some advice - to uad or not

[davebhoy]

i have a small home studio that i am looking to upgrade with a uad-1 card.

i looked around a bit and it seems for what i want the uad card is better than the powercore. problem is i have a g5 dual 2.5 and i see there is a problem with these because of the motherboard.

question is, how much does this problem affect the performance of my mac?

i am running cubase sx3 with lots of vst instruments and some but not lots of audio. at the moment i only use the fx etc in cubase sx3 and some on the yamaha 01x i have. i'm not really happy with them hence the dsp card.

any advice greatly accepted

 

[Giles117 DP]

I have a PCI X G5 as well. It has yet to be a major issue for me. I Use DP 4.6. The few times it has become an Issue I merely freeze tracks and move on. I wouldnt wanna give these plugins up for anything....Not even a slight perofrmance issue that mainly rears it's ugly head when I am hitting my UAD cards at 85% or more. And only on my PCI x Mac when I pulled them out of my Magma.. - for a short season. LOL -

 

[mattdean]

I bought the Dual 2.5 G5 and haven't had an issue with it. The card detects the AMD processor and adjusts for it. Seems pretty smooth so far!

 

[guitarz]

Hi,

Here is all the info you need for PCI-X issues:

http://www.uaudio.com/support/software/ ... ps/G5.html

I have a PCI-X G5 and it works fine. Can't beat UA plugs!

There are rumors floating around UA will make some sort of announcement at the end of March, so if you're not in a rush... (though if it's a PCI-e solution, that won't help us much anyway!)

 

[dix]

There's no way I could advise a Mac user to invest in UA products right now. Not until UA bothers to tell us what our options will be with the Macs that are now shipping. The plugins are outstanding, but if you're looking for a company w good CR and a plan for the future (your future) keep looking. UA is at the top of my sh*t list right now.

...yes I see there's a \"rumor of an an announcement\" at the end of March (not to be confused with the rumor of a product - how pathetic is that?), but I also see a post from a UA employee speculating that it's likely there will be no decision re the Mac platform until the Desktop Intel Macs ship (fall).

The UA software side seems to be a boat w/o a rudder. If I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have invested as much as I have in UA products.

 

[Trace]

There's no way I could advise a Mac user to invest in UA products right now. Not until UA bothers to tell us what our options will be with the Macs that are now shipping. The plugins are outstanding, but if you're looking for a company w good CR and a plan for the future (your future) keep looking. UA is at the top of my sh*t list right now.

...yes I see there's a "rumor of an an announcement" at the end of March (not to be confused with the rumor of a product - how pathetic is that?), but I also see a post from a UA employee speculating that it's likely there will be no decision re the Mac platform until the Desktop Intel Macs ship (fall).

The UA software side seems to be a boat w/o a rudder. If I knew then what I know now I wouldn't have invested as much as I have in UA products.

I wish I knew exactly what it is you're blathering about What exactly is your real issue? I have a dual 1.8Ghz G5 and 4 UAD-1's in a Magma and it all works GREAT with my Yamaha O1X and Cubase SX3. I have also used it with Digital Performer with NO PROBLEMS.

As far as the future is concerned there is ALWAYS something new, better, faster, greater... You have to decide what you need that works RIGHT NOW and whether you can afford to wait. If you can wait then do so and its not hard to time your buying decisions on waiting til after all the trade shows and possible product announcements. I really fail to see how this is such a difficult thing to do. I've been in this game for over 25 years and I've never heard such whinning and complaining about nothing.

TRACE

 

[davebhoy]

does the magma card bypass the amd problems or is it just a fix for multiple cards and not enough pci-x slots?

 

[davebhoy]

actually, scrub the above - just seen how much they cost. not an option at all for me.

 

[Giles117 DP]

Get a used one like most of us...

 

[dix]

wish I knew exactly what it is you're blathering about What exactly is your real issue?

Read the subject line Trace.

My studio/computer needs are not the issue. My issue is w UA's non response to it's Mac users. If someone asks me if they should buy a uad-1 right now my answer is \"no\".

You're right there will always be bigger, better faster. Exactly my point. My opinion is that UA is not up to the challenge. Neither on a technical or CR standpoint (one or the other would do!).

I'm not sure why you spend sooo much time and energy apologizing and defending a companies behavior that is so clearly in the wrong Trace. It made sense for a couple of weeks after PCIe was announced, but it's been several months now w/o a word from UA. At what point would *you* start to get a little miffed?

I've been in this game for over 25 years and I've never heard such whinning and complaining about nothing.

This I find hard to believe! Maybe you only discovered online bulletin boards recently.

 

[davebhoy]

thanks everyone.

i took the plunge, hopefully i have on the way, with all the lovely plugs i have heard all about.

 

[Giles117 DP]

If only SSL would update their boards so often.

wish I knew exactly what it is you're blathering about What exactly is your real issue?

Read the subject line Trace.

My studio/computer needs are not the issue. My issue is w UA's non response to it's Mac users. If someone asks me if they should buy a uad-1 right now my answer is "no".

You're right there will always be bigger, better faster. Exactly my point. My opinion is that UA is not up to the challenge. Neither on a technical or CR standpoint (one or the other would do!).

I'm not sure why you spend sooo much time and energy apologizing and defending a companies behavior that is so clearly in the wrong Trace. It made sense for a couple of weeks after PCIe was announced, but it's been several months now w/o a word from UA. At what point would *you* start to get a little miffed?

[quote:1roa4ax7]I've been in this game for over 25 years and I've never heard such whinning and complaining about nothing.

This I find hard to believe! Maybe you only discovered online bulletin boards recently. [/quote:1roa4ax7]

 

[Trace]

[quote:3me6r405]I've been in this game for over 25 years and I've never heard such whinning and complaining about nothing.

This I find hard to believe! Maybe you only discovered online bulletin boards recently.

[/quote:3me6r405]

No i'm quite aware of what goes on in forums and to be honest this is one that takes the cake. You already have a clear indication of what to do or not do, based on the current status of UA and PCI-e. If you want don't already have a UAD-1 or a new G5, then why not wait for the UA announcement and the IntelMacs, which will surely make your system more futureproof than any of the current G5 models using PowerPC Chips. IF you simply must have the UA plugs now, then you know you have to get a G5 with PCI slots and the system works great as is. The vast majority of users like myself are making money with systems right now. What's so hard about making a sound choice given those parameters?

TRACE

 

[davebhoy]

what did i start here?

 

[dix]

No i'm quite aware of what goes on in forums and to be honest this is one that takes the cake.

[ignoring that self-canceling sentence] Maybe a break is needed for you Trace. Taking a company to task for disappointing it's users is more common than not in this medium.

If you want don't already have a UAD-1 or a new G5, then why not wait for the UA announcement and the IntelMacs, which will surely make your system more futureproof than any of the current G5 models using PowerPC Chips.

Ahhghh!! I think I'm going to cry. Yes, exactly. That's what we're sick of waiting for? ...maybe I need a break from the forums too.

IF you simply must have the UA plugs now, then you know you have to get a G5 with PCI slots and the system works great as is. The vast majority of users like myself are making money with systems right now. What's so hard about making a sound choice given those parameters?

Thanks, but why do you keep suggesting system configs? I'm as crusty a veteran as you. I promise you I'm well aware of the options. It's UA's lack of communication, not they're lack of shipping hardware, that put them at top of my sh*t list.

 

[Giles117 DP]

No i'm quite aware of what goes on in forums and to be honest this is one that takes the cake.

[ignoring that self-canceling sentence] Maybe a break is needed for you Trace. Taking a company to task for disappointing it's users is more common than not in this medium.

If you want don't already have a UAD-1 or a new G5, then why not wait for the UA announcement and the IntelMacs, which will surely make your system more futureproof than any of the current G5 models using PowerPC Chips.

Ahhghh!! I think I'm going to cry. Yes, exactly. That's what we're sick of waiting for? ...maybe I need a break from the forums too.


[quote:16oe8jzv]IF you simply must have the UA plugs now, then you know you have to get a G5 with PCI slots and the system works great as is. The vast majority of users like myself are making money with systems right now. What's so hard about making a sound choice given those parameters?

Thanks, but why do you keep suggesting system configs? I'm as crusty a veteran as you. I promise you I'm well aware of the options. It's UA's lack of communication, not they're lack of shipping hardware, that put them at top of my sh*t list.[/quote:16oe8jzv]

dix, do penalize the man because he missed placing a comma after no.

Please take a break from this forum with your whining about promises no one has made. Perhaps we need a gripe section so people can vent like we have over at unicornation.. UA hasnt promised something and not delivered. They have remained tight lipped. For all we know they might be on the way out of business (NO!!!!!!!!!) You get my point....

Please gripe to your wife or whomeever you have special in your life about this. There are too many great things happening to have bandwidth wasted with you whining about a problem we all are watching. Hell why not start making your own hardware.

 

[dix]

I won't. There's plenty of bandwidth and lots of pleasant subject lines for you to click on. It's not like I'm crashing OT threads w my whining. I'd be happy to gripe in the Gripe section if there were such a place, but I'd still respond to topics like this, warning unsuspecting potential UA purchasers, w my now predictable drone.

 

[Trace]

All I care about is that if you want great sounding plugs that work with all Mac's except the latest PCI-e G5's, then you don't have anything to be concerned about.

IF you have just bought a new PCI-e G5, then you'll have to wait for UA to produce a solution for the new protocol. No one forced anyone to buy a PCI-e G5. It was clear that UA did not have a product compatible with PCI-e and they gave no specific deadline for when they would. They have said that they intend to continue to support the Mac Platform. I would NEVER change a currently working system for something new that didn't work with my existing gear. Not unless it was absolutely necessary and as long as I had the same level or better quality of producing finished product. Right now the UAD plugs are too important to my studio for me to just give them up.

TRACE

 

[guitarz]

I'd still respond to topics like this, warning unsuspecting potential UA purchasers, w my now predictable drone.

The OP listed his computer, which is (mostly) compatible with current UAD cards. He never said it was for use with a PCI-e mac.

 

[dix]

My warning is about UA's CR not about their available hardware.