UAD-2 PCIe DSP Accelerator Cards

The UAD-2 is a very nice sounding and flexible DSP system.
Installation is easier compared to the UAD-1. No more removing the card when one wishes to do a fresh OS install of the computer. Authorisations can be updated/imported using a built-in mechanism that directs to the UAudio website.

The UAD-2 system is very stable, it has never crashed on my system. Actually, I can't even remember having any problems at all with the UAD-2.

The plugins themselves are very good, I personally use them quite a lot. I really like the sound of them and the easy of use. But, three functions/options I would really like to see added to the platform are:
1. (True) Sidechaining.
2. Available/Used DSP resources shown in the menubar of OS X.
3. Ability to hide plugins that have not been authorized/bought.

The UAD -2 Quad Card I am using every day, is a blessing.
I have used the original products that UAD have emulated over the last 45 years, and the UAD Emulations are as close as they need to be without the hassles of valves and caps going down, and wires strewn all over my studio racks ( which are looking empty these days !! )
Just keep improving the emulations guys, I don't need Hats, T shirts etc, just great UAD products like the Studer Tape Saturation plug in that sounds just great. Eric Stewart, 10cc.

What can you say about something that gives the you power to run a whole bunch of UAD plugs? It does just that. I bought this after getting frustrated by the limits of my UAD2 Solo laptop card. And what do you know, I rag the quad card for power every time. The hunger of such bad boys as the Manley Massive Passive don't help! Love it though. Thank god the Mac Pro's got space for another few Quad's.

Only slight gripe, and I don't know if this is the Quad's fault, is that as I stack up my plug in count in ProTools 9 on a Quad core Mac Pro, I can be victim of digital stuttering, like the whole rig's straining under the load. Anyone else suffering from this?

puissante et stable avec des plug de qualité ! what else ?

My experience with the products of Universal Audio and more specifically with the UAD-2 DUO system is brutal, I parede system as stable and that the amazing plugins that work with this wonderful card, the best in the market without doubt.

I encourage all sound engineers and producers to have at least one in your hands!

To remain the number one Universal Audio!



Mi experiencia con los productos de Universal Audio y más concretamente con el sistema UAD-2 DUO es brutal, me parede un sistema de lo más estable y que decir de los increíbles plugins que que funcionan con esta maravillosa tarjeta, son los mejores del mercado sin lugar a dudas.

Animo a todos los ingenieros de sonido y productores a tener al menos una entre sus manos!!!

A seguir siendo los números uno Universal Audio!!

My experience with the products of Universal Audio and more specifically with the UAD-2 DUO system is brutal, I parede system as stable and that the amazing plugins that work with this wonderful card, the best in the market without doubt.

I encourage all sound engineers and producers to have at least one in your hands!

To remain the number one Universal Audio!


Mi experiencia con los productos de Universal Audio y más concretamente con el sistema UAD-2 DUO es brutal, me parede un sistema de lo más estable y que decir de los increíbles plugins que que funcionan con esta maravillosa tarjeta, son los mejores del mercado sin lugar a dudas.

Animo a todos los ingenieros de sonido y productores a tener al menos una entre sus manos!!!

A seguir siendo los números uno Universal Audio!!

Hi, I'm a dj producer Italian, I went from no time to your system "UAD" I am truly satisfied ... I need to get a little bit more;-) But the hand is a great product ...

I had the UAD-1e Extreme Pak as my original system.
Before this i had the Focusrite Liquid Mix.
The first day I installed and instantiated UAD-1e in an album I was mixing in Cubase I totally remixed track after track. So much so I called my co-producer and he was floored when he heard the results. he asked how i got so good so quick on the Liquid Mix. I showed him the UAD1-e and he took the chair off me to remix our tracks.
When the news hit about the UAD2 I was one of the first in my neck of the woods to jump on the bandwagon.
In audio it's the best purchase I made since getting an MacPro and a Metric Halo MIO 2882.

Exellent product, I would like to upgrade to UAD2 quad!
I need more power.

Equipment, professional, efficient and reliable. Waiting for virtual instruments, plug-ins work very well. I think the instruments will be equally amazing.

Dear UA.
I got this product a couple of days ago and I'm already in love with it..... THANK YOU!!!!

The only thing I can think of is this:
When using your plug-ins on a bus/aux, there's a latency problem, wich is such a shame... I'm using Logic 9 by the way and as far as I can see all my latency settings are correct.
But apart from that: Amazing job!

Shouldn't you be doing just as amazing emulations of old synths? ;)



All the best,

Simon Hermansen aka Gettic.

www.soundcloud.com/gettic

I fel in love with the UAD Cambridge EQ and the UAD LA2A Compressor while I was working at another music studio. After starting my own studio I knew I had to buy and UAD card. I bought an brand new Mac Pro and ordered an UAD-2 Duo. After properly installing the card I quickly ran into the 32-bit / 64-bit problem. The card was not working...
After contacting UAD about this problem it became clear that the card would only run on an 32-bit operating system. My new Mac Pro booted in 64-bit mode by default... After a few months UAD was kind enough to release a software update that enables the UAD-card to run in a 64-bit operating system. But I soon found out that the plugins were still 32-bit and they still are today.
This means that I alway have to boot my sequencer (Logic) in 32-bit mode. Or boot it in 64-bit mode and use an 32-bit bridge. THE drawback of all of this is that I cannot access all my memory which I so desperately need when working on big projects..

Besides all the trouble I have with the UAD-card I really love it! The plugins do a wonderful job making your sound much richer and easily editable. Thanks to the UAD card my production level has massively increased!

I use the UAD Quad every day. I am happy, that I did not choose a "Solo" or "Duo" card.

As with all hardware, there is a slight learning curve. Given the complexity and quality of the product, the time needed for installation and first use was appropriate. I encountered no problems. Only in the first two months i had about 2 to 3 times the message "no UAD hardware found" (or something like that). After a restart of my computer everything was okay.

The concept of getting all plugins, but most of them as test versions was new to me. In DAWs (in my case Ableton) which list all plugins, even the unregistered, this is a little confusing. Maybe it is possible to put unregistered plugins into a subfolder, e.g. named "unregistered"?

Latency is a problem. Recording through a DAW with activated UAD plugins in realtime is not possible with sufficiently low latency. Otherwise, latency will always be a problem when recording to already complex arrangements with some plugins in use.

The sound quality is very good. As always, it would be nice to have more plugins running per card.

I would not like to use a DAW without the UAD-2 anymore. But deciding to use UAD-2 is a real turning point. One has to change the workflow and maybe even get new computer hardware. Also it easily becomes very expensive, when using bigger and more cards. A considerable discount when buying additional cards would be a great thing. A possibility to upgrade to a UAD-2 card with more DSPs would be another great thing.

Regards
Finn Anklam

Generally: the plugins are the best I have worked with. Tried pretty much all the native plugs out there.

1. Cambridge Eq: would be great if it would get a update with analyser and an improoved algorythmn

2. I would love a faster card than the current quad. I won't buy another card before something faster is out as the quad is out for nearly 3.5 years now.

Brilliant emulations bugged down totally by completely redundant hardware 'accelerators' that introduce a bunch of problems and nuissances for the end user. Very big, unnecessary, latency-mared CP dongles. I stopped using my UAD cards altogether three years ago, and even though I really do miss them, I wont ever go back as long as your plugs aren't native. It's just too much trouble, and there's no point at all. I realixe that tc gave up on the porting, but SSL pulled it off quite easily (took one guy 6 months I believe).

Personally, I'd be back on the buying-UA-plugins rollercoaster from day one of native UAD. A lot of the plugs that've come out since I stopped using the cards look really interesting. Luckily, other software vendors have started making their own versions too – I'm a big Waves and Softube fan nowadays. Plug an iLok in whichever computer I'm working on, and bam I'm off. No chunky, silly hardware, no latency that makes it impossible to do anything but mixing with the plugs, no nonsense.

Please? Please please please?

:-)


PS: I've gotten a couple of LA610mk2s last year, they're GREAT. Haven't registered them yet, and now they're stuck in the rack so that will have to wait. Loving them, though :-)

The best sounding DSP i ever heard! Lot of option, plugins, very very usable hardware.
The plugins sound fantastic, and brings life to dead tracks if used.

Thank You Universal Audio!

Simply put, audio dreams are realized, and mortgage payments are made, in no small part because of my vast array of UAD plug-ins.
The studio I now have is one that I could not have envisioned 10 years ago. I can't afford or have the space for a Neve V Series console, but with the Neve channel strip the sound of that venerable board is now coming through my speakers. An engineer friend who owned one in the day, shook his head in disbelief when I ran the channel strip through its paces. His quote, "It "doesn't sound like the Neve, it IS the Neve."

I have had experience of working with a "real" Trident A Range board on more than one occasion. When I got the UAD version, I expected something that might resemble the hardware version, but like my experience with the Neve, I got at least 95% of the real deal with that plug. There are, however two major differences:
1. The plug-in works every time without resorting to banging on it.
2. It doesn't leak oil like most everything English.

After reading the Geoff Emerick book, "All You Need Is Love," I cranked up the Fairchild on overhead drums, and voila, I was able to duplicate his take on the drum sound that is still very much with us 40+ years after the fact. And I still had a bunch more for guitars and vocals. Try that, Geoff!

Thank you guys for your hard work, dedication to detail, and imagination!

Vraiment très, très bien, les explications pour la mise en place de la carte sont très bien faite. Le fonctionnement est très stable. Les plugins sont de très très bonne qualité.
Dommage que les plugins supplémentaire restent cher. Ceci étant la qualité est là, et cette qualité se paye!

This DSP card works great and I never have problems or bugs with it.
This is a stable platform !!