UAD-2 plug-in card launches

UAD-2 plug-in card launches

4 September, 2008 | 1.54AM

• Written by: The Last Real DJ Alive
• Filed under: Music News: plug-in, uad, uad-1, uad-2, universal audio

The UAD-1 was a piece of hardware developed by Universal Audio that, once plugged into a computer, shouldered DSP responsibilities and gave the user access to emulations of the world’s most coveted analogue outboard gear.

Universal Audio have just announced the second generation of this popular product, called the UAD-2.

The UAD-2 offers scalable DSP power via three different types of PCIe cards in solo, duo or quad-chip configurations.

These can be mixed and matched in any combination of up to four cards.

If you went for four quads (which would set you back a cool $10,000), you’d have up to 40x the power of the original UAD-1 card.

Each is powered by Sharc floating-point chips, which give the UAD its analogue feel, or so Universal Audio claim.

Sharc stands for Super Harboured Architecture Computer, and their performance is over 3 gigaflops per second.

With these cards, producers can custom build their dream FX rack or mixer, comprised of classics from Neve (like the 88RS), Roland (Space Echo) and Moog (filter).

New plug-ins are constantly in development for the UAD series, including the FATSO (or EL7) by Empirical Labs, which is a rather beautiful bit of kit indeed.

Do these plug-in cards properly emulate analogue though?

You tell us what you think; in our experience, they’re certainly not the real deal, but very useful nonetheless, particularly in the case of the LA-2A emulation.

The three chipsets come in three different flavours [complicated - we know], each one bundled with varying plug-ins and vouchers:

The Base Family represents the lowest price point and comes with a $50 voucher.

The Flexi Pack has a $500 voucher, enabling users to customise their plug-ins to a greater degree.

Finally, Nevana is “The Daddy”, combining the power of UAD with the classic sound of Neve, can generate up to a whopping 128-channel virtual Neve 88RS console.

Regardless of whether you go for Base Family, Flexi Pack or Nevana, you receive seven “Mix Essentials” plug-ins.

Sadly, you don’t get a lot of great bundled plug-ins like you did with the UAD-1, which forces you to shell out on them.

The UAD-2 comes bundled with version 5.0 software, which adds major driver enhancements, a metering control panel, multi-core aware drivers, dynamic power balancing across multiple cards, easy click purchasing, help and support resources and easy software updates.

Whilst the UAD-2 will never truly emulate vintage hardware, it’s still damn fun and useful to have.

But watch out - because you can’t use it with a laptop unless you buy one of these, or wait patiently for the laptop edition which is apparently due within the next 12 months.

Whatever the case, UAD-2 - the main rival to TC Electronics’ phenomenally successful PowerCore - is in stores now.

Click here for pricing.

• (0) Comments
• (2170) Views