Universal Audio

UAD-1 Tips & Tricks: V3.1 Software -Mac Multi-card & Cambridge

The New Cambridge EQ

With the forthcoming release of version 3.1 this month, OS9 Mac users can finally enjoy UAD-1 multi-card capability and up to 4 UAD-1’s with full Magma PCI expansion compatibility. Hallelujah! The Mac platform now has feature parity with the PC version and UA is already forging onwards with Dreamverb integration ( end of Q2 ) and OSX and Audio Unit development slated for Q3 2003.

Why is this important to you? Essentially doubling recording sample-rates, doubles DSP load and therefore halves available plug-in instances. With multiple UAD-1 cards, you have the freedom to easily run sessions at 96k and higher all the way up to 192k with seamless DSP load sharing handled automatically by the UA software.

If your audio interface handles 24bit/96k recording, you may have already become painfully aware of the far greater disk I/O and CPU resources required to process these higher resolution tracks compared to standard 16-bit/44.1k recording. The need to offload the primary processor(s) from native plug-in processing becomes rapidly greater as you increase sample rate, bit depth and track count.

Furthermore, in response to customer demand, v3.1 has optimized the LA2A and introduced the all new 1l76SE, which allow for even more instances of the great digital compressor recreations that have made the UAD-1 the definitive choice among DSP cards for DAWs. The 1176SE sports a distinct Silver Face look and uses a newly developed algorithm for blending the hallmark sonic charisma of the 1176 hardware whilst requiring a much lower DSP load than the true component-modelled 1176LN plug-in.

The New 1176SE

The 5-band parametric/shelving Cambridge EQ is finally complete and a fully functional 14-day demo will be included in v3.1. The comments from the beta testers are again testimony to the sheer sonic quality of this EQ. Cambridge will be available for purchase directly from www.mackie.com for $149.

“ …good thing is all the (sweep) range is already wider than Sony Oxford for Powercore. and again the overall quality is superb (try 36dB HPF filter sweep on master...... sounds soo smooooth. you can’t do it on oxford...). you can boost as much as you want because it is float calculation where oxford clips easily because its integer. much better UI than oxford... very good work guys. it is the best eq in the market IMHO."
--Takashi Watanabe, UA Beta Squad

--Mike Barnes

Questions or comments on this article?