Decided to take the spill into the UAD world. Went with the Neve package. Hear great things about UAD. I really like how you can fully use every plug in for 14 days before buying it, and I am hearing they're bringing out some really nice new plugs this year.

But for now, for those who own one, care to comment on if you like it? Worth the cost? Any particular plug-ins that are must haves? Any plug-in's that are not worth it?

Thanks in advance

Try the included Pultec EQ

Even with all the settings at zero it adds colour

Put it on the master channel and revel in it's thick and shiny lustre.

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Yea I've heard the included pultec EQ is nice, which is great. I'm pretty sure I'm going to be happy with the channel strip but the compressor (33609) is a big unknown to me. It's the most expensive compressor they offer (which doesn't always mean its the best) so I'm assuming it's good, but I really don't know much about it. Anyone?

Very curious how these are Stephen. I've been thinking about getting one myself. Please keep us updated. Also I'm sure you already know but in case you didn't, there is a $200 mail in rebate on these going until the end of the month HERE

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You can demo all the plugins.

I've not tried te UAD compressors much yet as I found the Powercore CL compressor to be all I need. To my ears it's better sounding than all the native compressors I've had or tried so I assume the UAD will be equally as worthwhile.

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the cards are pretty much dongles for apps that could run on most computers with very little cpu power. The plugins are good but there are native equivalents that are competitively priced.

I once owned 2 pretty much fully loaded but sold them when I moved to the USA. I had them when they first came out in 2001 or so and at the time, the cards actually helped the cpu but I think the cpu advantages now are negligible. The latency is awful but perhaps they now have a chainer to reduce some of it when you have sequential effects. My beef is not so much with the plugins but rather the pointless outdated video cards that act like dongles.

Last edited by RichieV on Mar-01-2010 at 20:25

quote:

Originally posted by RichieV the cards are pretty much dongles for apps that could run on most computers with very little cpu power. The plugins are good but there are native equivalents that are competitively priced. I once owned 2 pretty much fully loaded but sold them when I moved to the USA. I had them when they first came out in 2001 or so and at the time, the cards actually helped the cpu but I think the cpu advantages now are negligible.

There’s no question the card sets are a bit of gimmick with today’s processing power. They’ve stayed true to the “pro-tools hardware” model but I can’t agree with your statement that there are software equivalents to a lot of the plugs. I’ve tried nearly all the pultec emulations (waves & IKm) neither of them sound like the real deal except the UAD one. The LA2A & 1176LN compressors also don’t have any reasonable competition either (especially compared to the real deal). I agree there are some good EQ’s similar to the Cambridge (which I use for almost all my mixing cuts) and the delay’s aren’t really that great for most dance music. The mastering plugs ie maximizer, limiter, multiband etc are similar in transparency to Ozone (I’ve tested these against each other well over 25 times, the end results are very very close). IMO I think where the UAD still stands taller than the rest is with plugs like the Fairchild (which the CLOSEST I’ve seen anything come is the Sonnox plug but it’s still not as good) which is a wonderful warming compressor, the LA2A which has to be the best vocal friendly compressor ever, the Plate 140 reverb (which maybe with the right convolutions you could match this but the Plate 140 is instantly usable with like 2 knob tweaks) and the fact that UAD has teamed up with like every sought after company in the world to make new plugins (distressor emulation just came out, Lexicon coming soon & others). I’ve had 2xUAD-1’s in the studio for nearly 3yrs and the only reason I want to sell them is to get the UAD2.

some good points. If only they would ditch the cards, UAD would have absolutely no disadvantages. No more latency, no more governor on how many plugins you can load... I think the biggest advantage with UAD is that they have covered all the bases. Like Waves, you really don't need another plugin suite.

The SPL Transient designer looks like the first plug I'm going to be wanting.....wow is all I can say. 3 knobs and it can do all that? LOL

quote:

Originally posted by Magnus Very curious how these are Stephen. I've been thinking about getting one myself. Please keep us updated. Also I'm sure you already know but in case you didn't, there is a $200 mail in rebate on these going until the end of the month HERE

Yea this was one of the deciding factors since my stupid @$$ of course waits until February is over where I could have gotten 30% off on all plugs if I bought 3, which I would have. I couldn't decide between the Flexi or Neve because I wanted the SSL 4k comp but I'm rolling the dice on this Neve comp.

This months promo is terrible. I'll be sitting on my voucher money and learning what it already comes with until I see good deals on what I want. It comes with plenty to get started. I sure would like to have that transient designer though.

They wont ditch the cards, makes it a secure platform and is therefore more appealing to Manley, Lexicon, Studer, dbx etc...
People call the card a dongle - fine - id rather have a dongle that takes the load off my cpu. Even tho i have a 3 gig quad the amount of stuff i run on the card plus instruments already pushes me close to the limit, id definitely be bouncing a lot more if i ran the equivalent UAD stuff on the cpu as well.
But in saying that i think they should have made the cards more powerful as they are quite expensive even with the vouchers...

As for plugins, FATSO on the mix buss all the time, cambridge handy for surgical cuts, havent purchased any of the other EQs really, im one of those who is happy with EQ8, does the job for me ... compressors i use are mainly the LA-2A and LA-3A, basically cos i bought them at the start and might as well use them now i have them, some people go crazy over them, i think they are ok, up to your own ears.......

I am demoing the EMT250 at the moment, will be hard to hold off buying it, thats the thing, you feel like buying every new plug that comes out lol

Dont discard the free included plugins, i love the flanger & delays (DM1-L) and Phaser, also use the RS-1 quite a bit, also the EX-1 compressor is a class job, great for snappy stuff and in a blind test on the uad forums i think more people preferred it to some of the other more glamourous comps Pultec is also there as well...

If you havent already, check out the UAD forums here

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I want one just for the fatso & emt... been fighting myself from buying it for about 8 months now

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