it seems like they're pushing their native plugins hard this season and for some reason I feel like it's going to be a honeypot for an evential subscription only model. Some of the deals are really good on the surface though, like the Guitar FX bundle for $49 + a free plugin..I'm trying not to spend money here, but..

what are your thoughts on the current state of these UAD deals?

 

I don't know the UAD plugins from my own experience. As far as I know, they only work in conjunction with UAD hardware, so they have not been cracked yet.


However, these extremely low prices are more of a tactic.
I suspect UAD wants to make a quick profit and then switch to a subscription model for the whole collection of plugins in the near future.
Others did it the same way.
(Adobe was the first big player. I bought Adobe Master Coll.$3.000, a year later there was subscription only. No updates for CS2 anymore)

The latter has the advantage for UAD that money flows in regu (alarly, but the disadvantage that they need a few months to compensate for the loss of plug-in sales.

If you buy now, you're paying for something that will be on subscription in the near future. And in the long run, they will make everyone change to subscription.
You're paying twice when you buy plugins now.

At least be careful before spending big there

 

Doesn't UAD already have a subscription model? (in addition to either buying them in their native versions or the versions locked to hardware?)

Sure, I could absolutely see a world in which they pulled a rug out after purchase, but there would be quite the uproar, like when others pulled the same kinda move, and then they reverted "back" (was it Waves who pulled this bs? I do remember this happening with some devs akin to what you mention with the Adobe situation).

I'd absolutely be aware that this could happen, but I've bought some UAD plugs in the last year, and while historically I haven't been a fan of theirs as I have been screwed over before by them with hardware dating back to their first PCI cards etc,... There were a few things I wanted that I purchased for native use, and some others I got for free that are currently installed... I would definitely bring back my UAD embargo if they pulled that crap.

 

If you want them, buy them while you still have the chance. The longer I've been making music I've started to realise you only really need a few plugins. I opted you just buy the plugins I use in the UAD version and called it a day for now. Get them them, it's a good deal if they are what you want/need

 

UAD plugins are great, I bought Signature Bundle last year and they really are useful and low on CPU. But my best advice is: buy good monitors, you cannot even imagine how much this will improve your mixes. Recently I got Neumann KH120 II speakers with MA 1 measuring kit and my jaw dropped. Suddenly I can hear everything. I had Adams A7X before - they are good but nowhere close to Neumanns. And I came to the conclusion that I was testing dozens of plugins and wasting my time and money all this time. Because now I can make great mixes with really simple FX plugins, some of them are free. And my mixes are better than before. So, maybe it's offtopic, but it changed so much and restored my love to music in a blink of an eye, so I had to share it Monitors > Plugins. And with good monitos you can mix even with free plugs. Eye-opening (or ear-opening) experience.

 

Yes, but not for the whole collections. Only for Spark Plugins. Which are not bound to UAD hardware btw.

I really don't believe in the good in people anymore with these big vendors. Only greed is a constant here:
So I think they will soon switch the rest of their collection to subscription/unbinding from hardware. Spark was just the test.
But let's see. Maybe I'm wrong.

 

Last edited: Nov 15, 2024 at 1:53 PM

You don't have to wait until Black Friday:
Universal Audio UAD Guitar FX Bundle $ 46
www.thomannmusic.com/universal_audio_uad_guitar_fx_bundle.htm

 

Remember Waves tried this though and the user base said nope. The only people who seem ok with subs are hobbyists...

 

Coincidentally I have ADAM A7X monitors. It got them only because they were on blowout, I got em for $300 boxed pair. And I was considering the Neumanns before getting them. However, I have a raging hard on for the Barefoot Sound Footprint02. Either way, your point was well made. I'm afraid I may be due for a large studio upgrade this year.

 

UAD plugins are very top quality. Happy their marketing guys understand plugins market reality clear and their prices now became affordable

 

If you have never used them you will never know. I bought an iLok key and have them on that. No authorization, no subscription, owned outright. No subscription and there won't be for what I already have. Loads quickly. The Internet version is not great. It won't work with iLok software version if you're offline. iLok key, no problems. If you hate iLok you probably will automatically want to avoid them.

The Manley plugins are the only ones where Manley gave UAD the circuitry schematics. The MU Variable Compressor, Massive makes the plugin alliance and other Manley vst emulations look just ok against each other. As for others, you can get similarities elsewhere that are just as good. The Sound City plugin is quite amazing and the Avalon bus compressor is a true representation too.

R2R will likely do UAD at some stage, find out for yourselves. There are a handful that you won't get close to anywhere else. Apparently the Neve plugins are very good too but I cannot say as I am only using native.

 

UAD AMS Neve DFC Channel Strip is 1:1 code of the actual digital hardware.
Neve 1073 & 1084 are excellent sound preamps next to the actual hardware when used as Unison preamp while tracking.

So yes, plugins are great but there are alternatives. I'd say go for perpetual license buy + iLok key for the Native ones while the prices are this low.

 

It's as fair a price as i think they'll go for this year. If you're interested in buying their stuff i'd say this is a good moment to do that.

However, and speaking of the guitar fx bundle specifically, i bought the signature edition a while back and i think UAD is way behind the competition on guitar related stuff, so i wouldn't spend any money on that.