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[not a deal] So, for those of you who got the UAD Sig bundle for $149...


Craig Fowler

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25 minutes ago, Fleer said:

Like me :)

Like wise :D

I can't stress enough about the importance of having ability to download licenses locally, if they were machine-able I would probably jump on this as well as a few other UAD recent deals but I didn't. Yesterday I happen to have my internet broken for a couple hours and without any notice. ANY CLOUD LICENSE WAS USELESS DURING THIS TIME. I even discovered that while most of my plugins worked fine without internet, there were still some local licenses that didn't work all of a sudden, Hollywood Strings hung up for 10 minutes before they proceeded with loading, Sonible refused to work, Wave Alchemy went into demo mode and Vengeance products got unauthorized and didn't run at all! Is that the new shiny direction for software now ?, bummer.

Edited by chris.r
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1 hour ago, chris.r said:

Like wise :D

I can't stress enough about the importance of having ability to download licenses locally, if they were machine-able I would probably jump on this as well as a few other UAD recent deals but I didn't. Yesterday I happen to have my internet broken for a couple hours and without any notice. ANY CLOUD LICENSE WAS USELESS DURING THIS TIME. I even discovered that while most of my plugins worked fine without internet, there were still some local licenses that didn't work all of a sudden, Hollywood Strings hung up for 10 minutes before they proceeded with loading, Sonible refused to work, Wave Alchemy went into demo mode and Vengeance products got unauthorized and didn't run at all! Is that the new shiny direction for software now ?, bummer.

I just keep my licenses on the key. I have to work remotely and offline for days at a time sometimes. And internet connections go down all the time even with the best infrastructure.  The cloud system just seems like a nightmare scenario when deadlines are looming.

Edited by Carl Ewing
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18 minutes ago, Carl Ewing said:

I just keep my licenses on the key. I have to work remotely and offline for days at a time sometimes. And internet connections go down all the time even with the best infrastructure.  The cloud system just seems like a nightmare scenario when deadlines are looming.

similar...

I haven't & won't touch the cloud version.  If that's the only version supported by a plugin I won't buy it.
I use my iLok 3 dongle** (all metal beasty currently selling for around $45) and if I didn't have that I'd do the local computer install.
**and quite happy with it.  Haven't had any iLok issues since Windows 98.

Edited by TheSteven
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Sound City Studios is incredible for placing something in a (different) room, including reverb busses. It gets a lot of use despite using >10% CPU.

The others not so much. I've dabbled with LA3A and Distressor because I don’t own any clearly superior alternatives to them but I do for pretty much all of the rest of the plugins so I have barely touched them.

Actually now that you mention it, I probably haven’t even opened like >80% of them and I'm not in a hurry to. What I've tried seemed fairly bread and butter. Good quality but not outstanding. The Studer was supposed to become my new main tape but didn’t get past Satin, the compressors didn’t get past DMG, Pulsar Modular or Pulsar Audio.

All of them have a fairly high to high CPU hit, so that doesn’t help either.

All in all, I don’t think anyone missed out terribly on this unless they REALLY wanted Sound City Studios, which I would honestly probably pay $149 for by itself.

 

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2 hours ago, Fleer said:

Like me :)

Me too! But then I did the 2 for $99 deal...which I feel a little silly about, but am glad I did!

 

5 minutes ago, jngnz said:

Sound City Studios is incredible for placing something in a (different) room, including reverb busses. It gets a lot of use despite using >10% CPU.

The others not so much. I've dabbled with LA3A and Distressor because I don’t own any clearly superior alternatives to them but I do for pretty much all of the rest of the plugins so I have barely touched them.

Actually now that you mention it, I probably haven’t even opened like >80% of them and I'm not in a hurry to. What I've tried seemed fairly bread and butter. Good quality but not outstanding. The Studer was supposed to become my new main tape but didn’t get past Satin, the compressors didn’t get past DMG, Pulsar Modular or Pulsar Audio.

SCS was one of the two I got in my bundle, and I really like it too. Strangely, one of the presets that's great doesn't even use the room (I think it's dead snare reviver or something). I've used Ocean Way for ages, but SCS takes it to the next level.

Are you getting much use out of the Distressor? That was one of the plugins that nearly made me get the bundle, but I have IK's Comprexxor and don't use that, so maybe I don't need it!

The Electra 88 and Waterfall are both amazing as well. I have oodles of EPs and B3s, but these quickly became my top picks. 

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11 minutes ago, Craig Fowler said:

Are you getting much use out of the Distressor?

Not really, but that might just be because I don’t like the device that much. I don't like the UAD in opto mode and I prefer Arousor LT for the VCA mode. I usually pick the 1176D or 2500 in TrackComp2 instead of either of them, however.

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10 hours ago, Carl Ewing said:

I just keep my licenses on the key.

That's the best way. For those who use keys. I don't do dongles. I'm not saying one way is better than other, better is whatever works for you. But I quite early decided I won't do dongles and I'm not looking for changing that so I have been speaking from this specific perspective. Pretty sure there are others like me. So even though there were quite a few good deals on UAD plugins recently, I have decided to avoid collecting them once discovered that, for me, they are cloud only. But obviously I snugged the free La2a with machine authorization and it's a nice one! Also that doesn't mean I would mind reading what others like about their growing UAD collection?.

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@chris.r Lack of ports was initially an issue when I transitioned from a desktop to laptop but once I started using an active hub that issue became irrelevant**.
**If mobility is major factor in using your laptop as an audio device then maybe not solution.

This is the current active USB that I am using and I am very happy with it.
Amazon.com: Powered USB Hub, Rosonway 10 Port USB 3.1/3.2 Gen 2 Hub 10Gbps with 36W (12V/3A) Power Adapter, Type A and Type C Cables, Aluminum USB C Hub Splitter for PC and Laptop (RSH-A10S)
only complaint is that the lights that indicate whether you have a port turned on / off are very dim and hard to see; fortunately the on/off buttons can be seen (depressed when port is on) or felt to verify.

My usage (of external USB hub):

  • I currently have 3 external drives connected
    2 SSD for mainly audio, 1 platter drive for storing downloads and rarely accessed files.
  • iLok 3
  • Cubase 11 dongle (forget what it's called)
  • and a small (literally and sizewise) to store licenses for my PA plugins, Waves plugins, and a couple of others.

Note on iLok dongle - it's when you replace or setup a 2nd computer that you realize what a blessing it can be.
One authorization of iLok software and all the iLok plugins are authorized. When my previous computer died and I had to set up my current machine it took me weeks to authorize all the others.

Edited by TheSteven
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54 minutes ago, TheSteven said:

@chris.r Lack of ports was initially an issue when I transitioned from a desktop to laptop but once I started using an active hub that issue became irrelevant**.
**If mobility is major factor in using your laptop as an audio device then maybe not solution.

Thanks but here it's exactly the opposite :) Carl clearly said that he often does remote work so for him to have the key makes whole sense. I don't do any remote work nor looking for mobility for my laptop (and even then I would still prefer to avoid dongles that are sticking out of USB port) so for years my software purchases are dongleless and I somehow settled in such ecosystem based on T-racks as opposite to Slate or UAD etc. If I had to change it now it would be like a paradigm shift for me, lol, and would require buying more dongle-only plugins to justify the change. 99% of my plugins now are local licenses enabled, the few mentioned by me earlier should behave better when no internet and that's it. I can do fine without UAD even though there are a couple of them that I wouldn't mind having so I'll keep waiting, maybe they are just slow in making the change to allowing for machine ilok. The free La2a for me was like a good early sign. Clearly we all agree on cloud-only licenses being useless.

edit: I would probably bite if they would release their version of Tri Stereo Chorus native ?

Edited by chris.r
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2 hours ago, chris.r said:

Clearly we all agree on cloud-only licenses being useless.

Cloud could be dramatically improved if they simply added some caching with it for a few days, so if it can't check in during an internet outage, then as long as its not more than a day, or two, it's fine.

Maybe we should all contact them and ask ?

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3 hours ago, kevin H said:

I paid $1200 for what some of you got for $149. You can imagine how I feel ;)

Looking at that list - I'd say closer to $3000+ for me. Although there were a few great bundles that came with UAD2 purchases many years back. I think my Octo came with a coupon for $1500 in plugins about 10 years ago. So that was probably 2 plugins.

Doing some relative math, with this new pricing, I'd argue they should give you a coupon for their whole catalog just for buying a $140 Volt 1. 

Edited by Carl Ewing
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On 12/11/2023 at 2:17 AM, Craig Fowler said:

...What are you loving or not loving from the package? Torment or comfort those of us who didn't pull the trigger!

I am more concerned about the mental health of those who bought just the Sound City Studios plugin then had to learn they could buy a bundle with it and other 34 plugins for the same price.

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37 minutes ago, kevin H said:

Like a chump hahah

Not at all, we've all been there. Look at what happend with Waves pricing. Years ago they cost an arm and a leg , now bundles are way less and singles are $29 and bogo on top of that. The IK group buys, Izotope, etc. I rationalize it that I paid a much higher price but I got years of use out of them that I wouldn't have otherwise. 

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