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Subject: Those UAD-1 cards

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Original Message 1/24 02-May-07 @ 03:08 PM - Those UAD-1 cards

nutoniom

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Well, since i'm getting adsl soon, a pci slot will become available and i was thinking of getting one of those UAD-1 project card. Is it any good ? I use mainly what comes bundled with my VST-5 in terms of reverb and dynamics. will the UAD-1 fare that much better ? I assume that it will free some of my cpu ressources, but will it do so in a significant manner or will this be marginal ? Also, i'm interested in the card because of the Nigel, wich i could use for my guitar endeavors, will this fare good against say, Amplitube 1.1.1?

thanks for any pointers

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Message 2/24 02-May-07 @ 03:14 PM - RE: Those UAD-1 cards

nutoniom

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Also, does it heat a lot ?

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Message 3/24 02-May-07 @ 09:00 PM - RE: Those UAD-1 cards

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can u use it with vst5 even would be my question before anything

?

imo you wanna bump up to an older SX version like v2 which is very stable and so much better'n vst5

___________________________________

I had an idea for a script once. It's basically Jaws except when the guys in the boat are going after Jaws, they look around and there's an even bigger Jaws. The guys have to team up with Jaws to get Bigger Jaws.... I call it... Big Jaws!!!

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Message 4/24 02-May-07 @ 09:35 PM - RE: Those UAD-1 cards

nutoniom

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mmm, apparently n, it's not in the list anyway...but

"Host applications that are not listed may work with the UAD, but compatibility cannot be guaranteed."

anyone using it with VST5 succesfully ?

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Message 5/24 03-May-07 @ 07:30 AM - RE: Those UAD-1 cards

rags .aka. welder

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http://reviews.harmony-central.com/reviews/Plug-In/product/Mackie/UAD-1+VST+PC/10/1

quote
Reviewer Background :
I've been playing guitar for 20 years; writing and recording for 12 years. I sing, play guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums a bit. This was the Mackie UAD-1 with the 3.0 version of its plugins. I was using it with Cubase VST/32 version 5.1 release 1 on a Pentium III 800 Mhz machine with 512 MB of RAM running Windows 2000. My interface is an Echo Mona.

I never knew how it works, you get some plugins with the card, and then you can buy some more from mackie? Can you run standard VST 1.0 2.0 etc.. plugins on this?

Judging by the size of the heatsink, power dissipation might not be that high, but you can never know... what kind of CPU are you using ATM?

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Message 6/24 03-May-07 @ 12:43 PM - RE: Those UAD-1 cards

nutoniom

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I run a P4 2,4Ghz, one of those cube ones. It's a mini-tower, that's why i'm worried.

And yes, it's an upgrade as you go card, but i don't think it runs other plug-ins but UAD

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Message 7/24 03-May-07 @ 03:54 PM - RE: Those UAD-1 cards

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my only coincern is, will the uad actualy give you alot of what you want, meaning: will it supply alot of channel eq and a reasonable amount of compressors which is perhaps why you want to use hardware as opposed to native processing? i dont follow this device really but i seem to remember reasing a few posts here and there where people said they were dissapointed it couldnt do more simultaneous emulations... or is that sample-rate dependant? - I just say that cos now i have a liquidmix on trial i'm finding even with the firewire patches for sp2 added etc it doesnt seem very happy running very many emulations when one assumes or hopes at least it can run 32 channels at 44.1... more tests to do on that so i wont say yet what i'm getting from it, but i am testing it deliberatly on lower powered machines cos to my mind thats where the market is... people who want more without asking the cpu to do it (i think that's AS important a selling point perhaps for potential users as is just the quality of the emulations/convolutions)

also, have you guys tried the waves SSL stuff?.. fuck me it's good!!!... i'm messing with it now and doing a page for it on DT... ok thats all you get, SSL emulations, but the eq is superbly flexible and the sound is bloody fantastic, the range of stuff you can do with just the E channel strip in terms of tweaking or adding bloody great pumping etc is quite superb. I'm sold on it! i've had 8 of them running on a crappy low power amd sempron and an amd2000 and ne'r a flicker on the old cpu usage meter, they aint very greedy processor wise it seems. They do add character for sure.

does wonders with house loops! and a gorgeously designed interface, so well laid out - not cheap tho.. makes me wonder about duende ;)

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Message 8/24 03-May-07 @ 04:20 PM - RE: Those UAD-1 cards

rags .aka. welder

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Yeah, I've tried the Waves SSL pack... dunno, for that money I'd expect a lot more these days...

The channel strip emulation was fine (unfortunately the EQ does some aliasing that just seem wrong :-( ), great GUI, albeit you have to open it twice in Albeton to make it work.

I found the compressor's sound very unique, but I was really pissed about the interface ie. now way to dial in values for attack/release/ratio other than those predefined values... fine, the original was just like that, but come on, this is 2007 and this is all software, I want to be able to finetune those controls.

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Message 9/24 03-May-07 @ 07:15 PM - RE: Those UAD-1 cards

psylichon

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The UAD cards excell at modeling vintage EQ's and compressors, and that's why most people buy them. Their plugins sound unique compared to native plugins... even some TDM plugins. Very complex algos result in richer tone... and also extensive DSP use. In fact, the biggest complaint amongst UAD users that I've found is that you need 3 or 4 of them if you want to do any serious mixing. They are old cards, and have pretty limited DSP by today's standards. In fact, I think you can only run like 2 (!) of the newer Neve 1073 plugins before 1 card is maxed out. That's just unnacceptable to me, no matter how fantastic it sounds.

Of course, you can get a lot more of the stock plugins going than that, and they sound pretty good. Way better than VST5.0's stock stuff for sure.

They're not a free ride though. Most people don't realize that instantiating a UAD plug still uses CPU resources for the "wrapper" to whatever system they're using (ultimately the UAD plugs are proprietary and need to be wrapped to make them VST, AU, RTAS, etc.) This hit is most likely simiar in size to the CPU needed to run, say, the stock EQ plug, so....

But again, they will sound much much better!

One last thing to consider... there are loads of compatibility issues on the forums out there. Certain mobos simply WILL NOT run a UAD, and there are deal-breaking software combinations too. Best to do a little more research on a few more [ahem] active boards out there before you make the jump...

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Message 10/24 03-May-07 @ 07:27 PM - RE: Those UAD-1 cards

nutoniom

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Thanks for that precious info Psy !!

Thing is, i'm more looking for cpu usage relief, so the UAD doesn't seem for me.

any suggestions for a similar pci card ?

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