Might be of interest. Did a search and couldn’t see it mentioned elsewhere.
I know a few people who swear by the DSP plugins. Not sure I’m in the market for these though.
Edit: I think (needs verifying), if you have the DSP plugin, you get access to the native version for free.
Same, I know many who swear by these.
I’ve got too much overlap with PA, IK Multimedia, Softube and other 1-offs.
My biggest interest was the Studer A800, but I see the IK Tape Machine 80 holds its own against it (even though it’s CPU heavy). I’ve loved Softube’s Tape for a long time, but I’m planning to put the IK one to work for a while.
I was definitely interested after getting rid of Waves (won’t run without a WUP renewal that I didn’t want to buy). There’s still some missing plugins from my Waves stuff, but I think I’ll survive without them.
I find them quite expensive. If they ever bring on reasonable sales I might grad 1 or 2, but I don’t really need them.
I actually think they did this too late.
I have UAD Spark and I can say that Studer A800 is so amazing. The tape saturation on that one is so nice! I have it on the master and drive it hard in my latest project. You can test it with Spark 14 day trail. It’s really light on the CPU as well.
I also love the API 2500.
I’ve seen it in action and always drooled over it. I did the 3 month sub for $1, but never got around to testing any of it, ultimately deciding I didn’t want “more.” Also the IK one is supposedly on par, or better depending who you speak to, where you read, or what videos you watch on YT.
The API is one of my now missing Waves tools. I replaced it with the unlicensed PA one from Lindell Audio. Not sure if it will do the trick or not, but I’m hopeful.
I’m thinking about getting some pultec eq plugins next year and found these, I don’t understand if these run as vst/au or they require UA hardware? it looks like it can run without but I’m not sure, the term “UA Native” confuses me.
$39 seems like a reasonable price, anyone with no UA interfaces has experience with these?
I use the pultecs and have no UAD hardware and no desire to own any.
UAD has done a really nice job with these pultecs. I use their API, LA2A and pultec.
That said you really don’t need those unless you want that sound. To be honest, some of my plugins are god tier for mixing live bands compared to being just a “nice to have” for making electronic music. I would put UAD in that camp. But having them is pretty great because sometimes I want to do that pultec trick or have an API on the drum buss for sharper/punchier transients.
Check the section ”included versions” on the plugins you’re considering.
Native means works without uad hardware
thanks, that’s exactly what I was hoping for.
right now I’m at a point where if I need a cut I’ll go for a parametric eq and I’ll find relatively easy what I want to cut, but for boosting I’m having trouble with them, right now I use SlickEQ which is great but I want to try other options, I want some pre-defined bands, I’ve tried some free stuff like Analog Obsession but they didn’t sound that nice when boosting as SlickEQ, so I wanna try something else and these are just some of the ones I’ve found, I’ve seen some PA stuff like the Bettermaker EQ232D and Lindell Audio PEX-500 that I’ll probably demo as well, just wanted to make sure these UA plugins are running without UA hardware.
UAD native plugins aka UADx are running without UAD harware. But you need internet connection for UAD connect to check if the plugins are registered with your account aka ilock cloud
that shouldn’t be an issue but good to know, btw is that a one-time thing or every time I use them?
Ilok cloud needs a constant internet connection for plugins to work
So which bundle is the best value? I’m in the process of switching to a hybrid workflow (and selling some of my gear), and I’m shopping for plugins, looks like UAD should cover my mixing needs more or less.
Disclaimer: I’m not good at mixing, and I’ve seen a lot of praise for UAD plugins for being easy to work with, like you don’t need years of experience to achieve good results. So I was thinking of buying one of their bundles, plus maybe Fabfilter Pro-Q 3 (other FF stuff seems to be nice as well, but this one seems to be indispensable) later. I’m considering either the Producer bundle ($99) + Distressor ($49), or the Studio bundle ($199). Is it a good idea? I know that it will take time to learn that many plugins and determine which fit my workflow and sound, and I think to me it’s easier to get a bundle and then take my time exploring the possibilities.
The UAD Producer Edition is the best bang for the buck imo, though I’m still yearning for the Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor. The Essentials Edition is what you get as a free bundle, if you buy even the cheapest UA audio-interface from the Volt Series, at least here in Germany you’ll get the UAD Essentials Edition for free, if you buy and register till the 31.05.2024.
If you also want the EL8 Disteressor just go for the Studio Edition Bundle, where the Studer A800 Tape Recorder is also included, I bought it seprately and like it a lot.
It IS excellent, that one 
my go-to UAD compressor.
I also recommend the API vision channelstrip and Api bus compressorr 
If you are also into software synths / wavetable synths … I like the GUI of the UAD opal synth much more then the Arturia Pigments. The Opal is more compact and you also can do a lot of moduluations. The Pigments always wants to fill the screen and sometimes I even have to scroll up and down to see all informations.
I think the prices are really grazy low at the moment. Normally the Distressor is 6 times the price. But also Izotope / Native Instruments have lots of cheep sales at the moment. So may we see some prices for software coming down a bit?
Getting £235 in my cart for the UAD Producer 2 (56 plugin pack).
Worth a punt?
Fantastic price for the value on sale here, especially if you don’t own any/many of the included plugins.
I own none of them mate - might pull the trigger, think today is last day with UAD
