UAD-1 users and "HELLO!" - TranceAddict Forums

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-- UAD-1 users and "HELLO!"

Posted by DJREMIDI on Oct-07-2004 19:22:

UAD-1 users and "HELLO!"

Hi all! As you can probably see I just joined this forum. I've been floating around for quite a while, but for some reason never got around to registering.
Anyways, my name is Russ and I live in New York, USA - I moved here from Ukraine about 9 years ago. I'm a DJ (although I don't spin much anymore) and a part-time amateur producer. I [try to] produce hard progressive/progressive trance and hardstyle. Here's what I use in my small bedroom studio:

DAW:
-19" LCD Monitor
-P4 3.0
-1024 MB RAM
-160GB + 80GB SATA HD

DSP:
-AU UAD-1 Project Pack
-TC PowerCore Element

RECORDING/SEQUENCING:
-Nuendo 2.0
-Logic 5.5
-MOTU 828 MKII
-Steinberg MIDEX 8

MONITORING:
-Mackie HR-624 (PAIR)
-Auralex MoPads
-Beyer Dynamic DT-990 PRO Headphones

SYNTHS:
-Virus|Powercore
-Emagic ES2, ES1
-z3ta+
-Albino 2
-Atmosphere
-Trilogy
-Pro-53
-Vaz 2010
-Vaz Plus
-Wired: Elements of Trance
-Mach 5
-Kontakt
-Kompakt
...I'm sure I'm forgetting something...

DJ:
-2 x Technics SL-1200 M3D
-Stanton SMX-401 Mixer
-Ortofon Concord DJ Cartridges
-Sony MDR-V700 Headphones

Ok, I think that's it for the introduction. Feel free to contact me for whatever reason!

Now off to the questions

This is mostly for people who have a UAD-1 card or have used one. I have a question about a UAD-1 compressor: 1176 SE. Is it a good compressor to use for bass and kicks? It's not setup like other compressors I have ever used before: there's no threshold, ratio is only limited to 4 choices and attack/release knobs seem to be reversed (all the way clockwise - fastest attack/release, all the way counterclockwise - slowest attack/release), so I'm not sure if the controls it does have are sufficient for use in dance music. Should I maybe use a different compressor that has a more traditional setup?

Another question I have is about a certain compression technique. I've heard a lot of people recommend compressing all bass parts and kicks together. Do most of you here follow this suggestion? I personally have a difficult time achieving satisfactory results using this technique - usually either the kick overpowers the bass, or the bass overpowers the kick, I can't seem to make them work together. Am I doing something wrong? Any tips/suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I think that's it for now. Hope to get some answers And I'll be posting more questions without a doubt; this seems to be a great place to get answers

Regards,

REMIDI

Posted by AaroNoct on Oct-07-2004 21:56:

That's a pretty impressive list of equipment man. I want to eventually get the UAD and powercore too.

About compressing bass and kick together, you need to sidechain. That means the compressor doesn't bother the kick, but the kick's signal triggers compression on the bass. That way when the bass is coming in without the kick it'll still be nice and loud. If you just bus it and run a compressor over the kick and bass you'll lower both of their levels. You want the kick to stick out. Now separately before it goes through the bus channel you can compress and manipulate it to whatever you want. That's just me, though.

Welcome to the forums, and nice to meet ya.

-Aaron

Posted by ilalin on Oct-08-2004 00:37:

1176SE is a reduced version of 1176LN. First of all, I suggest using the full version to preserve the sound quality. Second, for drums I usually use LA2A leveling amplifier that can be set as a compressor. It will give your drums smooth yet punchy sound. 1176 you can use for your leads, since there will be no pumping effect during the compression but the sound will all of a sudden jump out of a mix and become more prominent and polished. Just play with the atack, release and ratio values to achieve the desired effect. Listen to the end result for the best sound. Both of these compressors are very well suited for dance music since they're easy to set up but have a great sound. When combining kick and bass together use a sidechain as explained earlier and then apply a separate LA2A just to the drum part.
Cheers

Posted by Red Room on Oct-08-2004 11:13:

I have some question to you uad-1 users. First of all are you happy with it and how much processing power does it have? How many reverb plugins can you run simultaniously to reach maximum capacity of the card? Can you post a dry sample and one with the uad reverb applied on it?

Thanx.

Posted by ilalin on Oct-08-2004 12:43:

Just the other day, I finished mixing my latest song. I used three instances of Dreamverb, and 1 instance of 1176LN compressor to process some of the elements. This took about 70% DSP power of my card. I could have run possibly another instance of Dreamverb and 2 of 1176 without touching any of the native processing power. My CPU load was close to 0%. The card rocks and if you know anything about setting up reverbs, this is a dream come true. For examples check out the music on my website. All of it was run through UAD-1 card.

Posted by Red Room on Oct-08-2004 14:11:

Thanks for the info, you're site is offline at the moment, but I'll check that out later. I'm looking for some extra dsp power, preferably integrated in my DAW. So the UAD-1 seems a good choice instead of hardware fx-units, but I'm still in a bit of a doubt.

Red Room.

Posted by DJREMIDI on Oct-18-2004 16:04:

Thanks for your replies guys! Sorry I didn't get a chance to say "thank you" earlier

-REMIDI