Hi, finally bit the bullet and bought and installed a UAD card so’s I could demo the Lexicon 224, reckon I quite fancied having it.
had a problem during the install and still waiting (3 days so far) for a response from UAD.
demo’d the 224 and …yeah, it’s very good, but, I just can not tell it apart from Valhalla vintage reverb which is 50USD, so I’m feeling like a right twerp for spending 280Euro just to demo some UAD stuff…what a plonker I am!!!
I actually thought there was gonna be something special in there!!
OK there are some nice emulations of various old stuff but similar, and I mean VERY similar plugs are available out there without spending a minimum of around 280Euro just to get em. (or cheaper 2nd hand if you wanna risk it)
while I was at it I demo’d Exponential Audo’s R2 which is excellent, and so it should be given the history of Mr Carnes,but…again the R2 is over 200Euro and does not do anything that Valhalla Vintage does at 50USD .
so I guess what I’m trying to say is don’t fall into the trap I fell in to which is thinking that only the most expensive “name” stuff can be the best…cause I’ve just learnt that it aint!!!
I’m sure a lot of you out there are way ahead of me and knew this yonks ago, I’m putting this up for any newbies who may go along the same track as I foolishly did.
anyone wanna buy a UAD 2 solo card that is 4 days old?
i don`t believe any of the hype about modeled stuff being has good as any of the real gear ever since line 6 came out ,if it was that good it would sell itself.you have to take it for what it is square pegs in round holes.
The real power isn’t in the solo card, it’s in the quad and octo cards. Taking the processing off the computer CPU and onto dedicated UAD processing hardware makes for a powerful system that can do more than a CPU running a DAW with native plugs.
I have licenses for three-quarters of the UA plug catalog. They are the best plugs I’ve ever used. I’ve retired ALL of the native plugs I formerly used.
I understand that some folks don’t dig the UAD-2. That’s okay with me. Different strokes for different folks. But I LOVE the UAD plugins. Love 'em!
Now, if they’ll hurry up and release their modeled AMS DMX-15 and RMX-16 I’ll be jumping for joy.
Well I’m very pleased that you are happy with the UAD stuff…as you say …different strokes for different folks…
I’m just not happy paying a total of around 5/600USD for a reverb that sounds the same as a 50USD reverb,
UAD…great concept, highly over-rated and obscenely over-priced. No thanks, there are other options… you can put an entire older DAW machine into action, loaded with whatever you want for much less.
Well I wouldn’t exactly put it like that and I don’t drink, not feeling too bad about it, all learning costs money(with me anyway) just wanted to let anybody thinking about going the UAD way that there aint, (in my humble opinion) which possibly counts for nowt!!! anything spectacular in there, I was incredibly underwhelmed
You might want to reserve judgement until after you’ve worked with it for a while. There is great goodness in there. Don’t despair just yet. Give it a good workout. Try some of the plugs in trial mode and see if they meet your needs/wants. It’s a very deep, flexible, and powerful piece of gear; and there is a learning curve. You may come to love it too in the fullness of time (and Fairchild compression).
You might want to reserve judgement until after you’ve worked with it for a while. There is great goodness in there. Don’t despair just yet. Give it a good workout. Try some of the plugs in trial mode and see if they meet your needs/wants. It’s a very deep, flexible, and powerful piece of gear; and there is a learning curve. You may come to love it too in the fullness of time (and Fairchild compression).[/quote]
Hi swamptone…I only went in for the 224 really, I’m afraid compressors are far to subtle for me, I can not hear the difference between one or the other, I have several and I fear they are wasted on me and frankly I would happily challenge anyone to spot the difference in a mix with a blindfold on…( blindfold on the person, not the mix )I recently challenged a good friend who is far more technical than me who refused to take me up on it…I wonder why?
The “myth” was true back in the early days of the UAD…
…for years after it came out as well.
Seemed like they were the only company out there that knew
what a compressor should sound like.
Now a days the competition has caught up.
There are some UAD exclusives that I could not live without today though.
Fatso, Moog Filter, Neve 33609, API Vision, ATR etc.
Yep a lot of truth in that!
Don’t forget the venerable old dbx VU… nothing snaps and pops like it on snare!
… and the MK2 fairchild, 1176, LA2A comps and Pultecs really are wonderful!!!
Of course they’re not 100% facsimiles of the real things but many of their plugs have bags of ‘character’ to them and like real world gear it can take some time to really get to know their strengths and weaknesses … just mho…
I agree with this too. I adopted uad plugins back in the uad1 days. Back then, I was really impressed by what they had and what they sounded like. I have since stopped purchasing their plugs in favor of competitor native plugins. Uad is an expensive platform, no doubt. Other options have come from multiple companies. No two emulations sound the same but they are in the ballpark of one another, which is fine with me. They still get the work done and it still sounds good. Hardware is perishable, more so than software and systems are more than capable of supporting native plugins these days. To me the uad cards are a dongle that becomes obsolete like digidesign systems of yesteryear that shared the same concept but digi systems kept your latency low where uad blows it up.
I still use some uad plugs in sessions, but it is only because I have been using them for years that it speeds up workflow due to familiarity. I wish I was 100% native though for simplicity.
Yeah, I ditched the UAD platform years ago when I got a computer powerful enough to go native. They do sound good however and if UAD ever decided to offer native versions (very doubtful), I’d buy a few. There are so many great alternatives these days, including Waves (although I HATE the whole WUP thing), Valhalla, URS, and so many new ones I can’y keep up…
It’s an exaggeration to call the UAD-2 card a “glorified dongle” just because there are native alternatives… the DSP on the card does actually do something, after all. However, at the end of the day, the main reason I use UAD-2 plugs, silly as it is, is because I like the GUI’s – I basically imagine that I’m using the vintage, hardware originals. Like the Fairchild… it sells for $150, and even legendary Allen Sides of Ocean Way Studios couldn’t tell it from a real Fairchild, which can go for $40,000
And a UAD-2 card (even the solo card) can support multiple Fairchilds … so, in terms of “economy of scale”, a UAD-2 is BETTER than a $40,000 real-deal hardware Fairchild for getting the job done!
The UAD Fairchild plug is amazing and so is the UAD LA2A. My two favorite compressor emulations. I didn’t care much for the Fairchild Legacy plug that I had at start, but the new ones kick ass. Also love the Cambridge EQ, Studer, and the EMT250 and the 140 reverbs. I use those on every mix, don’t use much of the other stuff anymore though.
and I don’t drink, not feeling too bad about it, all learning costs money(with me anyway) just wanted to let anybody thinking about going the UAD way that there aint, (in my humble opinion) which possibly counts for nowt!!! anything spectacular in there, I was incredibly underwhelmed 
