Published 2/9/08
The DSP platform of the future
The successor to Universal Audio’s popular UAD1 DSP platform has been unveiled. It's called UAD2, and looks to be capable of carrying the UAD baton for years to come, hosting what some people consider the ‘best-sounding’ plug-ins on the market.
The UAD2 system centres around three new cards: Solo, Duo and Quad, whose names reflect the number of processing chips featured. Universal Audio say that, compared to the UAD1 card (a re-purposed multimedia processor from the late-nineties), the new cards offer 2.5-times, 5-times and 10-times increases in power for the Solo, Duo and Quad cards respectively. To put this into perspective, a single UAD2 Quad is capable of hosting 128 simultaneous instances of the Neve 88RS channel strip plug-in, making a virtual console that doesn’t exist in the hardware domain. What’s more, as with the original UAD1, up to four cards can be used simultaneously, so users can have the power of up to 40 single UAD1s in their machine — impressive!

Apart from the power increases, there are a number of new features made possible with version five of the UAD software. Firstly, plug-ins can now run in a low-latency mode, using a technology called LiveTrack. On the UAD1, significant latency was incurred when sending signals to on-board plug-ins, so they could only be used on pre-recorded material. Now, the user can assign a software instance of a UAD-based plug-in to a live microphone input, so a performer can monitor through, say, the UAD Fairchild compressor, or a software version of the RE201.
Interestingly, the infrastructure that makes this low-latency functionality possible could potentially be used for UAD-based virtual instruments, or even for a Universal Audio-designed DAW to run on the system. This is merely speculation, however.
Another new feature in v5.0 of the UAD software is what the designers call LODE (Live Optimising DSP Engine). This tracks the amount of processing power that the loaded plug-ins are using, and spreads them over the cores of the UAD2 card.
To enable users to check the status of their installed UAD cards (both UAD1 and UAD2 revisions), a new Control Panel is available. It gives details on the processing resources available, the number of plug-ins in use, and also provides a Graphical User Interface with which the user can override the automatic LODE system, and assign specific plug-ins to certain processing cores.
Also new as part of the v5 software is the facility to demo and buy a plug-in with a few mouse clicks. Under the ‘plug-ins’ tab of the Control Panel, new effects and processors can be downloaded for free, then used for up to 14 days with full functionality. If and when the user chooses to buy the plug-in, all they have to do is click the ‘$’ button found on the plug-in screen.
With the announcement of the UAD2 comes new plug-in partnerships, namely with Harrison Consoles, Moog and Little Labs. Intriguingly, a partnership with Valley People, a pro audio brand that has remained dormant for nearly two decades (and was recently acquired by PMI Audio), was also announced. Keep your eyes on the pages of SOS for more on that.
Each of the UAD2 cards is available in three configurations. The cheapest configuration for the cards includes the UAD Mix Essentials bundle of plug-ins, as well as a $50 voucher for use on plug-ins. The Solo, Duo and Quad cost £399/$649, £719/$1149 and £1199/$1899 respectively in this configuration.
'Flexi' packages cost £639/$999, £949/$1499 and £1429/$2249 and include the Mix Essentials plug-ins as well as a voucher worth $500 to spend in the UAD plug-in shop, while the final Nevana configuration comes with the Mix Essentials bundle and all the Neve plug-ins available for the platform. These cost £559/$899, £1199/$1899 and £1599/$2499 for the Solo, Duo and Quad cards respectively.
The UK prices listed here include VAT.
Source Distribution +44 (0)208 962 5080
www.sourcedistribution.co.uk
www.uaudio.com
The UAD2 system centres around three new cards: Solo, Duo and Quad, whose names reflect the number of processing chips featured. Universal Audio say that, compared to the UAD1 card (a re-purposed multimedia processor from the late-nineties), the new cards offer 2.5-times, 5-times and 10-times increases in power for the Solo, Duo and Quad cards respectively. To put this into perspective, a single UAD2 Quad is capable of hosting 128 simultaneous instances of the Neve 88RS channel strip plug-in, making a virtual console that doesn’t exist in the hardware domain. What’s more, as with the original UAD1, up to four cards can be used simultaneously, so users can have the power of up to 40 single UAD1s in their machine — impressive!

Apart from the power increases, there are a number of new features made possible with version five of the UAD software. Firstly, plug-ins can now run in a low-latency mode, using a technology called LiveTrack. On the UAD1, significant latency was incurred when sending signals to on-board plug-ins, so they could only be used on pre-recorded material. Now, the user can assign a software instance of a UAD-based plug-in to a live microphone input, so a performer can monitor through, say, the UAD Fairchild compressor, or a software version of the RE201.
Interestingly, the infrastructure that makes this low-latency functionality possible could potentially be used for UAD-based virtual instruments, or even for a Universal Audio-designed DAW to run on the system. This is merely speculation, however.
Another new feature in v5.0 of the UAD software is what the designers call LODE (Live Optimising DSP Engine). This tracks the amount of processing power that the loaded plug-ins are using, and spreads them over the cores of the UAD2 card.
To enable users to check the status of their installed UAD cards (both UAD1 and UAD2 revisions), a new Control Panel is available. It gives details on the processing resources available, the number of plug-ins in use, and also provides a Graphical User Interface with which the user can override the automatic LODE system, and assign specific plug-ins to certain processing cores.

With the announcement of the UAD2 comes new plug-in partnerships, namely with Harrison Consoles, Moog and Little Labs. Intriguingly, a partnership with Valley People, a pro audio brand that has remained dormant for nearly two decades (and was recently acquired by PMI Audio), was also announced. Keep your eyes on the pages of SOS for more on that.
Each of the UAD2 cards is available in three configurations. The cheapest configuration for the cards includes the UAD Mix Essentials bundle of plug-ins, as well as a $50 voucher for use on plug-ins. The Solo, Duo and Quad cost £399/$649, £719/$1149 and £1199/$1899 respectively in this configuration.
'Flexi' packages cost £639/$999, £949/$1499 and £1429/$2249 and include the Mix Essentials plug-ins as well as a voucher worth $500 to spend in the UAD plug-in shop, while the final Nevana configuration comes with the Mix Essentials bundle and all the Neve plug-ins available for the platform. These cost £559/$899, £1199/$1899 and £1599/$2499 for the Solo, Duo and Quad cards respectively.
The UK prices listed here include VAT.
Source Distribution +44 (0)208 962 5080
www.sourcedistribution.co.uk
www.uaudio.com