So myself I really like the UA plugins I have and will keep using them because besides being wonderful itвЂ™s a real pain in the ass trying to sell a UAD hardware/plugin account. You canвЂ™t resell the individual PA plugins ,I think you have to sell the hardware with the entire plugin account or just sell the hardware and keep the plugins for new UA hardware. Would I jump into UA now if I wasnвЂ™t going to use something like the Apollo? Probably not,I stick with them because theyвЂ™re very good plugins UA is a nice company and I already have the plugins and the cards. In December I bought 3 UA plugins as they were plugins I wanted for a while and I was able to get them for 63% off so they were reasonably priced but otherwise that was the 1st time I bought new UA plugs in more than 2 years. UA is a nice company,they offer great support and have frequent sales and promotions but the premise that originally made them a major player (system resources)in the plugin world is less relevant today.Д«ut I think most UAD users will probably agree if we were just getting started now unless someone is going to use a UAD interface thereвЂ™s other great more affordable choices available now from lots of companies.

UA imo is in a funny place at this point in time,computers have gotten much more powerful so the concept of UAD saving resources on a computer really doesnвЂ™t apply anymore but a few of the UA plugs like Ocean Way,Distressor etc.are amazing and exclusive to UAD.The ability to utilize no latency monitoring with the Apollo is a really nice benefit if you are going to use a UA I/O Having said that they certainly have great plugins, I just don't see the point (for me) unless they at least offer some serious CPU firepower on their hardware or more special plugins like Ocean Way. And waaaaay too expensive for what they offer and considering UA is already getting your hard earned for the hardware, those prices per-plugin seem really steep.ДЄlso the actual acceleration part of this dongles is not that relevant anymore as the power they add to a system isn't, in percentage, that incredible as it was when these things came out and our PC/Macs couldn't cope with much processing. I asked him to print the processing on the final files, didn't even bother to get the dry signal.ДЄlso Massive Passive and Studer80 are great and UAD only, but the rest of the plugins I tried, to my ears, and in my opinion, and to my accounts, are equivalent or inferior to aaaall the vast vast world out there. He actually jut inserted Ocean Way on the room mic. I was looking at the engineer: 'this room actually sounds big and pretty, that's amazing, must be some acoustical freak event to have a small room sounding that big, some weird proportions, some unusual corner and modes coming together as some stars alligned'. I was once recording drums in a smalli-ish studio but the room was sounding huge and lush and it wasn't 'reverb', I had a perfect illusion of hearing an actual room. Click to expand.That is the only plugin I actually envy from UAD users.

Can i use uad plugins without hardware