Because I believe if they were indeed planning to port UAD-2 to VST3, they could easily say so without necessarily announcing a time frame. And that UA continually avoids addressing this now 4-month-old topic altogether speaks volumes… (Unlike where they are perfectly fine saying that more plug-ins will be ported to UADx)
They almost never announce anything in advance though.
And it makes a lot more sense that they would say that it’s impossible to get VST 3 to run on UAD-2 than not saying that it’s impossible (if it’s impossible). Like, what’s the benefit of not admitting that at all?
4 months? Come one… how long have they avoided the topic of going native? That’s gotta be about a decade by now.
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I am a long time UAD user going back before UAD-2. First there were UAD-1 that ran on an old card inside the computer. Later they introduced UAD-2 but to take advantage you had to upgrade your hardware to UAD-2, which I did. If you “own” a license for UAD-2 they are giving you the same plugin as UADx for free.
I don’t know their plans at all. Don’t work there or know anyone that does. Just a guess that maybe they might come out with new hardware called UAD-3 that might run the new plugin.
I purchased an Intel Mac last year just because it will be 100% compatible. I am planning on getting an M1 MacBook Pro sometime in the near future but I don’t know what trouble I’ll find.
Cubase not supporting UAD or UAD not supporting Cubase is going to be an issue for many of us.
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This is all conjecture. I admit that I don’t have the inside track. However one can only go by experience. I mean, where is Luna for Windows? Why is the constant development Apple based? Why the development of UADx for Apple together with yet another disappointment for Windows users? I am sorry if this seems a little cynical, but where is the case for optimism? I have stopped purchasing anything UAD based until there is some clarity. I am building a collection of plugins that will allow my independence. This not to say I won’t use UAD plugins as I really love them, but I want to avoid further disappointments.
UAD are making VST3 for UADx, it’s a money spinner for them. They can now start selling subscriptions so UAD are doing things in a financially sensible way.
They could have converted the DSP plugins to VST3 first and got no extra money OR they could do what they are doing i.e, learn how to convert them and make money out of it and then go back convert UAD 2 DSP to VST3.
If anyone has any evidence what-so-ever that VST3 will not run on their DSP then show it. Because I have seen no evidence at all, just a lot of upset users who know nothing about the process guessing (and I get why they are upset, it’s not great, the not knowing, but speculating to other users that they have wasted thousands on a systems is not useful or even true if they have no evidence, that’s just hurtful). Now I have also seen UAD quietly working with VST3 and I guess they never said anything because all of their DSP users with C12 would have complained anyway “why are you working on new stuff and not converting your old existing DSP first”. Clearly they could not win so they decided to say nothing.
They have said their next release will be in the fall so we will have to wait and see.
I’m using patchwork with all my DSP UAD2 plugins in native C12 with no issues so I’m in no rush at all.
And I would guess that DSP is here to stay because, though we might have a moment in time where we seem to have a lot of extra processing power available, it will all get eaten up by more complex software. This has happened so many times in the past. Dual core CPUs and then we had quad core, 100% increase in processing power and 5 years later quad core was no good to even run a DAW. It will not be long until the Apple M1 or even the Ultra can just about run a DAW too and we are all back on Octo cards.
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Yup…
well said…
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At one time I had UAD-1 cards and UAD-1 plugins. When UAD-2 came out I switched from Windows to Mac and UAD gave me access to all of the UAD-1 plugins running in UAD-2. Now, with UADx they are doing the same. Buy a UAD-2 plugin and get the license for UADx for free. I think it is a great move.
With DSP you can get away with a less powerful computer and leave the processing to the DSP. Of course, Apple now with their M1 chips may be able handle a lot more plugins on the computer instead of the DSP but we know how difficult it is to deal with freezing tracks. It still takes time and we still do not have a batch process for it.
I’m all for a fast computer and DSP to avoid any freezing.
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