Let's argue about watermarking now. I'll start: it's not real, they just say that to fcuk with us. Discuss.

 

wait, do people honestly think the ilok 2 and 3 dongles being different makes a difference w/the protection?

 

Well if a 44.1khz audio sample has 588x75 positions per second and somehow they managed to write into those positions something unique that can identify your license, not just on one sound or vst, but across a whole track, then they're probably fuckin with our speakers with glitches...

If they screwed with just a sample to watermark that its going to have some kind of glitching where instead of following a curve it has to do some weird glitchy shit that proves that its from the person who made it...

So anyone admitting that they're fuckin with our speakers, systems and even our hearing in a way that might cause them to break hasn't really thought it through

 

So, I've been trying out the demo, and here's my honest review of it, keep in mind this is coming from someone who has never used UA hardware, from my perspective these plugins are on par with most of what's out there today, are your productions going to sound professional when you use these?..only if you know what you're doing twisting knobs, they are not a "magic bullet" for professional studio sound, I've tried tons of plugins over the years, some great, some good, some not so good, I believe you can get the same results using other plugins, as long as you know what you're doing, the key to a great mix and master is "KNOWLEDGE" not brand name plugins, I don't really care for the subscription model, if you could buy them outright I might would or if they show up on the sister site, I'll probably grab them, but in the meantime I can live with what I've got in my stable, this is just my two cents, hope it helps someone out......

 

oh i read TC Spark, got excited there for a moment

carry on, im staying oldschool

 

Am I the only one who is really waiting for R2R version to play for a couple days, and then go back to the waves?

 

you are not the only one, but i will go back to plugin alliance tho

 

And FabFilter

 

One of the best posts I've seen on this board, thank you. Any chance you'd elaborate on how you're rebuilding the 2500?

 

I have a template to analyze something like this.




To clone a compressor, I first load it into plugin doctor to deal with the curves of the compressor.
The best clone is a compressor that offers many possibilities to adjust the curves, i.e. for threshold, attack, release, knee, ratio, but is clean (means it doesn't bring any harmonic distortion itself). Good examples are DMG Compassion or Sonible Smartcomp 2.

Once I've done that, I continue in Reaper and take care of the harmonic distortion. I pick a frequency at which I generate a sine to analyze the harmonic spectrum. The frequency of the sine depends on what the compressor is accentuating. The Api 2500, for example, accentuates the bass, which means I start with a sine with a low frequency. To emulate the OTS, all types of waveshapers that only do waveshaping are suitable. This means that they must not have any filters (apart from AA), or delays, etc. built in. Well suited are for example Melda's MWaveShaper or HoRNet Harmonics. The difficulty is that the phase of an overtone can be either positive or negative, which has sonic effects. To test this you need to keep track of the delta signal from the reference and the wave shaper. It is important to test how the OTS behaves with different input levels and to take this into account.

Once the OTS is replicated for one frequency, the next step is to find out how it behaves with de-/emphasis for the entire frequency spectrum. For this I have an array of sine tone generators. They help me to find out which frequency ranges are particularly accentuated and which are not. I then clone the behavior with two EQs.

You also have to find out if the plugin has a certain linear tone curve and if this curve is influenced by plugin parameters or input level.

Last but not least you have to find out how the plugins have to be routed. Saturation before or after the compressor? Frequency curve before or after the compressor/saturation? Is the saturation in series or parallel?

The parameters are then controlled by assigned macros. How exactly you do this depends on your DAW. In Reason there is Combinator, in Live there are Effects Racks, in Reaper there is the FX parameter panel, and so on. Plugin Chainers are also a good choice, of course.


The result is not as CPU efficient as a UA plugin, but if you don't use it on every track in the mix, but only as an AUX or on the stereo bus, it hardly matters.

 

Incredible! Would love to see it in action or even get a copy of the chain? :D

You should have a YouTube channel!

 

I taught you how to fish, now catch your own fish. You can do it!

 

Honestly would if I didn't think UAD would try to collect information from me when I go for a trial lol... Will definitely consider trying it in the future

 

Of course they do. Who doesn't? You can hardly run a successful business without data collection, target group analysis and customer acquisition.

 

Last edited: Nov 4, 2022

That's a fair comment on some levels, but with that snooping comes a responsibility as well. They're collecting valuable data and creating security holes to do it.

UAD has had offline activation for years with the dongles and activation worked ok. This thing is different. Information is now more valuable than the plugins. They used to cost $300 each etc and now you can get a bundle for $20.

You can't even buy an iLok to get them working, the spying is essential. You have to put the computer online to activate them, which is a security hole that didn't exist before. Both dongle models, Apollo and iLok, but now the spying is essential if you want to use your software in the near future (VST2 is dead and UADx is VST3 only).

The whole point of dongles, iLok hardware etc is that you aren't locked into being online and leaving security holes in everything.

Its not just collecting data or details either because they get that with subscription or dongle software sales, web surfing associated with the account and Browser etc... This is deeper spying, at the level of 'what catchy songs have you made that we can rip off'.

When they're normalising sitting on your shoulder inside your DAW they've gone too far. They might have the best of intentions (highly doubtful when they're already thinking this way) but AI for example will see this as an invitation to steal everybody's creativity, because it needs to learn how to be creative...

If UAD left a big door open for AI to walk through, its going to figure out a way to do that if it can learn from what is on the other side. Bear in mind also that people who spent money on software at this level are probably those who are making money from their songs, so if AI wants to learn how to write hits, the HitMakers are likely to be UAD Customers.

 

Okay guys, let me put it this way:
If you don't have a de-googled phone, but have a social network account, have friends who have your contact info stored in their phone and are registered on a social network, have an account on Amazon, Netflix, etc., and generally have an account that contains more sensitive data than a throwaway email address, then I don't understand this fuzz.
If you are not that kind of person, and on the internet you are an absolute nobody, where every tracking attempt ends in a dead end, then I say without any irony: congratulations, I envy your freedom! Otherwise, I would advise you to reconsider your own understanding of security and prioritization. UA is just another company that knows your bank data, browser and machine ID, but they do not track your whole life.
That being said, let's end this off-topic discussion here before it gets too out of hand

 

Last edited: Nov 4, 2022

How dare you reply with a sensible, fact-ridden and well thought out response!