I've been wanting to get another UAD-1 card ever since I started playing around with higher sample rates. I finally caved and bought another one with the Flexi Pak last week. So I've been demoing the new plugins (all the Neve stuff, Helios, SPLTD, etc.) while waiting for my card to arrive. I'm really quite impressed with the new EQs, and the 33609 is great in the right situation. The sound of the EQs is fine for what they are (better than my other plugins), but I think I'm more excited about the interfaces. Because the values assigned to the boost/cut controls are either very vague or non-existent, I don't THINK about what I'm doing. I just twiddle the knobs around until it SOUNDS good to me. It's just so much more inspiring for me to work with these than it is with the likes of the Waves Renaissance EQ. No graphs! The Transient Designer is OK, I guess, but I haven't had much time to play around with it yet. I've never used the original, but the plugin seems to really mess with the sound (not in a pleasant way). I'm going to explore it some more tomorrow.
I am a little (very?) annoyed with the performance of the cards. I know there's a bunch of shit going on at Gearslutz about this, but it's really affecting my workflow. I don't think I'm able to run as many instances as UA claims, but I have yet to check this for sure. My cards crap out at around 80% usage, which is really bullshit. Like I said, I have yet to test this scientifically, but I don't think I can run more than one full 33609 at 44.1k, let alone 88.2. I think that's pretty fucking ridiculous, personally. I only have one more PCI slot left, and I don't really want to shell out another $400 just so I can run enough plugins to mix a drum kit. Anyway, I'm going to count how many instances I can load at both 44.1 and 88.2 of every plugin, and I will report back tomorrow.
Just asking but are you talking about the 33609 on with one card or two? I mean, I takes 70% percent of one card to run. And, of course there's the load balancing. I'm still debating on whether I want toget it as I only have two cards. Ihear what you're saying about the UIs though. I know it's the sound that's most important but the cool pictures are inspiring. Have you checked out the 88rs yet? Iwas able to load abunch of those along with a few other plugs on my two cards. Of course since I started out with one card, I still tend to mix in groups and render as I go along. It works for me, but not for others. 80%, though, sounds like either load balancing or a host issue.
THat is how they work...a drag but I still love them
Yeah, that's pretty much where I'm at. Sure, I'd love to be able to load as much as I want, but I can't and just try to adjust. Just out of curiosity, how is the Dimension D?
What's this I hear about load balancing? Can someone explain this to me? Am I doing something wrong by not doing anything?
Basicly, it's the way the cards load plugs when you more than one card. Say you have two cards and your UAD performance meter is at 60%. But when you try to load a 1073 you're told you don't have enough dsp to run it. That happens because each card only has 20% left and the 1073 takes 25% of a card to run. And you can't run a single instance on multiple cards. Now the issue with load balancing is that if you had say a helios taking 13% on one of those cards, if it was moved to the other card you would then have enough room for the 1073 on the first card. That would be load balancing. But the ua cards don't do that. Now if you figure out how plugs are loaded in your host you can do things to get around it. One example that I heard with I think Cubase, was to put the drum buss that the person was using the 33609 for as the first track so that the 33609 would be loaded first on the first card. But again it depends on your host. If you haven't already, check out the UA forum and search for load balancing. You'll find out more than you would ever want to.
The Dimension D is great. I've always used similar hardware in my Mixes (including the old Dimension D) and it great for adding width/presence to Vocals or anything else.
It is the Peter Gabriel vocal effect. (though he turned it up a bit more than I would!)
Ok, so I just pulled the trigger on the Neve bundle, LA-3A and space echo last night. The 88RS in fantastic. I played around with it alittle last night on a dogshit snare track(horribly out of tune with a nasty ring that cut throught the whole mix)and it worked perfectly. The best part is how little dsp it takes.
Funny you should mention the 88RS, it's the one plugin that I haven't messed with much. It just didn't do much for me. I guess I'll have to consider it.
That said, the Neve and Helios EQs are fantastic, as is the 33609. I'm really quite surprised by the Helios, to be honest. From what I've read on the various forums, I expected to be a bit disappointed with it. Definitely not. The Space Echo and Dimension D are really, really cool too.
Also, it seems as though it was load balancing that was screwing my instance count. Thanks for the tip, although it is a bit silly that UAD hasn't found a way around this yet.
I LOVE the Helios. As far as the 88RS, I'm really digging it alot. No, it's not a fairchild or 1073 with an instantly apparent mojo, but it's just so damn usefull. And it doesn't kill your dsp either. I just use as kind of a utility plug. I drop it on every channel and then go to the other specialty plugs as needed. Of course, sometimes, it's the only thing that can do the job. It totally saved a dogshit drum track I did a few days ago. I'd say try it out again and it might start to grow on you.
Just a little update: On a whim I decided to do two versions of a mix on the "dogshit drum track" song. One, with my normal approach and the other, putting the 88RS on everything and ond only inserting special plugs when needed. After leaving it for a couple days I went back to listen and damn if the first mix didn't sound a little muddy and less focused. I still used my normal vocal approach on the second mix and the same drum busses as well but not having all that color on every track really seemed to make a difference. I really love that plug. I also gained alot of appreciation for the 33609 on drums. I was unsure about the limiter before but setting it to only kick in when the toms hit too hard was just magic. And since I usually get my drum mix first, the 70% DSP hit didn't bother me so much.
I've got 2 cards. I love using the Fairchild, very warmish. The trick to getting the maximum load outta your cards is to do a little planning by opening the plugs which take up the most power first. Pain in the butt, however, these cards are still cheaper than me running out and buying all the hardware. Working at 96k is a bit of a pain, since the load% get's eaten up fast. I've taken to printing some plugs.
The trick to getting the maximum load outta your cards is to do a little planning by opening the plugs which take up the most power first.
Yeah, also knowing the order that your host assigns plugs is important as well. Let's say you your host loads in numerical order, if you put a 33609 on track 15 at the start of your project it will be fine but when you reopen that project later there won't be enough room on either card to run it. That gets alot of people. I've never had an issue with the power limits for two reasons. One, I don't do heavy track counts and two, When I first switched to a computer it was so weak that in order to mix more than 10 tracks I had to mix in groups and then bounce. So I just kind of developed an M.O. that's fits really well with the limits of the UAD system.
