Hello

I am setting up my Mac from new due to getting a virus of some sort and also got into the Time Machine backup...I obviously wasn't aware of the virus when I was doing the backup.

Anyway, I'm setting the Mac back up again from the ground up, and have installed the UAD software. Now, I have noticed that they have changed the way you are able to install their software.

For a start, when I first got my Apollo Twin MK2 many years ago you were just able to download the UAD Console software. Now, you have to download UAD Connect, to then install the UAD Console and install the software ie plugins etc.

Now I know they have always practiced putting ALL their plugins, onto your computer when you install their software, hence your DAW listing all the plugins and you having to find out which plugins you own etc.

Now, they also install in the application support folder in the UAD folder, VST versions of their plugins, which I assume is to make it so that the the console talks to the DAW...Which is understandable. But as soon as you remove one of those plugins, UAD Console throws an error on startup of the Mac stating

"There was an error initializing the input channel plugins. You may not be able to route audio through your Apollo until this error is fixed, and instantiating other plugin may cause crashes"

Now is it just me, or has anyone else had enough of UAD's bulls***t?

I know I have, now luckily for me the majority of my UAD plugins are available natively 'according to UAD'S Chat Bot' - How accurate this is I don't know!

(UPDATE: It is false information - only 9 of my plugins are natively available)

However, does this solve the problem of UAD installing ALL their plugins on the MAC...I just can't understand why as a company you'd want to have all your plugins unnecessarily installed on someone's computer - Yes let's waste space on their computer!

Some people may not have the luxury of a 1TB ssd on their Mac

I also do not know if it would be possible to have the vst's on my external SSD via a symlink - would this be possible?

If I go the native way, will they still install the other plugins on the computer, or just the native ones I have?

Thanks

 

Last edited by a moderator: Nov 6, 2024

I also installed "UA Connect" for 1 plugin and when I was installing and activating it I almost fell to the floor and wanted to pray to God to install and activate it. After the third attempt it finally worked. You are hopelessly at the mercy of the thing. I hope the programmers know what they are doing. It's nerve-wracking...!

 

Last edited: Nov 6, 2024

yo idk what you got going on but i dont have that problem - i dont have all their shit on my stuff, its just what i own and installed from UAD connect

 

Their VST’s can be frozen in Ableton which then takes processing off the interface and do not require uad connect to run. It uses Ilok.

 

I use logic, but it isn't the point, everything they install still takes up space on the system regardless of what DAW you use.

 

i would suggest you "air" your grievances also to apple

 

UAD made very generic sounding plugins. There's nothing special it the sound, they don't preserve transients in the material well, they suck the money out of you. Y DA HELL somebody using them now?

 

This isn’t to do with Apple, besides I have 1tb space. But am efficient with what I do with it

I’m saying that some people haven’t got that luxury, I know I didn’t when I got my first Mac.

 

Mkay. All things aside regarding company's BS their plugins are nowhere near generic sounding.
People are using UAD plugins for a very good reason. Quality.

 

you complained about space issues, that's an apple problem, its their design

that's an apple problem, its their design

 

it should be

 

UA worked very hard for making Dante 16 channels on the Apollo x16D. Yes you need four Apollo x16D to make it 64 channels.

 

seriously? you could have 128-256 channels of dante from reasonable sources for that much money

 

Sequoia UA Connect Issue : Whilst we're talking about UA connect .... I had problems downloading their Spark plug-ins with it - the large one's kept failing or just stopped downloading midway through. Total nightmare. Debugging it further I found Sequoia was having datagram errors with it's firewall causing TCP packets to get corrupted - especially those to & from UA Connect's AWS host. (UAD use AWS to store all it's software) - tl'dr : If you're having problems, disable the MacOS Firewall in order to get them installed!

 

Had a UAD-1 on PC and that was the way they did it back then as well. The updater you DL'ed splattered your entire machine with plugins and none of them (except the ones you payed thru the ass for) were able to be used. Although at that time it was possible to be able to reg the plugins OFFLINE and there was no UAconnect bullshit forcing a live internet connection to exist on a production machine. The rest of the junk that got installed was just bit bucket material. After an extremely distasteful experience with UA I shelved the UAD-1 (since they shit-canned support for it anyway) and vowed to never ever screw around with UA ever again. The plugins themselves work great when/if you can get several of them running simultaneously (the UAD-1 would never do this). When the UAD natives get cracked I'll definitely grab them up, but until then UA can rot in hell.

 

Can anyone please clarify why I am only seeing these plugins available on native, as opposed to what I was told by UAD?

 

I dislike that UA Connect opens up anytime i open one of their plugins. I always write a feedback comment to them that they should stop that behavior Do I really use their stuff ? nope

 

That's exactly why I quit using their stuff .. you mean to tell me I need a whole other program running to run another program inside another program.. like Gtfo here with that.. I've found a better alternative for every plugin they put out so it doesn't effect me at all

 

If you open your daw, sleep your computer, then wake it up again the plugins need the daw to be restarted.. pain in the ass