UAD2 is now out.. groovy, A?
I’ve spoken about the subject of sound software running on your computer versus on accelerator cards else where in this blog.. and my general view about the subject… and the faster computers have gotten, the less the value of the accelerator cards.
A few years back, when Universal Audio first came out with there UAD cards.. there cards where many times more powerful then the computers you’d put them in.. This allowed for effects plugs, and what not, to be of a substantially higher quality then what you could other wise get.. thus rise of UAD… but now our computers are many times more powerful then the cards…
So.. finally.. Universal Audio releases the UAD 2 cards… which makes the cards now a whole lot more powerful.. which is nice…. they have a trailer that explains the cards here. So this is kind of big news…
Matt’s Reservations
Theoretically one ought to buy a new computer every 2 years or so.. and when you do this.. software that runs off that computer gets an upgrade every two years.. I think the sort of person who’s attracted to UAD cards.. is often the sort of person who upgrades there computer less frequently…. you see this among a lot of music production folks.. people running Protools rigs and what not.. but for me.. I have a lot of other things that I do on my computer that demand power, out side of music production.. so at least for me I think it makes less sense.
Software that runs on a UAD.. the development cost associated with this, versus running of your computer.. makes UAD type software more expensive.
If you buy a UAD.. the software needs that UAD card to run.. so.. if you have both a desktop and a laptop… wherever you might use the laptop.. for me as a part of an out bound type studio.. well you loose much of your studio.
I’m not sure of this, but it seems like there might be some latency issues relative to UAD.
UAD 2 cards are now runing anywhere between $500 and $2000… You can get a UAD card.. for $700.. that comes with the Neve console sound, so to speak, of which you can run 32 instances off the card.. This and it comes with what we might call the UAD bread and butter stuff.
I think if you look at the market in general, this is actually a quite reasonable price.. particularly as you get a voucher towards more effects..
I already have good emulations of the Neve compressors and EQs.. via liquid mix.. although I could benefit from more instances.. If I were to invest in more EQs and compressors.. I tend to want to make sure they could run on my out board studio… and I’d very much like to not have the problem limited instances.
So.. I mean if I where to drop $700 on something like UAD2 Nirvana 32… what I really want is to come out the other end with a well rounded studio..