Well seems like that UAD also decided to go native with their Plugins
Apparently no UAD Hardware required
Coming also to windows in Fall 2022

*Edit*
- Subscription based
- only for Mac, not M1 Native yet
- iLok Account required
https://spark.uaudio.com/

 

Last edited: Mar 30, 2022

And of course its subscription.... Never went from excited to disappointed so fast...

 

Native let's go R2R

 

I am so going to try these a month or two on my mac system to FINALLY hear these UAD thingys !
and then...Fall 2022 will be something ! A new G O N G ?..

 

Available Plans atm:

 

Proof if needed that the hardware was a glorified dongle. Honestly, if I was user that had bought into this ecosystem I would be pissed, because they will now code for intel / Mac without the constraints of their DSP, so won’t be long before they will need too much just to run on their DSP and be paperweights.

 

Well, at least this might be the driver to bring R2R and their iLok work Back to the Mac... ;)

 

what will be the fate for for users owning UAD2 PCIe cards?

 

I’m sure they will still work and offer DSP away from the cpu based on what you have, but I doubt it will be long before the new releases are native only or the instance count is so low it’s not worth running the new plugs on. Just a guess of course.

 

DSP Sharc is a different architecture, it's not like the hardware dongle used by E-MU for the Emulator-X software that was a native application and required the USB midi controllers to validate.
The native version of UAD plugins will require a new development from scratch, or I guess that some of the plugins that are already available natively from some brands such as Brainworx will be included, but they will not NULL in a phase cancellation test.

 

As a 15+ year UAD plugin user I can answer this with absolute certainty.... literally nothing.

 

From what I have read, there are a few gems, but it’s not like they were all must-haves. Don’t get me wrong, have read great things about the converters and overall quality in their high-end units, and people said that if you choose based on that, the DSP side is a bonus. Maybe it’s a change in business model, maybe it’s the shortage of chips that mean they are not only not selling DSP, they aren’t selling interfaces. It’s like when TC and SSL stopped their systems, they weren’t exactly massively adopted, whereas the uad systems with both interface and DSP seem to be extremely popular, so it’s an odd choice as realistically, given todays CPU’s, users will struggle to truly max out a modern processor, so I would say the DSP side is being scaled back and discontinued in a few years.

 

sorry, that’s not what I was meaning. I was meaning that they could create a native version, but made out the DSP side was so special. To be honest, I would say coding for them was probably more hassle than the native route.

 

I've been through generations of UAD shit, from the pci to pci-e to their interfaces etc.

they didn't 'suck', but I never missed them when I didn't have them.

Back in the day, it was nice to offload a little cpu, which is far less important now, and their Apollo's and whatnot do not suck as interfaces at all... but really... their business model was like Gillette razor model in some small sense.... they would bombard you with coupons to get $50-$150 off plugins you weren't gonna buy anyways... and whatever....

I just got tired of getting screwed with their upgrade system, AND the damn fact that they SWORE their Neve 1073 was SPOT ON in 2012 or whatever, and then in 2018 or whatnot, came out with their Neve 1073 V2, which was I guess "better" then their already "perfect" emulation they made prior.

Just fuck them. Expensive dongles.

I hope r2r goes to town on their shit so it can be revealed the emperor really doesn't have any clothes.

(and R2R, if you are listening, please Mac as well ;) )

There isn't a single thing UAD does that different companies do not do as well or BETTER then they natively.

 

ouch...

But, the realtime DSP on their Apollos is still a all-time winner btw. Very practical and superb sound.


Anyway; they finally grasp that users really began to realize that UAD plugins did not develop sonics that needed a dedicated chip... At the time they were leaders, decades ago. Nowadays some native solutions beat hard some of their offer . The times they are changin !

All the Mac crybabies will become the new cherished warez kids now as Windows user getting rekt by Universal Audio windows policy, not a today's affair... with their neglected windows drivers ect...

Darn I liked UAD only for their modulation and delay effects. Hope this situation will tend to more unlocking. Ah and their reverbs too.

edit : did not see the windows schedule for Fall 2022. Can't wait to see their a** cracked.

 

Last edited: Mar 30, 2022

These are the products probably offered as of now.

 

well if they don't become acustica audio to the cpus, this seems like a fair deal to me






maybe this is the opportunity we were waiting for r2r?? ahahahaha

 

Nope - apparently (though this seems to be speculation) Spark is an emulation layer that runs the Sharc DSP code in the plugins as they are. They will absolutely null, as the DSP is the *exact same bytecode*. We'll see if that happens, but either way I'm sure they will sound the same.

 

Last edited: Mar 30, 2022

Sorry mate, but i'm uad user to,
By name maybe but some of those plugins are amazing and you cannot find that sound in similar other plugins!
I spent time on it to find out,
Let's say UA and Waves API EQ 550 and 560 models for example,
they sounds different, boost them both and you'll find out how sweet is the uad one!

like Manley bundle! where you can get that sound out of other plugins? VOXBOX? Massive passive? MU?
the preamps! i don't need to name them, all ua preamp are amazing!
Those reverbs like Capitol, AMS
and so on...