Universal Audio WebZine
Volume 2, Number 4, May 2004
[UA Universe] [Ask the Doctors] [Digital Discourse] [Analog Obsession]
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UAD-1 Universe - This Month at Universal Audio
Featured Employee: DreamVerb Olympian Clare O'Brien

Clare O’Brien
Clare O'Brien started in late 2002 when she was just 18, and began her career here at UA as part of the administration team; she's an exceptionally hard worker, and became a legend around the office as the "Free DreamVerb Olympian" when she spent months working her way through mountains of orders during the Mackie days, before UA's highly efficient online store. Clare personally helped over a hundred UAD-1 users through the process of obtaining their DreamVerb authorizations, earning her praise from phone calls, e-mails and online forums. Since that time, Clare has proven her worth on various other projects. In March, Clare officially joined the marketing team as Marketing Administrator. She still does challenge response authorizations and iLok "assetizing" for TDM demos, and still does phone support and email support as our "early filter" for our tech team-but some new duties include handling artist relations, travel coordinator, and working as trade show staff.

Clare attended her first tradeshow at NAMM 2003 in Los Angeles. (What a way to start!) She shared some astute observations of the experience.

"It's funny how almost rabid people are over our stuff," Yep. Sounds like NAMM to me!
"Going to my first tradeshow, I almost felt like I was on a high when I came back; like camp. It's been great to get out there, to get in touch with what really goes on with our products."

Clare's next tradeshow outing will be AES 2004, in our own backyard of San Francisco.

In addition to working at UA, Clare is studying psychology and writing at Cabrillo College in nearby Aptos. She has ambitions to perhaps one day become a therapist-so working in the Pro Audio industry could be considered "on the job training." Clare is a making straight A's Way to go!

I asked Clare about her interest in audio she said, "I have an interest in getting interested." She's always fascinated about what goes on around the shop and how it might relate to studios, so she's planning on starting by checking out all the studios owned by UA staff members, including Tim Prince, Si Moorehead, Rich Williams and Will Shanks. Hmmm, I sense a psychology term paper in the works...

Later I found out that Clare has a true love for books.

"I read all the time, practically any kind of book. Books force me to slow down a little bit--I guess reading is my passion. I think I like to read more than anything else. Movies are cool too, but I like to imagine the characters and story, and then I almost don't like to see the movie version afterwards-- it ruins my whole perspective on how I have it set up, and how I have my characters set up the way I want."

Clare also admits the escapism that bookworms often fall into.

"For me, books can also be bad because if I'm into a really good book, I'll even lie to people saying, 'I can't hang out because I've got something really important to do'. I feel like none of my friends understand if I say 'I'm sorry, I'm going to read a book!'"

Clare's love of reading has come in handy at UA, as Clare is now our official trade magazine scanner. Clare has a special prescient power to pick out any mention of UA or any UA product, no matter how small the mention. She has amassed a vast collection of binders that are filled with references to UA, from just about every audio magazine from the last four years!

-Will Shanks
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FXpansion UAD-1 RTAS Adapter Now Available!
A special FXpansion VST-RTAS Adapter is available as a FREE download to registered Studio Pak and Project Pak customers at my.uaudio.com. All users have to do is to register at my.uaudio.com, and download their software.

Users of the Mackie-branded UAD-1 do not qualify for a free Adapter, but this can be purchased directly from FXpansion. Of course, with the price of the Fxpansion adapter being $99 and the street price of the UAD-1 Project Pak being $399, Mackie UAD-1 owners might want to consider picking up a Project Pak to double their DSP power!

The UAD-1 RTAS Adapter allows the UAD-1 to be used with ProTools LE 6.4 and the Digidesign M-Box, 001 and 002 systems on Mac OSX (10.2) and Win XP (Service Pack 1) within the following important constraints:

FXpansion UAD-1 RTAS Adapter Settings:

* Setting the FX and PT buffer the same results in the best performance at all buffer sizes (we recommend 1024 unless tracking).
* M-Box and 001 customers on the Mac must set set MIN_GNT to 64 (Using the UAD-1 Meter application).
* Digidesign requires that Windows XP M-Box users update to Windows Service Pack 1.

System requirements:

Mac: OS X 10.2.x, 10.3.x, PT 6.4
Win: XP, PT 6.4

All technical support for the FXpansion UAD-1 RTAS Adapter will be handled by FXpansion and NOT UA. Please see the RTAS product page for more information.

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RealVerb Upgrade Promo
Registered users of Kind of Loud Technologies RealVerb for MAS or RTAS can get $100 cash back from UA, or a free $149 plug when they purchase a new UAD-1 Project Pak!

By upgrading to a UAD-1 Project Pak, RealVerb MAS and RTAS owners not only get Windows XP and Mac OS-X support, they move up to RealVerb Pro, and get an additional 14 plug-ins, including the 1176SE and Pultec EQP-1A. If you upgrade prior to June 30th, you'll also get our new Pultec-Pro plug-in for free! And if that's not enough to get you running to your local dealer, you'll also be able to purchase Universal Audio's other award-winning plug-ins, including the stunning Fairchild 670, from UA's online store, my.uaudio.com. And oh yeah, ALL of these great-sounding plug-ins will be running on the UAD-1, not on your host processor. Let's face it, this upgrade is a flat-out no-brainer!

Here's how it works: If you're a registered users of either RealVerb for RTAS or MAS, just grab and print out the coupon in the Featured Promotion section of the Webzine and send it into us with your UAD-1 Project Pak proof of purchase we we'll cut you a check for $100 or give you a free UAD-1 plug-in of your choice ($149 value).

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Winning UA team (Randy, Mike, and Will) with PSN's Dave Robinson and trophy!
Messe Roundup - UA Front & Center in PSN Europe
Frankfurt Messe saw the launch of the new UAD-1 Project Pak, the new Pultec-Pro plug-in and record orders for UA from our European distributors.

The UAD-1 Project Pak was featured on the front page of Pro Sound News Europe as big show news along with an interview with UA Executive staff on the rapid growth of UA.

In celebration of the new release, UA sponsored a giveaway. Many new UA hoodies and tees were passed out as well as three Project Paks. The lucky winners were thrilled.

The visiting UA team also coincidentally won the annual Pro Sound News Europe Music Trivia Quiz - a riotously entertaining event attended by many audio and MI manufacturers and European press.

UA's star sales Manager Erica McDaniel was also enlisted to give funky dance lessons to senior PSN editors "Robbo 'N' Goldie" (Dave Robinson and Dan Goldstein). While the results were impressive, we hope and pray that a new UK "Boy Band" will not follow.

See all the photos from the Musik Messe 04 event here!

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Will with JADA
REMIX Roundup - Remix Hotel, Miami and the arrival of Jada!
UA attended its first Remix Hotel event during Winter Music Conference in Miami to show the new UAD-1 Studio Pak to the Remix/DJ crowd.

With the killer location and coincidence with the Winter Music Conference - the event attracted a large number of DJ's, producers and remixers who dropped by to check out the latest gear from the exhibitors including: UA, Pioneer, Yamaha, Mackie & Korg.

Hot all-girl Boston band "Jada" dropped by the UA booth and the lovely Jacyn, Laurne, Elle and Ashley treated us to an impromptu Acappela performance of one of their new tracks. These ladies can REALLY sing, and they are holding a remix competition, so put your UAD-1 to good use and visit their site! UA's own Will Shanks can be seen in shot with the girls contemplating his new career as a tour astrologist!

http://jadamusic.com/

See all the photos from the Remix 04 event here!



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AES Berlin: UA exhibiting at Booth #4819, May 8th-11th 2004
European AES is almost upon us and will be hosted in Berlin this year. UA will be exhibiting all our latest products so if you're visiting, please come by and see us at Messe Berlin, booth #4819. Members of the UA, US Sales & Marketing Teams will be on hand to answer all your product questions: Erica McDaniel (Sales Manager), Will Shanks (Analog Product Specialist) & Randy Knaub (UAD-1 Mac Product Specialist)

AES Berlin May 8-11
Saturday
8th
10:00 h
-
18:00 h
Sunday
9th
10:00 h
-
18:00 h
Monday
10th
10:00 h
-
18:00 h
Tuesday
11th
10:00 h
-
17:00 h

For more information, please visit the AES official site. http://www.aes.org/events/116/

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UA Premier Sponsor at Tape Op Conference, May 28-30 2004, New Orleans
UA will be the prime sponsor for the forthcoming 3rd annual Tape Op Conference in New Orleans, held at the Fairmont Hotel, from May 28-30th. UA will not only be exhibiting, but participating on several panels. Writer of the Webzine's "Compression Obsession" Will Shanks, will join in discussions on Friday the 28th from 2 to 4pm for the "Compressor Do's and Don'ts" workshop, while founder Bill Putnam Jr. will participate in the "The Future of Music" panel on Sunday the 30th from 5 to7pm.

The event is a great way to brush-up on your recording skills, meet many manufacturers up-close and see all the latest gear along with making new audio friends, contacts and seeing some great live music.

For more information go to: http://www.tapeopcon.com

3D Audio Preamps In Paradise
Lynn Fuston from 3D Audio in Nashville recently completed his second 3DPre Microphone Preamp shootout and recording called "Preamps In Paradise". UA co-sponsored the event and provided Lynn with two 2-610 units for the shootout. For more info and pictures from the event checkout the 3D Audio Forum.

--Mike Barnes


Lynn Fuston of 3D Audio posing with a lot of really nice preamps
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