UAD Plug-ins available native

This would sting if I was still in UAD land. Kinda inevitable though I think. Their DSP is way underpowered and their LOL prices weren't going to be sustainable.
Being outside the UAD ecosystem, this is kinda enticing. There are one or two plugs (EMT 140 and 250, Dimension D) that I still miss. At reasonable prices for native plugs, I'd consider picking them up.

I think this is rubbing people the wrong way because UA could have just done this the whole goddamn time.

Like, it's been a major complaint for years that you couldn't just buy the plugins you want and run them Native. So if you really wanted to get into UAD, you HAD to buy DSP (super expensive), AND you had to buy the plugins themselves (also expensive), AND you were artificially limited to a certain number of plugin instances.

People loved the plugins enough to put up with the hassle, and the whole thing was often justified on the basis that UAD plugs are so meticulously coded to model the real deal that they're insanely resource-hungry, thus making DSP a necessity.

Don't get me wrong — it's a great system, and it clearly has benefits, but I think a lot of people are grouchy because buying DSP was never their first choice to begin with, and if given the option, they would've just bought a few Native plugs and left it at that.

Remember the days when there were no plugins? Man, now that was expensive. One day in a reputable studio was 2k+ plus several hundred dollars for the cost of tape.

P.S. I love you guys and I’ve spent a ton of time on this forum over the years. I’ve been on much less in the last year or so, as I find many threads have become more like this one. A lot of talented cats on here, and really great guys, and I know times are tough, especially for musicians, but man, we are completely and utterly spoiled with the tools that are available to us for the price they’re available for. As technology increases, prices are going to keep dropping. That’s just the nature of it all. As computer processors have become more powerful, the switch to native was inevitable. In fact, most people have been begging for it for well over a decade now from UA and here it is. I guess my perspective isn’t in alignment with majority. Peace and blessings fellas - Darren

I think tkaitkai just said it best. That IS what's been bugging us for a long time.

Running out of DSP and needing a $1,000 satellite was just too much to ask when similar plug-ins were available native from other companies. Perhaps early on it made more sense. Not enough DSP was making productions difficult back in 2012-2015.

I've used UAD's ATR-102 on everything I've done since 2012. I've found nothing to compare in overall effect on the whole mix. I could do an entire album with just that and be happy. It should have been called the waybetternow plug.

The EMT-140 nails it for acoustic guitars. I also used the Ocean Way plug-in as a room sound, but quite sparingly. The Massive Passive comes in handy on rare occasions.

The Pultec's, 1176's and LA2A's are as good as anything else, but not in any way a wow factor. The dozen or so other plug-ins I have I rarely use anymore. So, for me, the only plug-in of UAD I truly need for it to be my sound is the ATR-102. The Ocean Way, EMT-140, LA2'a, 1176, Ocean Way could all go away tomorrow and I'd have at least 4 or 5 replacements that are useable.

The thing is, they've served me well as I familiarized myself with digital production since 2012. (I had previously retired from music for 15 years due to illness). The console interface was intuitive enough that I was able to acclimate easier. It's still a great tool. I haven't tried Luna. I see no reason to learn a new DAW that is still way behind Logic when it comes to editing features I absolutely must have for mixing. Maybe somewhere down the road I'll try it, probably not. It seemed like another money grab to lock me into buying yet more UAD plug-ins.

So, if UAD makes the ATR-102 available native, I could painlessly move away from their ecosystem. But right now, the music business pays me 10% of what I made in the 1980's, so I'm not able to make upgrades I desire anymore. I'll have to stick with my Apollo for a while, so I'm really glad I have the Black Lion Audio full mod. That has made a huge difference. The UAD converters always bugged me. Since it's basically a computer with a couple of preamps, the Apollo I have may become a big paper weight going forward. But it will have served me well.

All UAD really had to do to make their customers happy and potentially become lifetime customers was make the plug-ins less expensive and allow some form of exchange or sale. It seems to me, UAD's stockholders value short term profit over long term sustainability, and that has caused their loyal customers lots of frustration. Enough to wish you could tell them to go fuck themselves in some instances.

drumsound ah, forgive me, let’s use your situation as a test case:

ah, you bought your plugs and satellite second hand: right?

So, now that you don’t need the dsp and can buy bundles of native plugs at about 25% of retail, would you be prepared to pay the same price for your used gear or would you just buy native plugs, if they were cheaper ?

We’d all buy the cheaper plugs, unless the card and second hand plugs were heavily discounted or unless, some key plugs you wanted were included?

Other than a few plugs with licensing issues preventing UA from selling natively(neve), it would seem all UA plugs will go native.

a new octo is still $1200 plus tax, for a few hundred more you can buy a screaming m2 pro with way more processing speed and capacity, why buy a new octo now?

Doesn't a lot of technology get cheaper over time?

Computers, VCRs, CD players, etc etc all started out crazy expensive and if you wanted them in your life early you could, but you paid for it.
Wait a few years/decades and things get generally cheaper, even the quality stuff. You didn't get to enjoy them for a long time but you saved $$.

I do understand the frustration though. It's natural. But in the end it's a business doing business to stay in business. No surprise there.

Try the demo!

I jumped on the UAD train day 1 with a UAD-1 card and over the years have bought almost every single plug and have 4 Apollo X interfaces. In other words, invested a fortune in the UA eco system. This development with the Native plugin and the powerful computers, it was inevitable for UA not to go that way. I think jeremygillespie has wise words in what he says and agree 110%.

A small sidenote for those who work in Luna, there has been a new update of Luna to 1.4 and there are really smart solutions for Apollo/Luna users between native vs DSP plugin when mixing and recording. Worth checking out.

Exactly. That's why I'm having a hard time with some of the complaints.

Why are people upset? Because for decades there was excuses why they couldn’t do it. And everyone knew the real excuse was greed. It costs absolutely nothing to manufacture a new software instance: it’s a money printer. Software is probably cheaper to deliver and store than printing actual cash.

I have no actual numbers and I’m pulling this out of thin air, but that’s how easy it is to see:

Imagine if every guitarist wants a UA LUNA recorder. Say hundred million of potential buyers worldwide. If you charge each one $1 that’s a $100million TAM (total addressable market) to chase. At just $1

But if you charge 0.1% of those who actually do pro recording $10,000 each customer, you milk that target market until it dries up.. thats a potential 100,000 user TAM: $1 billion TAM

So if you just see the TAM, the real money maker is in keeping prices low and access high-

The problem is GREED: nobody is willing to go so low in price that they dominate TAM. Waves seems like they might be figuring it out. $29 is still waaaaaaaaaaaay high for what they actually deliver, =money printing.

Now, there’s no reason to go to $1 and stop… they could do like others.. $30 etc, upgrade etc.

UAD has the top rep, they will be ok

People like me will always be upset they chose to milk the pro’s wallets instead of spread it to the masses, which would have made them more money anyway!

If I were CEO, it’s simple, this is how I’d thank my customers:

For every dollar spent in the past, you access to get “X amount” of pre-IPO shares. As a legacy customer thank you for helping support UA to become the worldwide name in audio.

Then I’d develop the plan for the eventual move into mainstream DSP of all types. See if I could spin-off UA analog into its own LLC so it’s protected from the digital side,… and maybe it has some lower risk investment into digital so it benefits when digital side does good.

Then keep this guitar center TAM thing going, start to work on contract DSP for big players ESPN? FOX Sports? Google? Etc. get the logo seen.

After a few years, take the digital side public and grow from there.

It would take a lot of lawyers.. but it seems fair to me LOL