UAD Amp Plug-in Bundle

[timiscott]

Hi, all. UAD seem to be offering plug-in versions of their Fender, Vox and Marshall amp modelling pedals at about £140 for all three. Has anyone tried these? I normally play through an Iridium on the Vox setting and am thinking of replacing it with these. I know it might be stupid but... would I still be able to put pedals in front of these plug-ins? Any thoughts would be appreciated.

[UlricvonCatalyst]

I was somewhat tempted when there was a Black Friday deal from UAD, but as I dug deeper I realised that their plugins live in the cloud, rather than on your computer, so you're at the mercy of endless updates, potential withdrawal of support, new drivers conflicting with your OS if you don't accept its endless updates, etc. etc.

My DAW computer isn't connected to the www, and other than it not keeping the calendar and clock up to date I'm pretty sanguine about that. Maybe the issues above wouldn't be a concern for you, though.

As for pedals in front, I assume you'd be able to use those on the front end going your audio interface. Not sure if a Rangemaster into a virtual AC30 would react the same as it would in the real world, but there are plenty of free simulations of pedals out there which could be the way to go. Or not.

Not sure if any of this is helpful....

[timiscott]

It's definitely helpful as I didn't know about the cloud thing. I'm ok with that, I think. I'd be keen to hear from anyone who uses or has used these plug-ins too.

[Larry Mal]

Wait, this doesn't make any sense to me that these plug ins would live in the cloud instead of just installing on your computer. I looked at the FAQs on the website and they say "No. These plug-ins run natively on your computer. No UA hardware required."

Can someone show me that this runs on the cloud? That wouldn't make any sense at all, for one, why does UAD want to host this stuff on their servers at their expense instead of you just installing the stuff on your computer? Not to mention the performance would be terrible.

[timiscott]

Hmmm, that does sound like a point for sure - thank you.

[GilmourD]

Wait, this doesn't make any sense to me that these plug ins would live in the cloud instead of just installing on your computer. I looked at the FAQs on the website and they say "No. These plug-ins run natively on your computer. No UA hardware required."

Can someone show me that this runs on the cloud? That wouldn't make any sense at all, for one, why does UAD want to host this stuff on their servers at their expense instead of you just installing the stuff on your computer? Not to mention the performance would be terrible.

As somebody that works in tech that hears things like that all the time (i.e., the cloud is really just somebody else's computer), I translate that as "use of the plugin requires constant authentication via an internet connection".

I can't imagine an audio plugin actually being purely cloud based in a local DAW not having horrendous latency.

[Larry Mal]

As somebody that works in tech that hears things like that all the time (i.e., the cloud is really just somebody else's computer), I translate that as "use of the plugin requires constant authentication via an internet connection".

I can't imagine an audio plugin actually being purely cloud based in a local DAW not having horrendous latency.

Yeah, I work in tech also, and I just can't imagine how or why UAD would set up their plug ins that way. As you say the latency would be horrible and it would offer no advantage to UAD, either, having to host this software on their platforms instead of just having someone run it on their own computer.

But sure, it might check in on the license from time to time.

I guess I could always be wrong.

[ryland]

I have the Dream 65 and Marshall Super Lead UAD plugins. They don't run in the cloud, they integrate with a DAW (Logic in my case). I'm quite happy with both of them, to be honest.

[andy_tchp]

Can someone show me that this runs on the cloud?

No, because they don't. Previous poster is mistaken/has misinterpreted 'something' (that I cannot find anywhere in the product literature).

[Larry Mal]

Man, I kind of want this bundle, but I bought a whole bunch of analog recording equipment. Oh well.

[ryland]

Man, I kind of want this bundle, but I bought a whole bunch of analog recording equipment. Oh well.

Just wait a bit and another sale will come around. The biggest ones are in December, but there are usually others throughout the year.

[Larry Mal]

Man, I kind of want this bundle, but I bought a whole bunch of analog recording equipment. Oh well.

Just wait a bit and another sale will come around. The biggest ones are in December, but there are usually others throughout the year.

Yeah, I could buy it, it's just that I made some big-ass deal out of committing to some really great stuff and I should just stay with that instead of chasing more dragons, you know?

At the same time, my usual complaints with amp software is that they try and cram too much bullshit into it, like I don't need something that is four hundred amplifiers in one package like Amplitube tries to be and half of it is shit.

But this UAD stuff is just plug in versions of hardware I wanted to actually buy, and it doesn't do any more than that. So it would be pretty simple to dial in a sound.

Huh. Well, worse problems to have.

[GilmourD]

As somebody that works in tech that hears things like that all the time (i.e., the cloud is really just somebody else's computer), I translate that as "use of the plugin requires constant authentication via an internet connection".

I can't imagine an audio plugin actually being purely cloud based in a local DAW not having horrendous latency.

Yeah, I work in tech also, and I just can't imagine how or why UAD would set up their plug ins that way. As you say the latency would be horrible and it would offer no advantage to UAD, either, having to host this software on their platforms instead of just having someone run it on their own computer.

But sure, it might check in on the license from time to time.

I guess I could always be wrong.

The only thing I could think of, potentially, is that it calculates the latency and has a function to delay the rest of the playback/processing for alignment purposes, somewhat in the same way that nVidia does with their game streaming service. But I also doubt that because it would be horrendous while tracking. I also doubt that UA has a server farm with machines running the plugins.

[GilmourD]

Can someone show me that this runs on the cloud?

No, because they don't. Previous poster is mistaken/has misinterpreted 'something' (that I cannot find anywhere in the product literature).

It's at least closer to the actual situation than the teachers I've been dealing with that think that their gradebooks calculate and show up on student report cards by magic with zero intervention on their part... We're in Q3, so some classes have no grades for Q1 or Q2. Now, I don't actually deal with the grades themselves (I'm technical, not administrative), but how did NOBODY notice between November and February?

But, yeah, it's probably like how Sony currently has some single-player games that don't have an online play function but a PSN login with an active internet connection is still required for playing.

[timiscott]

Having spent thirty years within the education system in the UK, I tend to make very harsh judgments about people who offer opinions on teachers. The market is a parasite on the backs of those of us who teach, nurse, look after children, care for the elderly etc. The tragedy of our culture - and the USA's - is that people have been taught to believe the utter lie that the opposite is true. During the pandemic, we didn't need hedge fund managers...

Now, has anyone tried to play with effects pedals going into a UA plug-in?