For anyone who might be interested in UAD's operating policy. I have owned almost 77 plugins from this company for years. The thing is that when they released the Spark subscription, it was understood that those of us who owned the plugins used through hardware could have our own in the native option. In fact, every time a plugin came out natively, they contacted me via email to inform me of the fact that I had that plugin natively as well. So far, everything is fine, until yesterday when I found out that the SSL bus compressor and channel Strip E had come out natively, which I have owned since 2018, which was when I acquired them together with a pack. What I find strange is that they hadn't warned me with an email...what happened?..surprise...I find myself in my list of plugins as an owner, that these don't appear, and what I do find is a discount coupon (only for that bundle) to acquire them natively, and that they would only cost me €9.42 (this figure is approximate, I don't remember). I tried to contact them, but you should already know that they don't have a contact email, only a chat that answers you mechanically without giving you a solution to your possible problems. In short, I had to pay almost €10, to be able to once again own some plugins that I already owned. It may seem like a minor problem, but when they charge you again for something that at the time cost me more than €300 between the two of us, it already bothers you quite a bit, even if it's only €10 with a discount. 10 euros that I paid, plus those who have gone through the same thing, as it means free income for them. It is not the first time that these gentlemen treat their clients like this, and when you go to complain, you have nowhere to do it.

 

Yeah, that's sketchy

 

I don't care to defend UAD, but in the case of SSL, it's a port +, so in addition to becoming native, they added new features (external sidechain). So you pay for an upgrade. And in any case it's about 5 dollars per plugin (E+G 10 dollars). It's not a lot. Considering all the shameful upgrade options on the market with big audio companies, UAD has always been among the most transparent. In fact in the case of Manleys, Capitol Chambers, Avalon, Distressor, Helios and Ampex ports, everything was free, because there were no new features

 

yeah thats the first time in ages that UAD makes me angry, this thing of the SSL upgrade is ridicolous. Fortunately I can stay without the upgrade, I dont need those plugins in the Spark list and I dont need the sidechain upgrade

about that you should use some tricks, I always contact them in email, and until today I always had a decent experience with their support
do this:

1 have you got archived old emails with old tickets you opened in the past with the old support system? Just use one of those emails and ANSWER TO THAT EMAIL, it will re-open the old ticket and they MUST answer even if it's from 2-3 years ago and you are proposing a new problem. I always do this way. I archive almost all support emails

2 when talking to the bot-chat you have to find a way to go through it and reach the human assistance (which will anser by email once you dribble the bot), but dont select option that "you have commercial issues with market or spark or these things". Choose something complex, even if it's a lie, choose that you have a BIG PROBLEM with some UAD hardware, Apollo or whatever and need urgent human support. If you play your cards in the right way you will get it lol I dont remember how I did it but I won that battle with the bot a couple of times (then tried the trick of the old tickets by email)

we should go and read whats happening on the UAD forum, I imagine some revolution over there lol I dont visit them too often...

IT'S A SHAME though.

 

Last edited: Oct 9, 2024

I dont agree this time. And I often defended UAD in the past, particularly when the Spark era started. It was misunderstood at the start, but then every DSP owner realized that it was a good thing

honestly I will not upgrade just for the sidechain of the SSL bus compressor, I use it only on the stereo buss so for me it works with the internal sidechain only

but I suggest another trick:

write to the support and tell em that you are angry for this paid upgrade and after a couple of emails tell em that you want a "courtesy demo reset" plus a "thank you discount of 25$" even if you didnt buy a new plugin : ) it's better than nothing and you can catch something new

the discount for the upgrade is until dec 31th so I will write em 2-3 times and try to have at least the 25$ coupon lol

 

Yes I understand, and I agree with you. It is clear that they are making a big transition to native. And it is right that all those who have spent a lot of money on DSP get everything native. So far they have kept their promise. If they bring all the proprietary UA catalog native without additional costs we will be happy. I have had terrible experiences with McDSP ($699 to get a new GUI), Waves with their version upgrades, DAWs shameful upgrades. For now I can not complain about UAD

 

Welcome to UAD world.

 

UAD had screwed me since their introduction with hardware and cards and whatnot in the mid 00's. I recognize they make some decent products, but I am so so hesitant to do business with them again after having lost so much money with their bullshit.

 

I love how you're hacking the bots. Made me chuckle. Well played.

 

For all any of you know, that whopping $5 per plugin they are charging you may in fact be SSL upping the licensing for going native. SSL has their own channel strips on the market now, and likely do not want competition. With the plugins being an officially 'endorsed' and licensed by SSL product, I'd bet the license did not cover any new formats or 'native' versions being released, hence a renegotiation and more money paid to SSL for stepping into territory they are also in now. Think about it, these would have been a couple of the most popular plugins had they gone native when the rest of the bunch did. UA isn't dumb, they would've done these pretty quickly to cash in on it if they could have, so they were likely reworking the deal with SSL before they could release them.

 

R2R will bring them to their knees for their sins one day .. Hopefully it's in my lifetime

 

Speaking of shady things

The Devil is in the details

www.facebook.com/reel/1891584334671120

 

I just wanted to say the exact same thing.

I hope R2R will fuck them...

 

That is no excuse at all. They call it "port +" and charge it. Honestly they could change the GUI color and charge it.
The fact is that UA has clearly stated if you own DSP version you get native for free.
Now they broke the promise and that's it.

 

Their products are good. The support has a lot of room for improvement.

 

Witches to the rescue in 3, 2, 1....

 

I'm just commenting again because it's fair to do so and I have to admit that I was wrong on one detail:
In my comment about the fact that when looking for my non-native SSL bus compressor and Chanel Strip plugins, I said that they were no longer in my arsenal... I apologize, they were... the real problem, and I now understood it when I read the comments on their YouTube website about these new native plugins under the Spark system, is that you have to pay to have them natively... I apologize again for this detail.
What I have been able to verify, is that there is a general discontent among users who have these plugins and who have had to pay again (even if it's only 10€ through a coupon discount), just for an external side chain addition.
In general, when you buy a digital product like a plugin, and I say in general, because there are many companies that do not follow this policy... when presenting an update, the former owners of this product, access it for free, unless they are exceptional changes, in which case, they would release it as a different product, and with an equally different name... this is not the case... so we can try to justify, complain like me, and comment ad nauseam on everything related to this matter...
But the result is the same, if we want the same plugin, disguised as different, that we have already bought, we have to pay and get annoyed by continuing to cooperate with the ways that this company has had for a long time of doing things, which is not exactly characterized by seriousness and fair and direct treatment with users...
That is why I made this publication, because I have already experienced and seen that several things have happened to users that were not exactly correct, in the ways of acting of UAD... I did not know another way to do it, after years of I tried to contact them directly, without positive results, ... this time luckily it was €10... in 2018 it was €1000, specifically €999.
From here I also apologize to the moderator of the friendly page, as he reminded me by censorship that it was not the appropriate place to report on this matter about my circumstances, I have to admit, I did not read the rules that I did not know about this page, so I assume my mistake, besides I had never published and it will be the last time any comment, positive or negative, about any product... what hurt me, was that he called it "Fustration"... I have to explain to him that I cannot be frustrated by 10€, it is the 10€ best lost with this company, as I am glad that this has happened in an apparently global way (I am not happy for those who feel unfairly "treated" to use a soft word)... and I say that I am glad, because in this way those who are not users of this company, can know a reality and then judge if it is worth it for them to be part of it as users.
Greetings to all!
PS: It is true that in everyday life, when you are deceived once, it is the fault of the person who deceived you... when you are deceived a second time, it is your own fault...

 

From the beginning, UA could have charged a notional fee - say $10 or $20 - to get the native version of a DSP plugin you owned. However, they chose to make it free, and everyone was grateful for that generosity when they could have instead milked their userbase for money. So we all got our free native versions for the past few years, and everyone was (more or less) happy.

We don't know what their policy is going forward, or whether it will change depending on licensing issues with given plugins (for example, they already modified their policy for a previous release saying you could only claim a free native version within a couple of weeks or so, and after that, you'd have to pay a nominal fee).

So, maybe this "port +" charge is only for this one, and other ports will continue to be free to DSP owners, or maybe they'll move to a new policy of charging $10 or whatever for a native version from now on - I don't see a problem with that really, as a native plugin really does have value and it's not unreasonable to pay *something* for that, within reason. (eg, charging $50 for a native version of a DSP plugin you already own would feel unreasonable to me.)

I just feel that because UA were previously generous, people's expectation is that this generosity should continue forever - that would be nice of course, but sometimes life - and business - doesn't work like that.

In the meantime, their plugins continue to get cheaper in sales and more accessible to buy and use (unlike in past decades), and they continue to make new ones, so I think the people throwing their toys out of the pram on "it's not the money, it's the principle" have interpreted previous communications of their current policy of "if you own the DSP version, you'll get a free port if and when we do one", as a promise that this will always hold true for the lifetime of UA, no exceptions. It was never a *promise*, it was a stated business policy at the time, and many times, these policies and terms get changed and revised. It's not like people signed a contract to guarantee them free ports forever.

I do think that just the addition of sidechain support here is a bit feeble in terms of "added features" that UA feel they can charge for - maybe if the GUI was different, had the pink EQ mode, maybe switchable E and G curves etc, that would be enough for people to go OK, they did do some development effort on this new version, and I'm happy enough to pay a fee in this case.

Anyway, I happily paid the fees to get the native versions, and I'd be happy enough to pay these kinds of fees for the native versions of ports generally - the fact I haven't had to up to now I feel is something I've already benefitted from, and have zero reason to complain...

 

I agree more or less with the whole point. But I paied big money to have tons of DSP power, so I will try anyway to get an extra discount for my next purchase, even if 25 bucks only lol I will send a couple of emails telling them I am disappointed and whatever. Then I will pay for the update until the end of december

I think that it's fair to do buisness for the developers but it is also fair to do the "customer buisness" as well, and with 25 bucks I can buy a plugin somewhere else. I ended up to get some extra discounts 3-4 times after sending emails, so I can only say that their support very rarely didnt work form. Hope it will go on this way lol

 

The thing that really gets on my tits about this company is that they make you download hundreds of plugins that then sit in your component or vst folders and just clutter the place up. I tried deleting only the ones that either came with the bundle or that I authorized, and Ableton started misbehaving when it scans the plugin folders. So, damn, I just want to have a few UAD plugins in the folders and instead have hundreds that sit dormant. Ugh. OK. I'm done. Feel better. Sorry for the rant.