I was using the avatar of don Joaquin Cosio on my favorite movie "Hell". But after R2R System i wanted to pay tribute to R2R with some anime-like WAIFU avatar

 

I never let my DAW connect to the internet, so no data leaves the DAW while working on it, and here, UA Connect is blocked from running and I only ever occasionally run it manually to update some plugins. At best, what UAC could send UA is how many times each of the plugins I own was loaded since the last connection - if that was the case, I don't really care whether UA know which of their plugins I use the most...

 

Bienvenido al club
I guess you can say I'm the male waifu equivalent, a husbando

 

Good thing you can just uninstall UA Connect. You only need it for installing new plugins and updating the plugins. There is a possibility that the plugins themselves collect data when used, but I'm not sure how. As long as you don't block iLok they seem to work fine.

The only reasons to update the plugins is if they have fixed some annoying bugs or added features, but I haven't run into a single bug in any of the plugins and they haven't added additional features to any of the plugins either. I guess I'll install UA Connect again if they give away more free plugins, but other than that I have no reasons to keep it installed.

 

When idiots and greedy tyrants take over a functioning company, things quickly go downhill and a trail of destruction becomes visible.
Regards from NI

 

its kinda hard to read, knowing that theres literally a guy on this forum that made an ai plugin maker, that requires 500 dollars for having your own vendor name in it

 

"Video killed the Radio Star"

"A.I killed the human star"

 

Until the Singularity occurs and it stops procrastinating about killing the rest of us, I'll just keep enjoying my plugins.

 

Yes the plugins are the best (the native ones at least) but all of the garbage that comes with using them (legit wise) completely overshadows the fact that they are as good as they are... If/when the natives ever get cracked I'll be the first in line grabbing them. Until then however, forget it.

 

Being saying UA sucks for years now, but I had no idea they were this commited to sucking.

 

How are you thinking so? In what way? I can't imagine what plugin use, or how long I have Ableton open for, and so on can help shape something like Suno. Curious as to what you are thinkin!

You want to hear something even worse? The company Soundbetter, which is supposed to be in service of producers, songwriters etc, just rolled out the same thing, except they charge you $1000 to be able to even download it. This shit pissed me off like no other. Here is a company that has had a lot of money generated by creators. Sure, they are providing the platform, but still... Do you want to support the creators that help your business succeed? I could understand a nominal fee, 50$ for the licensing and server or something, but $1000 is insane.

Their plugins are not even anything special for the most part. I still use a few, but have replaced almost all of their plugins. So i wouldn't stress too much about them not being released.

 

There are some gem comments on Reddit thread; for example, i want to tattoo this one on my face:

But this one expresses my real opinion on the topic. I mean, how come you got a huge comunnity of serious musicians, recording engineers and fanboys and suddenly destroys everthing because you want to make deals with Suno(i'm saying ONLY that because i don't wanna go conspiracy mode and this is probably coming up to the surface). C'mon UAD...

 

UA have synths, so they don't need to track audio to track the notes the synth played. They can score only the code. Effect knobs position can define a starting point for AI to sound tonally based on multiple user inputs to define what works, and so on. I don't want keep talking because i don't want to give those evil devs ideas. You need to ask yourself how much data you send while you use UAD products, and how much you care about it.

 

The difference between a company scraping files from the internet which were posted on publicly accessible web servers is a big difference between commercially gathering data from paying customers via data exfiltration of any kind. Maybe not every one has a good firewall in 2026, but more than enough people do that they would end up in hot water. They are not like some Tone2 operation who can just try to say they are sorry.

 

Lots of false lore in this thread..

UAD has basically been doing “old tech turned into algorithms” forever. they take old gear, study the DNA, turn it into code, then sell us the digital version.
so “algorithms in music = bad” is a weak take. music software has always been taking IP from the past and making algorithms.

suno definitely isn't doing this. Suno also generates sound from from noise profile so peoples sloppy WIP music session data doesnt do a diffusion model any service.

Suno also doesn't officially API. Only 2 genuine apis ever. Microsoft Cowork, and Amazon Alexa. There is more value in actual users to them. The pro music industry is just a small fraction of money and market.

I dont know on the UAD side. but if i were them and they really want to put gen AI in their luna. I would just fine tune a ACE Step model. or team up with Eleven Labs Music, Sonauto, minimax, mureka, Lyria.. or any of the APIs for music, and stem generation.

Or just UAD could just buy https://www.novamusic.ai/ and get them all..

 

I have read through the entire thing carefully and basically nothing in there surprises me...

I would describe myself as a former UAD power user. I’ve known UAD since 2008, or rather, I had my first DSP solution back then. I always used UAD interfaces combined with a DSP expansion. When I went professional with music in 2024 and more budget became available, I eventually upgraded to high-end monitors.

The first thing I noticed back then was: why does my low end sound so strange? Simply not stable, partly muddy. Why do my highs sound so unnatural?

At the time, I first thought it was just the adjustment phase to the new monitors.

Up to that point, I had owned several monitors—including the KRK Exposé E8B, Genelec 1031A, and so on—and I was always satisfied with my Apollo x6.

Well, until then, I didn't have 16k monitors in the studio either...

After some back and forth and listening in, nothing changed. Sometime later, there was the Gen 2 upgrade from UAD, I spoke with a UAD employee back then and asked what was actually different aside from the external changes. The answer: OP Amps.

Well, by now I know that you can install much better stuff yourself, but anyway... I then ordered a Metric Halo ULN-8 mkIV and was blown away when I compared the sound using identical songs. On that day, I pulled my Apollo x6 out of the rack and sold the junk.

Compared to the Metric Halo, the Apollo converters sound like a trash can. Once I moved into the high-end sector with those monitors, I was finally able to hear how shitty those converters actually sound: you will never be able to perceive that difference with low-end or mid-range studio speakers. With UAD, it felt like it started being only about the money with Gen 2. Sure, every company is designed for that, but I really started to feel like I was being taken for a fool.

I also had three Satellite Octos, but those are all sold by now as well. UAD did good things in the past and even today, I count some of their plugins among the best emulations, but nowadays so many companies have caught up and invested time and money that UAD brings absolutely no added value for me anymore.

Other manufacturers can do it too—and in some cases better by now—without costing me a few grand right away.

Regarding plugins, I really had everything. At some point, though, it became more about wanting a license for every available plugin on my list rather than actually needing them.

Looking back today, that was a HUGE waste of money. That money could have been invested much better in real analog gear or something else.

 

This is not the point. A lot of us know how UA and Suno do their stuff. The point is not the conception of the software. The point is data being used to feed a third party service that may be "interested" to the "good maintaince of UAD" (The Terms of Agreement). Since data = information, they can use the information in any way they want because you allowed them to do so. A golf association may gather data through scrapping to enhance their tasks, and you don't need a computer to play golf. Suno collects a lot of data that is non related to their audio software engine as well. Everybody hosting a service does. And they do it because they may use it, it's not to simply store a bunch of data for the sake of it. And most of the users may agree that improving an AI service isn't interesting to what they expect from the UAD service.

 

hu-su-ba-n-do.

There is no isolated s-consonant in japanese.

But husubando would sound weird anyway. You'd be more likely to write/say hasubando or hazubando.

 

Last edited: Jun 6, 2026 at 10:31 AM

Ah gotcha. I don't think anything like that is happening. If suno were to integrate some sort of synth, which im sure they will, they don't need to collect piles of data for that. Can easily just hire a sound designer. Same for FX knobs. Much simpler to just have a person or persons who know what they are doing. Im not worried about it anyways. I use a few UA plugins, but I don't keep UA connect installed.

Nova looks cool. Now we will be able to do that with Ableton's scripting extensions. Super pumped for all the possibilities it opens, AI or otherwise.

Have you worked with fine tuning ACE step models? Ive had it installed for a bit now, but have not really dug in.

yes!! I never understood the hype with the Apollos. There was a time where i feel like 80% of studios I was working in around LA had an apollo.
I got my GF one of their Volt interfaces a while back. She needed a new one, and i choose the volt because of the built in analog comp. That thing is straight up a piece of shit lol.

 

kinda weird that the post still alive in the UA official forum.
MOD says that... maybe to catch who is it from inside? idk.