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machine, offering 44 times the
power of a UAD-1 card!
Installing
The UAD-2 cards are PCI-express
and should fit any compatible
Mac or PC motherboard,
although a good read of
recommended systems on the
UA website is advised, especially
if fitting multiple cards, as these
can draw more power, and those
with cheaper PCs might not
have a big enough power supply
to provide enough to keep the
cards running smoothly.
Easy to follow instructions
are included within the everincreasing-in-size
packaging
with all the software needed, but as ever
it’s always best to check for a new software
version direct with the manufacturer website.
A quick download later and the software was
in, an important point being here not to charge
in like most do and ignore the large lettered
‘Read me First’ booklet. The software has to be
installed first. Fitting was a synch in my 8-core
Mac, alongside my existing two UAD-1 cards.
NEW PLUG-INS
Some of the new plug-in releases from UAD are the
Harrison 32C EQ and the Little Labs IBP (In-Between-
Phase) alignment tool. The Harrison 32C was made in
conjunction with the Harrison Consoles LTD and Producer
/Engineer Bruce Swedien, famed for one of the best
selling albums of all time, Thriller by Michael Jackson.
The 32C plug-in was modelled on his personal 3232c Series
Harrison console, recreating the console’s four overlapping
Parametric bands, each with fully sweepable gain and
frequency controls, but without the usual Q or width
control, as special circuitry was developed by Harrison
to automatically adjust the effective bandwidth, a kind
of no-brainer for EQ, as you dial in more amplitude the
sharper it gets. I found it very different to other types of
EQ, and certainly gives it a unique character to shaping
sound. Hi and Low pass filters as well as a switchable low
band shelf/peak enable a versatile and smooth operation
for fitting audio into a mix; while there are added power,
gain, and phase reverse switches for extra control. For
the less bothered by exact emulation is an SE version
developed by UA for higher plug-in counts.
Booting my Mac brought the new UAD
Meter and Control Panel software to life, the
meter showing both UAD-1 and UAD-2 cards’
usage at a glance with a big blue bypass button
for each card, program memory, and DSP usage
meters. The UAD-2 card has program memory as
well as RAM memory for certain plug-ins, so it’s
easy to see at a glance how close to the overload
edge you are. Note that the UAD-2 has enhanced
load balancing routines so it uses maximum usage
of available DSP in multi-card systems, unlike the
UAD-1 which will always load the next plug-in into
the card with most space.
The control panel is a separate window with
tabbed pages of detailed system information
and configuration of installed cards and plug-ins.
Here I could see all the plugins
and the authorisation
status, a bit like the Powercore
Plug-in window, but clearer.
Each plug-in can be activated
for use on a demo period of
14 days or bought via a direct
link to their online store.
The new UAD-2 software
means all my existing plugins
had to be re-authorised
to run on the UAD-2. But this
is free, and a very simple
affair as a big authorise plugs
button is provided which
links direct to your online
UAD account and downloads
a new authorisation file.
Strangely, you have to
drag the downloaded authorisation file to the
control panel in the dock. This fooled me at first,
The 4K Buss Compressor.
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universal audio uad-2
as I was dragging it to the control panel itself,
which I would have thought to be more logical.
The control panel also has Help and Support
links for each plug-in, manuals, online help,
etc, as well as more detailed system usage
showing a graphical image of each card, while
the configuration window is there with various
parameter settings than can be tweaked for each
specific host program, e.g. Logic, Cubase, etc.
Note there is now a new window for Pro Tools
users to set buffer settings.
Plug-ins
As each program uses plug-ins differently –
notably Logic has a process that releases plug-ins
when not in use, which is fantastic for saving
power, but a bit of a headache for DSP systems,
hence why some UAD-1 card owners had issues
with clicks, especially with the 8-core Mac Pro.
Fortunately I never had this issue, and UA seems
to have a good support team at hand to help with
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AUDIO MEDIA MAY 2009 39
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