UAD Apollo gear use [spinoff topic]

The Lounge General Discussion
#101

If you have the Neve and you don’t have a UAD reverb, DEFINITELY get the EMT140…it’s the best plate reverb out there. Just last night I spend four hours going through all my plates (VSTs), comparing it to the Soundtoys Little Plate, Waves Abbey Roads Plate, Valhalla Plate…the EMT140 is still King/Queen of the pack and sounds soooo beautiful. The Neve Preamp is awesome, don’t worry about the Century :slight_smile:

OR: just demo them, easy as 1,2,3. After your purchase, all demos are reset, so what I usually do is, load all the demos I’m interested in, buy a plugin - but keep the demos running for 14 days before I authorise the new plugin. This way I get some time with everything that interests me.

I’m thinking about the Manley Varimu as 2 Bus compressor…wanted it last year and then didn’t buy it ‘cause I had already spent too much elsewhere…but the Neve Bundle is on offer for me for 199€, which is also tempting…aiaiaiai :slight_smile:

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#102

Thanks @VDB and @hausland .

They definitely do draw you in with the deals and coupons. Only having one SHARC processor in the Arrow is a blessing and a curse. The beauty is that it at least eliminates a lot of the plugins that require a lot of DSP power.

I demoed the Century a bit yesterday after work, and will put it through the paces a bit more this weekend.

I sort of have a feeling that if I bought it I would get lazy and not experiment with all of the other preamp, EQ, compressor combinations that came with the Arrow. Also, I don’t immediately see a big jump in results compared to the stock plugin combinations I have tried, although I intend to try it some more.

I’m definitely leaning toward getting the EMT140. I have plate covered for guitar with my Strymons, but it would be nice to have on my mic channel and as an insert.

One question: I know having a preamp in the Unison spot has all of the added impedance modeling advantages, but is it much better to have a whole channel strip (preamp, EQ, comp, etc) in the Unison spot? That’s the one thing that the Century definitely does that I can’t do with all of the stock plugins.

#103

This SS demo is what got me really interested in the Century BTW for anyone that hasn’t seen it.

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#104

No.

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#105

That definitely changes the math.

#106

In my understanding, the biggest benefit of using channel strips is that you have less latency (and often also less dsp usage) compared to using multiple plugins in series on the same track.

The main selling point of the Century strip is that it offers most of the things you’d want from a channel strip using simple macro controls that are intuitive and musical.

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#107

Thanks. I’m still not ruling it out. I hope to spend some time demo’ing it and the EMT140 this weekend.

#108

I’m a UAD user myself with an Apollo Quad (silver/TB) connected to a Silver Apollo 16 and a cheap Beringer patchbay… works wonders for workflow.

Dont use too many plugs but like the conversion and convenience. The only thing that pisses me off is that the Apollo Quad only supports 8 channels via ADAT despite having 2 ports - UA essentially forces you to buy more of their hardware so I returned my audient ASP880 and picked up an Apollo 16 at a great price.

I lose the mic pres on the Audient but they werent really necessary as I dont use mics ever.

Also another bummer is that if you want to set up a stereo send/return, you can only do so from physical ports of the actual unit to that unit. Ie i cannot route channel 16 from my Apollo 16 to channel 7/8 output on the Apollo Quad to “send” amd instrument to my pedal.

I think in hindsight I may have purchased an RME which has way more flexible routing options and the software is far more advanced.

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#109

I think you can do it with cue outputs, have you tried that?

#110

What are people’s thoughts on the Voice of God plug-in?

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#111

It’s a glorified eq.
I had it and did use it and it works, provided you choose the frequencies carefully and don’t overdo the amplitude, but honestly knowing what I know now, I would have been better off just tweaking the synth patch to begin with, followed by a good eq.
Snake oil comes to mind here

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#112

I took your advice and picked that up for the Year-end blowout sale. $65 with the discount and a $25 coupon.

I spent several hours demoing various plugins and it was the clear winner for my setup.

I decided to pass on the Century strip.

One thing that I like using the EM140 for is casual music listening. I route my computer audio back through the Console software and have a few plugins on when listening to music through iTunes or Spotify. Just a slight touch of that plate reverb adds a nice bit of sparkle and depth to everything.

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#113

beautiful! Congratulations, it’s an excellent purchase…and man, what a deal! :slight_smile:

I think the EMT140 is still the best plate plugin out there, it sounds so gorgeous :slight_smile:

I’ll try that spotify listening trick :slight_smile:

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#114

Before I got the Arrow, I used to run my computer through a Mackie mixer to add a little oomph to the bass and sparkle to the high end to make my studio monitors more like a high fi. When I got the Arrow, I saw that you could do that ITB, and it works so well. I just made a template in Console called Music, so I can easily switch over to that for listening to tunes when I’m not recording or mixing.

The other plugin I just discovered today that I already bought is the Precision K-Stereo plug-in. It’s a mastering plug-in, but it sounds fabulous for recreational listening, it adds a bit more of a 3D soundstage.

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#115

Also consider MOTU if you ever decide to switch.
They’ve come far these past couple years with the AVB Mixer. I’ve been recording through the “British EQs” in the included DSP a good bit recently (was trying to make the most of what I have to resist a very good b-stock deal on a UA Arrow, it worked!). It just works, and I can control it with any computer or iOS device that is on my wireless network. My only gripe is the LA-2A “Leveler” comp is only available on groups and busses. There is plenty DSP to run at least 32 EQs, HPFs, gates, and compressors. Stereo linking is simple, and all routing is internal.

The routing scheme is intuitive yet capable of the kind of complexity and flexibility that can do your head in if you aren’t focused.

I can’t help but think that MOTU could give some companies a real run for it, if they’d focus on VST/AU development of UIs for their DSP processing. Something further than Metric Halo’s “console connect”.
They could never be as full featured as UA with their massive assortment of plug-in offerings, but there is a gap in the middle ground of great low latency, high dynamic range interfaces with onboard DSP capabilities that they could certainly exploit.

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#116

Hmm… will definitely have to check it out. Partic as am not using the UAD plugs really other than what was included with the Apollo hardware

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#117

I like all three, EMT140 plate, k-stereo, VOG.

They all have their uses

VOG is the easiest to replace but its dsp footprint is quite minimal and I like the simple controls. But not worth the full price, no way. At the end of the day, its just a resonant hipass filter after all :diddly:

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#118

II’m considering buying an Apollo Twin to replace my old Mackie Onyx Blackjack. I haven’t worked ITB for years, but I’d like to start using the daw more, primarily to master and perform other mixbus post production. Thinking this might be overkill for my needs though, as I’m not intending to do much tracking and I’m not sure about UADs ecosystem as I’m quite invested in native plugs.

Am I right in thinking it installs all their plugins regardless of the ones you have activated? If so that’s pretty annoying, also having to use their console software alongside other daw platforms is something I’m not that happy with.
When running Ableton alongside UADs console, do UAD’s plugins show up in Ableton or do you run them separately from console? I’d be interested to know how it works? Sorry for the stupid newbie questions.

#119

Yes, but you can remove those manually from your plugins folder.

You only need the console software if you want to use UAD plugins for zero-latency monitoring during recording. Otherwise there’s no need to touch it; during mixing and mastering you load your UAD plugins in your DAW just as any other VST you already have.

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#121

that certainly makes my user case much more palatable. thanks for clarifying.