A litte Bird Told Me...

[digital-t]

Spoke to a AU rep at NAMM. He said that the MAC market is really important to UA. He did say \"WE ARE WORKING ON A PCIe SOLUTION\". Of course no other details. He said that apple really threw a curve ball with PCIe and then a about a month later with the intel stuff. He said that it's gonna take a bit, but \"THEY ARE WORKING ON IT\"

I still have my UAD-1 sitting in its box, collecting dust. I just hope it wont be too long before I can dust off the card and get those sweet plugins back into my mixes.

 

[peter893]

This whole Apple thru a curve at us shit is lame.
Apple announced this intel transition in June of last year ! Did you think it was a joke ?
The entire industry is moving to PCI-e NOT JUST MACs.

UA need to get off their asses and get a new card out. its a simple as that. Drop the excuses for being slow.

Just do it, do it

Lots of other software developers have already announced the release of Intel/PPC binaries of their plugins and or Applications. I really hope UA is not the last to make the transition.

We deserve some OFFICIAL statements on this, end of story.

A little bit of a rant, my apologies

Peter

 

[Resonant Alien]

Yeah, I don't understand the silence. A simple announcement of \"We are working on a PCI Express card. We cannot give any estimation on when it will be available, or what kind of upgrade package we will offer, but we are working on the card\" would be nice.

\"We are working on a PCI Express solution\" leaves open the possibility that it is simply a PCIe bridge card and that we would be required to pop down $1300 for a Magma chassis to run the UADs - nasty solution.

Fingers crossed....

 

[guitarz]

To be fair, Apple itself isn't even completely ready for Macintel machines! It's more like IBM dropped the ball, forcing Apple to switch processors. They REALLY needed an upgraded laptop, so that's why you see the Macintel machines now, even though all the Apple apps aren't ready. Apple was forced by circumstance to rush into the Intel transition, so I would give UA some slack with that one.

That said, most companies have made some sort of official statement regarding intended compatibility with future macs by now...

 

[Trace]

Yoiu know it amazes me that no matter how much good will a person or company tries to create thru good faith efforts, it always comes back to what have you done for me lately

People act like UA has been raping us all these years and treating us poorly, so no degree of slack can be given to them. Can we just give them some time to do what they've got to do. Besides, don't put too much into the comments from some undisclosed UA staffer about the companies policies. He wasn't speaking officially so don't take it that way. At this point there really isn't much of an excuse for anyone who has gone ahead and bought a PCI-e G5, cuz you knew what you were doing when you bought it. Anyone else who is considering a purchase of a new PCI-e Mac would do best to wait until the dust setttles before making that jump. There's hardly any company with a PCI-e Audio product out yet so hold your freakin horses. GEEEZ.

TRACE

 

[replicant]

Has anyone seen a working expansion solution? It still says \"Available soon\" on the Magma page. So I'm a bit surprised that UA states that they recommend that solution when it's not a viable alternative in the real world :?

 

[peter893]

Yoiu know it amazes me that no matter how much good will a person or company tries to create thru good faith efforts, it always comes back to what have you done for me lately ...........

while I do and im sure everyone here appreciates your confidence and enthusiasm with UA, it starting to ware a little thin. don't you think?
Not your confidence and enthusiasm, but UAs slow to bat attitude.

Please tell me what UA has done lately that is out of the norm for a company ? What good faith efforts, as far as letting it customers know what going on.

UA has been ridding around on a card that was developed in 2001 ! Its old and out dated power-wise.
I absolutely agree that the plugins are great, but they have always been great !

Rumor has it that you can only run TWO intances of one of the new roland plugins on it.

TWO instances of a plugin ! thats crazy !


Peter

 

[Akis]

It's not rumours; it's in the compatibility page -> instances chart in the UA website. However, that's due to RAM, not DSP it seems.

 

[Trace]

You know its interesting that UA hasn't tried to increase the Ram on the UAD-1. Its entirely possible since the original design allowed for twice the current ram. You can see the extra spaces for the ram on the PCB right next to the 2 chips.

In any event I wouldn't call the UAD-1 underpowered at all. Its still capable of some really amazing processing power when you think about it. For the price we pay for them, the UAD-1 is really a good price to perf. value. I have 4 cards and they handle pretty much 98% of my plug in processing needs. So my CPU's are free do handle everything else. I plan on getting some TC Powercores to add a bit more power to the system and thus won't need a new G5 anytime soon.

I'm positive that UA is fully aware of the need to make a more powerful unit. They may already have something close to ready, but now with the shift to PCI-e maybe they've had to change their direction slightly. Perhaps they also want to wait for the Desktop IntelMacs to come out so they can test compatibility. Why come out with a model now if you aren't sure it will work in every system you're customers are likely to use.

TRACE

 

[peter893]

Perhaps they also want to wait for the Desktop IntelMacs to come out so they can test compatibility. Why come out with a model now if you aren't sure it will work in every system you're customers are likely to use.

good point, but im pretty sure the whole PCI-e things is built on a spec, ya know. thats why you can use PCI-e, PCI-X, PCI and the like on either PC or Mac. its a hardware thing not a software thing.

As far as making Universal binaries, I guess that is another story.... but again is a software level thing.

Personally im going anywhere right now with my studio machine.
I will be waiting for the intel desktops. I would really be bothered if when that time comes, that UA has not caught up yet.

Pete

 

[Trace]

Perhaps they also want to wait for the Desktop IntelMacs to come out so they can test compatibility. Why come out with a model now if you aren't sure it will work in every system you're customers are likely to use.

good point, but im pretty sure the whole PCI-e things is built on a spec, ya know. thats why you can use PCI-e, PCI-X, PCI and the like on either PC or Mac. its a hardware thing not a software thing.

Well there can still be things which would cause compatibility problems. Lets not forget the issues we had with the AMD 8131 PCI-X tunnel and the UAD-1 not allowing TC Powercore to work in 2Ghz PCI models of G5's. There are little differences in each system that can make for strange behavior.

As far as making Universal binaries, I guess that is another story.... but again is a software level thing.

Personally im going anywhere right now with my studio machine.
I will be waiting for the intel desktops. I would really be bothered if when that time comes, that UA has not caught up yet.

Pete

Yeah i'm doing the DSP thing with other Equipment I have, such as my Oasys PCI, Yamaha O1X, 4 UAD-1's and possibly adding TC Powercore to the mix. At this point I see no need for a new machine for quite a while. Unless its to run all my sessions which include VSTi's at 88.2Khz. Then I could see a scenario that would call for more CPU power. Still in any event I can afford to be patient while all this plays itself out.

TRACE

 

[digital-t]

Yeah, I don't understand the silence. A simple announcement of "We are working on a PCI Express card. We cannot give any estimation on when it will be available, or what kind of upgrade package we will offer, but we are working on the card" would be nice.

I agree. If the reps at the NAMM booth can say it under the table, why don't they make it official, in this forum or on there Webzine. I'm not asking for much, it would just be nice if there was an official announcement saying "were aware of the PCIe specs and we're working on a solution. More details later...". I don't say this out of spite. I say this because the UAD-1 card is so awesome. It would be nice to officially hear that UA is working on a solution to put those great plugs back into my Computer again. I miss them so....

BTW, The employee I spoke to at their NAMM booth was a relaible sorce. I'm not disclosing his name in the forum so that I don't get anyone in trouble.

I knew what I was getting into by getting the New G5s, but I couldn't wait. I had to upgrade from my very old G4 Dual 800 in order to be more competetive in my field. In my opinion, bying old technology is a waist of money. If I had bought the G5 2.7, it would of lost it's vaule greatly as soon as I took it off the self (especially since apple's not even advertising it on their site anymore). The plus is I now have a top of the line MAC (at-least for now) that will retain its value for a while. The minus is that I have to wait for all the PCIe goodies to come out. And just incase anyone is doughtful, they are comming very soon, ala MOTU, M-AUDIO, APOGEE, PROTOOLS - to name a few. I spoke with reps from MOTU and M-AUDIO and they all said "PCIe, YES WE ARE WORKING ON A CARD RIGHT NOW". As a matter of fact, They guy that was presenting the new DP 5.0 said it publiacally at the begining of his presentation. So I don't think that I'm asking to much from UA to do the same.

 

[beal9000]

This whole Apple thru a curve at us shit is lame.
Apple announced this intel transition in June of last year ! Did you think it was a joke ?
The entire industry is moving to PCI-e NOT JUST MACs.

UA need to get off their asses and get a new card out. its a simple as that. Drop the excuses for being slow.

Just do it, do it

Lots of other software developers have already announced the release of Intel/PPC binaries of their plugins and or Applications. I really hope UA is not the last to make the transition.

We deserve some OFFICIAL statements on this, end of story.

A little bit of a rant, my apologies

Peter

What did you expect when you got your new G5? You bought a computer with PCI slots that VERY few card manufacturers support at this time. Your problem is of your own making.

I figure UA is working on it and they'll release something in due time. In the meantime, I'm not buying a Mactel or an IBM G5 with PCI-X or -e until the Intel and PCI issues are sussed.

 

[peter893]

What did you expect when you got your new G5? You bought a computer with PCI slots that VERY few card manufacturers support at this time. Your problem is of your own making.

your not really sure what your talking about huh ? Its ok to follow

What are you talking about, Ive got a Dual 1GHZ G4
Read the sig.... Use my UAD-1 in every project. Hopefully I will never ever have down time with my UAD.
Your argument is really not fair for those that do or did buy a G5 PCI-e. THere is alot more to a computer than its PCI slots.

Peter

 

[beal9000]

OK Peter,

Sorry for mistaking your situation. My point remains, though, that buying a PCI-e Mac is not a great call right now. There are very limited options for soundcards and, obviously, no compatible UAD-1s. It's cutting edge stuff and those who take the plunge have to be prepared for some hardship until the rest of the world catches up... and it's gonna take some time for all the crap to shake out of the new drivers and hardware.

For you, if you want to upgrade from your G4, why wait for the Intel Macs? Do you really want a 1st generation Mactel? Why don't you seek out one of the discontinued dual 2.0 GHz G5s with PCI slots (not PCI-X or PCI-e)? Yes, they're discontinued, but I think you can still find them new-in-box. I got mine recently at at one of those giant electronics stores. And there are PCI slot G5s on Ebay right now... don't know if they're new-in-box, but they might be. Check it out.

Also, you might want to keep an eye on the refurbs at the online store at Apple's site. There are no PCI G5s now, but they might show up there. I've seen 'em before. Maybe they'll show up again.

I just think that if you get a PCI-e Mac now or a 1st gen Mactel when they're available, you're just trading one set of problems for another and it's gonna be a while before those machines start to really pay off. The PCI G5s work well, they're faster than your current machine, and they're totally compatible with UAD-1 cards.

Good luck.

 

[bodiddly2005]

This whole Apple thru a curve at us sh*t is lame. Apple announced this intel transition in June of last year ! Did you think it was a joke ? The entire industry is moving to PCI-e NOT JUST MACs.

Virtually all PC motherboards being sold now include both PCI-e and backwards compatible PCI slots. Apple decided to eliminate PCI slots completely, and this WAS a surprise to many manufacturers of third party cards, a fact that was not known when they made their intel announcement. There was an article in Sound On Sound mag recently where they interviewed a bunch of manufaturers about this, including UA. They ALL said that developing a PCI-e card is not a trivial thing.

 

[Trace]

Its funny cuz I went with a FW interface just to avoid PCI issues back when they made the switch to PCI-X. I bought a Yamaha O1X and have been real pleased with it.

The UAD-1 is the only thing that stands in the way of any migration to future computers. Thank goodness I have a good enough system to see me thru for a good while. I can afford to wait for all of this to play out. I just hope it doesn't take too long.

TRACE

 

[peter893]

My point remains, though, that buying a PCI-e Mac is not a great call right now. There are very limited options for soundcards and, obviously, no compatible UAD-1s. It's cutting edge stuff and those who take the plunge have to be prepared for some hardship until the rest of the world catches up.......

All I can say to your statement is.... arggg.... its pretty clear you are unsure how the whole industry works...

Also, again.. I have no problems with my current setup. so im not trading one set of problems for another. Ive had my computer for 4 years... and too this day am extremly productive with it. Its a matter of know when to buy and what you need out of it.

The fact of the matter is that PCI slots are going away in the next few years. Over this next year we will see loads of PCI-e interface released.

hum.. maybe all did up an old ISA sound card and jam into something.:wink:

Its not the end of the world, but... it would be really stupid to buy a PCI based mac right now, PPC and all, that youve would plan to use for the next 4 years.

So your advise is really horrible and hope no one follows it.


Peter

 

[peter893]

This whole Apple thru a curve at us sh*t is lame. Apple announced this intel transition in June of last year ! Did you think it was a joke ? The entire industry is moving to PCI-e NOT JUST MACs.

Virtually all PC motherboards being sold now include both PCI-e and backwards compatible PCI slots.

Huh? I would call that moving, no ? do you think that will be for ever ? a mix of PCI and PCI-e ?


Peter

 

[peter893]

The UAD-1 is the only thing that stands in the way of any migration to future computers. Thank goodness I have a good enough system to see me thru for a good while. I can afford to wait for all of this to play out. I just hope it doesn't take too long.

TRACE

EXACTLY !