“Oh how the mighty have fallen.”
It’s a shame. They used to be such a good company with great plugins.
Yes. Now they just make too much misc stuff that they don’t have the time/resources to make their plugins work correctly in the most popular cross-platform mastering DAW.
Less promo emails, more bug fixes please.
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Hello,
yes same thing happens with UAD.
I have been running into a few strange bugs on my M4 machine. Are these issues happening on Apple or Intel chips? Does it occur if running Wavelab in Rosetta? Not very helpful but I wonder if it may narrow down the issue. I’ll try to contact UA also
I no longer have any Intel Macs and it happens the same on all 3 Macs:
M2 Ultra
M4 Max
M4 standard
UA is not going to do sh*t about this issue so no more UA plugins in WaveLab for me.
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I wouldn’t even waste your time contacting UA support. Here’s an example of some of the useless replies you’ll get from them.
Basically, use an another DAW loser. Not our problem. Here’s some guitar FX and another update to the 1176 plugin that nobody asked for. You’ll probably hear about it from our 12 promo emails this week.
They still have only released a fraction of their plugin lineup as native UADx/Spark and if you consider how long it took them to deliver any VST3 versions, it’ll probably be 2032 before all their plugins are UADx/Spark.
No longer a company for professionals.
I was about to buy a UAD Volt 1 interface (assuming it is related to the same plugin company), even though I am not able to understand this discussion completely, I think I have a reason to stay away from buying it and continue using what I already have for some more time.
FWIW, the issue is somewhat niche and the plugins can render correctly in some situations so do your own testing with how you work before you decide.
That said, I have clear video evidence of an issue that occurs every single time and they seem to give zero shits about it so I am personally done with them.
Plus, for many years now they refuse to support WaveLab.
I was once a fan and have had a number of their hardware units over the years and still own many UAD/UADx plugins but there is no way I can confidently use them in WaveLab with my workflow.
Speaking for myself, owning a Twin Quad, an x8, and then a second x8 to accommodate limitations on the first one (which ended up limiting me even more when I found out “undocumented” restrictions), and after sending back an OCTO, and spending several thousands (US) on plugins, I wouldn’t even consider purchasing a UAD product. Not even a plugin. I wouldn’t even accept FREE plugins. Their entire development model is “UAD-first, customer last.” And I’m not being facetious, either. I wouldn’t take their products now if given to me. My own opinion, but I would suggest you seriously look at the RME lineup if/when ready to upgrade.
Yeah, I’m definitely done with their hardware. Their hardware is not really in my field of interest anymore anyway since I’m only mastering…no recording, mixing etc.
The UA console app is just a huge headache/barrier/roadblock anyway. I’ve helped too many people with “WaveLab” issues only to release it’s something with the UA console app.
Running some UA plugins in the way in for recording podcasts with my UA Arrow was kind of cool but it looks like RME Total mix has some EQ and dynamics now that can be used to record in. I’ll know when it gets here tomorrow.
I had some hope of using UA plugins again now that they’re rolling out the native UADx/Spark versions but due to this WaveLab rendering bug and their lack of internet in the factual bug, or supporting WaveLab in general…their plugins are dead to me now.
Plenty of other plugins working just fine in WaveLab.
The only slight bummer is when a mix engineer tells me they were using this or that UAD plugin on the master bus for the loud reference version and I now know that I can’t use it and have to find an alternative solution.
That’s a whole different topic though of why people would remove processing on a client approved mix…
If it’s that important to the mix, keep it on there when sending off to mastering.
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It’s profoundly limited. No output levels, and if you set the output for, say, an ADAT channel, it’s completely locked up for any other purpose. There’s no “hardware awareness,” so when you load the software, it automatically loads Dante whether you want it or not (as in launching ConMon via a shell script) and shows the full Network configuration setup even if you can’t use it. There’s no cross-unit channel routing (other than monitor) and you are FORCED to have UA Connect not only install, but actively running just to open the console. Further, the x8’s have no concept of “unit-based configuration,” so you literally must have them connected to a PC to use them at all (other than in a very limited “analog 1:1 monitoring”). You can’t even power an x8 on and have it load a default configuration. You MUST load Console, and you MUST load UA Connect, which has zero privacy settings, and is streaming out usage data to multiple analytics platforms whether you want it to or not.
Just arriving at a config that is reasonably useful in a studio environment has taken extreme planning, not the least of which is finding out they are NOT 1U units operationally. They are 2U units at a minimum, and more like 3U if you don’t want to burn yourself touching the units. Even the “2 ADAT Ports” is misinformation, as the entire 2nd port use-case is “mirror only.” And God forbid you want to use SoundID without paying for the integration with the unit - they hijack the entire app. It’s just an absolute mess, and if you try to get an explanation for any of it, you’re publicly ridiculed by their forum staff while then being told “Make sure you use the feedback feature in UA Connect.”
I will certainly look into the RME interface.
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Only just stumbled on this topic - oh god what a nightmare!
Please elaborate if you can “plugins can render in certain circumstances”. What, if any, workarounds are available? (Putting a UADx plugin on every clip was mentioned upthread? ) Thanks!
Is a possible solution being worked on at all PG?
This is currently not my priority, but it is noted for later evaluation.
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@PG1 already responded earlier in the thread. This is likely all on UA. @Justin_Perkins experience of UAD support is sadly becoming broader. It’s not that UAD hardware and software is bad, it’s just that there no longer seems to be the kind of engagement in fixing issues and responding substantively to user queries that once existed. There was a time when fixing an issue with the world’s number 1 mastering app would have had them going all out to sort it. No more it seems.
I stopped contacting their support over 2 years ago as it’s a woeful experience, similar to Justins, and only use the non official UAD forum these days to get the answers I need. Being told by UA to use their one way feedback system via their app just comes off as insulting most of the time, so I get why many users have issue with it.
So different to major software/hardware vendors like SSL who respond with substantive feedback to queries within hours. I like my Apollo and UAD software, but there’s a reason it’s no longer my main interface and that I haven’t bought anything from them for quite a while.
I’ll be upgrading one of my rooms early next year and it’ll either be more RME or the new Motu line. Always hopeful UA will return to their former self, but considering the current leadership lineup, I’m not holding my breath.
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@PG1- Understood. Thank you.
@SteveBee Oh I don’t use UAD interfaces at all - RME for years and have never regretted. Recommended!
If it’s only full montage render that is broken and not eg clip by clip does that not at least suggest that an internal WL process might be partially responsible or a fix possible?
The question for me would be why the issue only happens on the UAD plugin. To me that suggests something on the UAD side. We also know from @Justin_Perkins posts that UA don’t test on Wavelab, so there’s that too.
@SteveBee - agreed. It’s on UAD as well for sure.
Moving forward I think until this is fixed I’ll just have to render whole montages in 2 parts then join the files together 