2 Questions about the UAD DSP card

[touched1]

Just got the Fairchild and Pultec Pro to compliment the Nevana 64 bundle.
That's all I could afford for now. But I think that will keep me happy for a while!

[T-rex]

Cool man. I did pick up the IBP thing.

Yeah the pultec pro rules.

[Dozer]

Er.... not to hijack a thread or anything like that but...
I also have 2 (or more) questions about the UAD cards and this is an active thread about them.

1) How much of a difference does this stuff make to your end product? Is it night and day to the freeware? Currently, I am using the standard cubase plugins supplemented by pretty much every freeware "good " plug mentioned by this board. I dislike the standard eqs and comps, I end up mainly using the bluecat eq and blockfish or reaper comps, they seem best out of my selection. I do feel limited, will this upgrade be the next logical step in helping me get there? (see my current set up at the bottom of the post) Would an upgrade to cubase 4.whatever help into the bargain?

2) I see the price that you pay to the shop to buy the card but how much extra should I budget to get the plug ins that I want? There seems to be wide spread agreement throughout all posts of the the really worthwhile extras. I would want them but its confusing with the voucher system and all the different options.

3) If I go for this, do I need the more powerful versions? The duo, quad or is the solo enough? At the minute I can run as many plugs as I seem to need with no glitch just in my comp as it is. How carried away will i get and how soon will I feel the pinch? Indeed would getting one of the UAD1 systems be of any use or are they being phased out?

My system atm is Rme Fireface, Cubase SL3, Focusrite liquid Channel, PR40, c414 matched pair, few sm57s, beta 87. PC Intel core duo system 2 @2.66hz, 2 gig ram, 32 bit vista.

So where next? A ribbon mic to sort those electric guitars or this card plug in idea?

[farview]

1) How much of a difference does this stuff make to your end product? Is it night and day to the freeware? Currently, I am using the standard cubase plugins supplemented by pretty much every freeware "good " plug mentioned by this board. I dislike the standard eqs and comps, I end up mainly using the bluecat eq and blockfish or reaper comps, they seem best out of my selection. I do feel limited, will this upgrade be the next logical step in helping me get there? (see my current set up at the bottom of the post) Would an upgrade to cubase 4.whatever help into the bargain?

It's night and day. These are really good emulations of the best and coolest real hardware units.

2) I see the price that you pay to the shop to buy the card but how much extra should I budget to get the plug ins that I want? There seems to be wide spread agreement throughout all posts of the the really worthwhile extras. I would want them but its confusing with the voucher system and all the different options.

This really depends on what exactly you do. I have a bunch of the plugins, but I really only use the channel strip, LA2A and 1176 all the time. But that's just me.

3) If I go for this, do I need the more powerful versions? The duo, quad or is the solo enough? At the minute I can run as many plugs as I seem to need with no glitch just in my comp as it is. How carried away will i get and how soon will I feel the pinch? Indeed would getting one of the UAD1 systems be of any use or are they being phased out?

It depends on what plugs you intend to use. That Neve compressor, for example, is a real hog. It takes up more than 50% of a UAD1 card. You can run out of horsepower really quick, depending on the plug you use. All of the UAD plugs run on the card, your computer has nothing to do with it. Once you run out of DSP on the UAD card, you can't run any more UAD plugins.

[Dozer]

Cheers Farview,

Thanks for your time in replying. I had to ask as I was getting nervous over the thought of spending so much on what are technically downloads. Everything thing else I have you can touch and sell second hand.

Dozer