loaded in the template with no latency. I wasn't able at the time to do that with native plugs.
 
Resource hungry
 They have improved. I had a project loaded down on my old system, couldn't squeeze one more plug in it. When I opened it with my new system, I had 36% of my solo card free.
 
 As far as PT10, to the best of my knowledge, PT10 is not PT HD. I think that native PT is a le version like my PT8 M-powered. I've seen PT HD native sold, but it still comes with one card. I think it's their interface.
 
 With all that said I wouldn't trade my DSP's for all the tea in China, but it is a dying and superfluous technology with SSL Duende, Focusrite LM and TC Powercore no longer selling their hardware. Looks like the writing is on the wall for DSP powered plugs. I certainly wouldn't recommend for anyone paying full price for any DSP card right now. At least wait until they come out with a 64bit driver to be a bit future proof.In fact I can't recommend anyone paying full price for any of it.
 
 
  I went with that 1176 collection and Helios thanks for the input all, I guess that's all folks for UAD until black Friday.

Some good points Timboe and Grant.

My UAD gets plenty of use on every project still even though I'm able to get stuff in native format that works well in the brute force environment of newer hardware.

Basically my UAD is populated with stuff for the point of mix basics and as a result many of the boutique native plugs I've tried since don't add anything that I don't already have covered.  I'm probably marketing departments worst nightmare as I've found leveraging the maximum experience and skills yeilds better results for me than running with the ball and constantly updating to the 'next big thing'.

I don't have much stuff but what I do have is all good stuff and gets utilized to the full.  I spent a fair amount of time getting this and getting that latest plug-in and never really getting to grips with any of them but now I've cultivated a less is more approach my ability to arrive at a desired result has clearly improved and takes a lot less time to get there.  Simply put my UAD card supplies the back-bone to that rationale and is likely to stand me in good stead for a good while.

If I was kitting myself out from scratch today though with the alternatives that are around now I must admit I'm not sure I'd go that route.  Then again my UAD arrived in such special and surprising circumstances anyway, otherwise it's likely I'd not have chosen that route even then.  I'm just sure glad it's part of my toolbox today, it was essential on my old machine because it certainly did allow mixes that the native hardware didn't and while that isn't true at all today it would be like giving up a favourite console to lose it now.  I know where I am with it.