UNIVERSAL AUDIO UAD-1e Expert Pak (Mac/Win)

Jun 1, 2007 12:00 PM, By Larry the O

           

Weightless Compression

FIG. 3: Neve 33609 is a versatile and powerful compressor/limiter. It has a sweet sound with a subtler coloration than some of UA’s other vintage compressors.

Compressors include the aforementioned 1176, LA-2A ($149), Fairchild 670 ($149), Neve 33609 ($249), Precision Multiband ($249), and Precision Limiter ($199). Favorites are really hard to call in this area, because each has a distinctive sound. I compared Precision Limiter with several other limiter plug-ins, including Waves L1 and L2, and found Precision Limiter to be the most transparent, even when adding a fair amount of oomph.

Neve 33609 was a very pleasant surprise (see Fig. 3). I have never had the good fortune to encounter a real 33609 in the flesh, so I was completely unfamiliar with it before trying UA's plug-in version. In spite of being quite costly in terms of DSP, it immediately became a favorite. It's difficult to describe the sound; it's not squishy like the Fairchild 670, and it's not transparent like the Precision Limiter. It has a wonderful sound quality that is not too heavy handed. Each channel of the 33609 has a compressor feeding a limiter, and the two channels can be linked in stereo (a feature lacking on the original unit) or run separately.

It is safe to say that a Fairchild 670 is something very, very few of us will ever actually own. Given the cost, size, weight, and maintenance, it is questionable whether one would even want to — that is, considering that the UA plug-in makes the same sound available for a lot less cost. The 670's controls have considerably more subtlety than might appear at first glance, but it offers all kinds of unique functions. For example, Lat/Vert mode refers to a scheme in which the channel sum (mono material) and difference (stereo material) were compressed separately in vinyl-disk mastering — still a very useful process even when not cutting vinyl. Similarly, the LA-2A compressor looks simple, but there's more going on under the hood than meets the eye.

Old Favorites Anew

Recently UA has been shipping models of classic Roland analog processors. My favorite is RE-201 Space Echo ($249), which emulates one of the great tape echoes. UA has modeled the RE-201 right down to the distortion and wow. The plug-in even has a switch for choosing the virtual tape's age, a factor that strongly affected the sound in the original.

The Boss CE-1 chorus pedal ($99) is one of the simplest of all UA plug-ins to operate. The original device was all about thick, shimmering chorus without lots of user parameters. The situation is similar with the Dimension D chorus ($149), which has only four buttons to select a sound. All three Roland models are available individually or in the Roland Classic Series FX Bundle ($399).

Testing Boundaries

I decided to see how many plug-ins I could run before hitting the UAD-1e's limit, keeping in mind that every plug-in has its own DSP needs. I was able to run seven stereo channels, each with LA-2A and CS-1, and one instance of RealVerb. Another test gave me the same number of channels, each running 1176SE and EQP-1A, and one RealVerb.

On numerous occasions, I requested a plug-in and got a dialog box warning of insufficient DSP and informing me that some plug-ins would be disabled. Unfortunately, it never said which plug-ins were disabled. Because I found no visual indication, I never knew what was really going on. It turns out that communications glitches can occur between the UAD-1e and some hosts and produce “false positives,” triggering the dialog box. That kind of uncertainty makes recording engineers extremely nervous in session. UA really should have a clear indication for disabled plug-ins.

You're probably aware that moving audio between a host and a hardware card incurs latency. Many hosts provide latency compensation, but some do not, including Pro Tools LE. UA provides a free DelayComp plug-in for those situations, but it's a bit of work to set everything up.

Disturbing Graphics

With the exception of RealVerb and DreamVerb, all the UA plug-ins have virtual front panels that resemble the hardware they emulate. In my experience, they look much better than they work — I had to click-and-drag to change stepped switch values on some plug-ins, for heaven's sake. I suppose virtual front panels must really sell products, apparently indicating many users are more concerned with appearance than functionality. I allow some slack when modeling a well-known piece of analog gear, which UA does quite a bit. On the whole, though, I find virtual front panels a flawed idea, and UA's plug-ins fail to sway me on that point.

It is interesting to contrast the reverbs' graphical user interfaces with those of plug-ins that model specific hardware. For example, whereas RealVerb has editable graphics showing the reverb's frequency contours (see Fig. 4), neither CS-1's EQ nor the Neve EQ models display equalization curves, let alone editable ones. The lack of graphic displays has always been a difficult drawback of analog equalizers; why perpetuate that paradigm when it is no longer necessary?

Something for Everyone

To my ears, very few companies do modeling well. The challenge is to emulate specific hardware's sonic behavior and to capture whatever makes the hardware sound pleasing. UA is one of two companies whose models I really love (the other is Line 6). I have yet to hear a model that really sounds as good or better than the best example of the analog hardware it's mimicking, but real vintage units often are not at their best and therefore vary widely in how they sound. UA plug-ins fall just short of the magic I've heard the best analog gear provide, but they're capable of excellent sound that's entirely consistent, easily available, and much, much cheaper than the real thing.

From stompboxes to high-end studio wonders, UA offers a broad selection of plug-ins that make the UAD-1e an extremely versatile tool. Any UAD-1e bundle is a bargain for the fabulous-sounding plug-ins alone, and removing some of the burden from your CPU is a bonus. Aside from feeling like the user interfaces could be made more effective, I love the Expert Pak system. It has become my first call for processing on prominent tracks that really have to sound great.

Larry the O just returned from Thailand, where he learned to scuba dive and discovered the real meaning of tropical paradise. Sawadee krop!

PRODUCT SUMMARY

UNIVERSAL AUDIO
UAD-1e Expert Pak

DSP card and plug-ins
$1,299

RATING PRODUCTS FROM 1 TO 5

PROS: Wide variety of plug-ins available, including software models of classic analog processors. Outstanding audio quality. Relieves CPU of DSP burden. Ability to use multiple cards in a system.

CONS: Some rough user-interface edges.

MANUFACTURER

Universal Audio
www.uaudio.com