UAD cards - worth it?

[The Phat Conductor]

i'm working on a lot of stuff with various vocalists these days, and i really want all the tunes to sound like a million bucks.

should i get a UAD card or just stick with waves + voxengo + whatnot?

my computers are all wicked fast and stacked with RAM so i don't think i need the extra processing...

what do you think?

[Rationalizer]

I have two uad cards (solo and duo). The basic plugins are great but nothing unique. You can get 1176, Pultec, SSL G-series and la2a/la3a emulations also as a native plugin from various plugin manufacturers.

But if you're after the more unusual plugins, like Massive Passive, Fatso and Studer, then you should really get a powerful UAD card or Satellite. Those plugins are very dsp hungry and for instance you can run only 2 stereo Fatso's on a Solo card.

I'm not sure what's the future of these dsp cards but tbh it doesn't look to bright atm. I mean, SSL dropped their Duende and went native and TC announced a couple months back that it'll stop developing their Powercore. So might be wise to keep clear from the dsp's.

[3phase]

you have to keep in mind that you will have to buy the neve bundle, the studer , the emt and the roland bundle with the dsp card.. because its this plugins that bring your production ahead and not a 1176 emulation you get in the basic package...

so get theese bundles and spend the rest on the best card that is availabel still

[necho]

Go for it if you have the cash. But consider that buying UAD plugins becomes very addictive - and therefore expensive.

I miss my UAD card.

[freshdrumma]

yes

[The Phat Conductor]

great!

so you're really saying it makes THAT much of a difference over say, the waves plugins?

and i truly need the neves and everything to make it worth it?

so go for the deal with at least $500 worth of plugins in the gift shoppe?

seems like the options are

1: deal with not having one
2: go balls out and get the $5000 omni quad

wow.

$5000....

wow.

[Cowlash]

It doesn't matter if you get the plug-ins during the initial purchase or over time.

However, you will end up spending $5000 whether you like it or not

[3phase]

for this pricerange i still prefer to have the machines in original that get simulatet there..however you cant beat the mobility of such a system..

with waveplugs you get pretty far but the analog emulations of uad as close as you get to the real hardware devices theese days..

the waves api series is not bad aswell.. but the rest of theire analog emu stuff? i really dont see so much pont in working with emulatetd ssl eq´s ..they are not this special in hardware.. why bother emultaiong them ..except of the name of cause...

so when you stay wave and want some analog simulated mojo try the waves api stuff..
and use the rest of your 5000 to buy a worldclass preamp and mike... and a roland space echo.. and a second hand hardware emt reverb..you can sell again when you finished the production for the same price or more as when you got it... and maybe something is left for a little drummachine or synth..

so 520 for the waves api bundle
1400 for the emt reverb
450 for the space echo
as mike we take something that looks like a phat conductor.. so an Ev Pl20 or shure SM 7
another 400.-
as preamp..hmm.. difficult for a dynamic mike better some of the real stuff a siemens 276 or neumman 476 in a breadbox.. around 600.-

hmm..what to do with the other 1500 ??? one of theesew new dave smith drummachines?

[necho]

It doesn't matter if you get the plug-ins during the initial purchase or over time.

However, you will end up spending $5000 whether you like it or not

This.

UA Plugins are like crack.

[purpurkatten]

i really want all the tunes to sound like a million bucks.

Are you sure the million bucks-sound lies in an expensive UAD-card, and not your mixing skills?

A pro can make a great sound with rather modest plugins in pretty much any DAW.

Do you really hear enough difference between these compressors to motivate spending the $$? http://audio.tutsplus.com/tutorials/mix ... ompressor/

Beware of chasing the rainbow.

[necho]

^ The Conductor knows his stuff

I'm sure he knows that ears are more important than gear.

Gear is nice too though.

[3phase]

Are you sure the million bucks-sound lies in an expensive UAD-card, and not your mixing skills?

A pro can make a great sound with rather modest plugins in pretty much any DAW.

AND some decend analog outboard.. they usually forget to mention what they use during the recording.. fix it in the mix is not so popular with daw´s

[nuxnamon]

maybe beef up your mic locker and preamps since your working with many vocalist

[nopattern]

uad - 2 solo is perfectly fine. i never hit the limit on the DSP using lots of instances of cambridge and La-2a...

if anything just freeze tracks and save cash

[Tarekith]

Even the basic UAD plug ins are pretty good sounding, the CS1 channel strip I'd turn to all the time for basic EQ and comp duties when I had the UAD card way back when. I'd choose those over anything from Waves IMO.

As mentioned, it's easy to get sucked into buying more of their plug ins, but not sure you'd need the mega expensive bundle if mainly your goal is to produce vocalists. They're nice, for sure, but not all of them are must haves IMO.

As much as I loved my UAD card and missed it when I went strictly to a laptop based set up (this was before the new cards that are laptop friendly), over the years I've found other options that run natively and sound just as good in almost all cases. Maybe not with those unique flavors that some UAD plug ins have (say, the Fairchild), but certainly as good as or better than the basics without needing to be tied to a DSP card. DMG Audio, Stillwell, DDMF, Cytomic, Fabfilter, and a host of others are making excellent sounding dynamics plug ins at decent prices. Things that will blow away Waves (IMO) and be on par with UAD. So there's cheaper options out there that make it easier to bring with you on the road if that's a concern.