UAD2 Good Value?

[kslight]

Hi I have searched and it appears there are a lot of UAD2 users here... Looking to see if this is a good solution for my setup. I'm hitting a CPU brickwall when running modest sessions...obviously worse at 24/96 which I haven't done a lot of until recently because I knew it'd kill my PC, but I'm working with prerecorded files from an HD system so... I am not trying to dance around the fact that I need a new computer eventually, but rather trying to kill two birds with one stone. That is, get some good plugins, and offload my CPU.

My computer is a homebrew athlon dual core 2.0, 3gb ram, running XP, primarily using Pro Tools MPowered. I do kill all unnecessary apps and my wireless adapter (helps a lot) before running sessions. I have used Waves plugins and thought they were decent though IMHO not sure they are worth the cost of entry...or maybe they would be if my system could run them better..

My plugin needs are across the board..channel strips, echo/reverb, mastering type stuff. I don't go nuts with 5 plugins per track, but I do a lot of automation and oftentimes will throw a channel strip like Waves Audiotrack on many tracks, and have maybe an echo and a reverb on separate aux. Track counts anywhere from 12-24 on average.


Any comments on value would be appreciated...I have the budget to spend up to about a UAD2 Quad Omni ($3k on Sweetwater), but if this way exceeds my needs then I may scale that to something reasonable. I was thinking something lesser but when I add in the cost of the plugins I want it starts to make more sense...and I imagine I will eventually want to use Massive Passive and Fatso...or other new plugins. But at this price point, am I better to divide my money up between things, such as a computer, some decent native plugs, new preamp? I have decent mics but don't have a great pre or anything, but at the same time my immediate projects are remixing so I'm only doing a little tracking.

[kslight]

Nothing? I must have been imagining things..

[T-rex]

It's like a plant, you have to water it and give it time to grow. . .

In all seriousness I loved the UAD2 and the plugs. I had a quad when they came out and it ruled. At the time I couldn't even imagine maxing one out. Of course every day the newer plug ins seem to take more and more processing power so in a few years who knows. Anyway, of all the plugs I used I thought the UAD sounded hands down better than anything else and I had tried just about everything except the sonnex stuff (which is also supposed to be great).

The company is very cool. You get 15 day fully functioning demos of every plug in and if you run through all or most of them, they will even be kind enough to reset your demo status. They were constantly running deals on their plugs and their website will tell you pretty much exactly how many plugs you can run on any given card. I would highly recommend the UAD stuff for anyone working in the box. The only reason I sold mine was because I changed my workflow to mostly OTB. If I had to downsize and mix ITB, I absolutely would buy the UAD stuff again.

[JES]

I'm also very happy with the sound of their plugs. Easy to get a good tone from them. I've been using them since the UAD-1.

[mrc]

I have 2 UAD 1 PCIE cards and just love them. I also have a TC Powercore, It comes with some great plugs, but the add on's are really high priced. I really like the UAD Fairchild and LA3A, and use the 1176 and LA2A a lot as well. Be careful with the powercore on AMD dual cores and up, only certain motherboards will work.
mrc

[kslight]

I looked at powercore but the only thing they do that I wish UA did is synths...and well guitar amp sims but supposedly UA is working on that.

[mrc]

I think the TC amp emulator is real good. I have the full Pod bundle, a J-Station and an old analogue Jerry Donahue 10, as well as tube and transistor amps. The stock effects are good. The compressor's good. The eq is more clinical/surgical. The reverb is nice. The channel is good and squeaky clean. I bought mine off evil bay for $80, so I think it was a great deal. The mobo I'm running is the Asus M4N72-E, and both the UAD's and Powercore run nicely. I've had a X4 9750 on it, and now have a XII 550 running on it @ 3600, but will probably upgrade to the X6 later this year. I may add one more UAD, so I can run the Neve 88rs and still have enough left for comps and other tidbits.
I think the UAD's are overall better than the TC, but they compliment each other.

[kslight]

Yeah I'd rather do the UAD2 for right now...guitar amp sims aren't that important to me since I generally like to mic up an amp anyway, but I like to use that stuff for effecting other things...and it'd be cool to have more DSP powered synths but truth be told I've got a Nord Modular already so I don't need that...more important to have practical utility plugins.

[tdbajus]

+1 on the UAD1

Looking forward to eventually moving to UAD2.

The UAD1 did allow me to escape the evil clutches of Logic, and move to a platform I found far more friendly to my workflow (Reaper). When I get a new tower, I'll upgrade.

My only beef with UAD is that if they priced their plug-ins a little lower, my poor impulse control would have certainly lead me to buying some of their stuff. I just bought a real Space Echo for the price of their emulation. The demo for it is astounding, but I never had one too many servings of scotch and wanted to play with a plug-in, you know?

In other words, other than my original purchase of their super deluxe power pack w/credits in their store, I have not spent a dime buying new plugins. If they were half the price, I would have certainly dropped another grand over the last 4 years or so.

Also, speaking of hardware acceleration, the Metric Halo stuff is flipping mindblowing, and a good reason I have not bought the UAD Neve package. EVery time I use the MH Labs EQ, I can't believe software sounds so musical. They are the nicest guys, as well. They might be the only reason I haven't thrown my Mac out the window and gotten a PC.

[@?,*???&?]

Insanely good!

[kslight]

Yeah I agree that if their plugins were cheaper they'd make more sales...in fact I find their whole pricing tiers a bit confusing (between the cards and their various packs especially). For sure I think a Quad card would be FAR exceeding my perceived needed processing power for the kind of work I do, even a duo would be overkill most likely exceed for the top tier plugins. But you start adding up the plugins you want with a solo card and it definitely tops out the price of the Quad omni bundle..

I'm still up in the air about it..and how much I'd be willing to spend. I'm definitely a proponent of the theory that money spent in good hardware is truly an investment and money spent on software/computers is just a tool that will become obsoleted. Decisions decisions...

[tdbajus]

For sure I think a Quad card would be FAR exceeding my perceived needed processing power for the kind of work I do, even a duo would be overkill most likely exceed for the top tier plugins. But you start adding up the plugins you want with a solo card and it definitely tops out the price of the Quad omni bundle...

Don't be so sure- my UAD1 is maxed out running just one instance of the plate reverb and the Precision limiter. I would definitely bump my head against even 8 times the power, especially when you consider all the LA2A, 1176, and pultecs i'd use if I was able.

[kslight]

What would you say you find using the most...if you had to name essential plugs?
How are the included ones versus the ones you buy? Is there really a noticeable sonic difference between the various compressors/channel strips/eqs in software form to warrant having several? How do you like the Precision mastering plugs versus Waves L2/LinMB/etc?

And why is it that I can buy 2 UAD2 solo flexis for a couple hundred more than a uad2 duo flexi but get $1000 in vouchers?

[tdbajus]

What would you say you find using the most...if you had to name essential plugs?
How are the included ones versus the ones you buy? Is there really a noticeable sonic difference between the various compressors/channel strips/eqs in software form to warrant having several? How do you like the Precision mastering plugs versus Waves L2/LinMB/etc?

And why is it that I can buy 2 UAD2 solo flexis for a couple hundred more than a uad2 duo flexi but get $1000 in vouchers?

Well, I love the EMT plate. Holy cow. If I could spread it on toast< i'd eat it for breakfast.

The precision limiter is, I think, fantastic.

LA2A on guitars and vocals, 1176 on drums, the pultec pro on everything.

The cambridge graphic EQ is a great tool.

I have not used the Waves stuff in a long time, so I can't really say one way or the other.

Re: dual vs single- I dunno. Is the open slot worth $800 to you? I do find their voucher program to be a little weird- it sort of guarantees that once you've spend your vouchers, you're not going to spend any more. I keep getting offers for $25 off here, and 10% off there but nothing to make me jump for that Neve package I'd like to have.

But my old assed2xG5 can't handle the new cards, so I have to buy a new computer. I find it much easier to buy, say, a Marshall 1976x with matching extension cabinet (i get exciting just typing it!) than a new tower, and then a new card.

That day is coming soon though, lemme tellya. sigh. And what I will probably do is get a card with a bunch of voucher UAD bucks, spend those, and then not buy any more software from them until i buy a new card/computer combo.

[mrc]

I tend to think of the cost of the hardware units vs the plugs. Most everything I've bought would be multiple times the price of the plugs. The Pultecs sound very good as well as the compressors I've mentioned above. I would really like to add the RS88 channel strip and a few other plugs. I think these are the best value plugs I've ever bought, including Waves and TC Native plugs.