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Surround versions of UAD-1 plugins...

Surround versions of plugins?

  • Killer feature, would buy even more cards

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No, I couldn't care less

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0

anha

Member
It was a long time since anyone was talking about how nice and productive it would be to have surround (multichannel) versions of some of the UAD-1 plugins. Therefore I once again offer this humble request to be considered as I know that there are others besides me that would find this very useful indeed. Cambridge comes first to mind but the precision series would also be very usefull. If for some reason a version with variable in/out is problematic (varying amount of DPS required maybe?) then consider a fixed 6in/6out version.
 

csl

Active Member
Although I don't work in surround (still trying to get the hang of stereo), I know a few poeple on here do and would love a surround version. Trebling the processing use for each plug (or more at higher rates than 44.1) would really cut down the plug count to almost unusable levels though wouldn't it?
 

neil wilkes

Venerated Member
I have been after this for a while now, and think it is highly necessary.
Surround is a fact of life and is here to stay.
Okay, a good percentage of people will never use it. So what?
What would be nice is the option to use UAD in a surround environment, as right now it takes 3 insert slots to use a FairChild across a master buss for that \"no compression, but great sweetening\" sound.

For surround work there are very few options open:
1/. Steinberg Surround Edition.
2/. Starplugs Surround Processors
3/. Waves 360 tools (mac only)
4/. WizooVerb W5
5/. Voxengo PristineSpace
6/. TonyB's excellent shareware tools
7/. Er
8/. That's it.

UA should really lead the way here.
Multichannnel LA2A/1176/FairChild/Pultec/Cambridge etc?
That's me straight in for another 2 cards and a magma bay the week it gets released. No hesitation.
Dweezil Zappa would agree too - he is working on his dad's back catalogue, loves the UAD-1, and cannot use it in Surround configs.

But I guess we will get shouted down as usual. (Sigh)
 

Dave P

New Member
Just adding my vote for a Yes! I don't do much surround work but the amount of extra coding would be minimal and the plugs could sit there right along with the mono and stereo versions.
 

Ten

Member
Dave P said:
the amount of extra coding would be minimal.
You work for UA or write surround plugins yourself?

I dont either but you can bet it would take a LOT more than a few lines of code to make ALL the plugs surround capable, not to mention the hours of testing and other crap.

I think its obvious what the majority think here, and the extra time, effort money spent on making surround versions could be used on standard plugins that would actually make UA money back.

ten
 

Dave P

New Member
Well I can't claim to be an expert but I have dabbled with the Steinberg SDK a little bit.

The hardest part of any plugin is the processing algorithm itself - which UAD are famous for. Setting the number of channels the plugin uses is as easy as these 2 lines of code (for insert effects only)

setNumInputs (n); n is the number of channels you want and
setNumOutputs (n);

It really is that simple.
 

Dave P

New Member
Oh an create some new variables (copy and paste) that make sure that each input is processed and passed to the correct output.

This would obviously be more complex for seperate processing options on each channel but if you want to have the same settings on every channel (like Neil says for multi channel sweetening for example) then the interface and processing code can stay the same.
 

F5D

Active Member
Surround versions would eat all the dsp resources immediately. The equipment which UA models are 2 channel or mono machnines. Let the other companies do the surround systems. UA models the old good gear which are not surround stuff. And you can still use UAD plugins altough you produce surround material. Just put a stereo eq to your track and then pan it to somewhere with the surround master mixer. Maybe surround mastering plugins and reverbs are the ones you're talking about here...? TC has surround reverbs for system6000 but powercore has only a stereo reverb. I don't see a point UA making a surround reverb either.
 

neil wilkes

Venerated Member
F5D said:
Surround versions would eat all the dsp resources immediately. The equipment which UA models are 2 channel or mono machnines. Let the other companies do the surround systems. UA models the old good gear which are not surround stuff. And you can still use UAD plugins altough you produce surround material. Just put a stereo eq to your track and then pan it to somewhere with the surround master mixer. Maybe surround mastering plugins and reverbs are the ones you're talking about here...? TC has surround reverbs for system6000 but powercore has only a stereo reverb. I don't see a point UA making a surround reverb either.
RealVerb Pro was originally a surround plugin at the start. The stereo version is a port.
Also, you obviously have never done anything in surround, as you cannot use a stereo EQ and pan it!!!
Have a look at how the Steinberg Mastering Edition does things - it has a common interface for the multichannel component.

Multichannel versions of the UA tools would be awesome.
Some of us actually would like to use them in Surround configurations here, as currently the only option is 3 instances.
As for DSP usage, that's not your call to make telling us how we use our DSP resources, I would have thought.
A surround Cambridge would not "eat all the resources".
Neither would a surround LA2A/1176/FairChild/Precision Limiter.
These tools are needed - now.
 

F5D

Active Member
\"Also, you obviously have never done anything in surround, as you cannot use a stereo EQ and pan it!!!\"

In master surround out yes, it doesn't work but you can use a stereo eq for any of the tracks in the project. Nothing prevents you from panning one of the eq'ed stereotracks in your project finally to any direction in surround field.

\"As for DSP usage, that's not your call to make telling us how we use our DSP resources, I would have thought.\"

You don't have to get angry about my comments. I am not telling you to do things like I do. Of course you can use your dsp resources like you wish. My post was just my opinion about this surround thing. Or is this topic only for people who support surround? How I see this, there's a poll too and people can vote whatever they want. I voted \"no\" for surround because I don't need it and also explained why. You may have 4 cards but I currently have only 1 so the surround plugins are out of question here.
 

Big Bean

New Member
What do you mean \"some people will never use it\"? I thought that the UAD was aimed at professionals? Any pro engineeer will have to work in surround (in fact in most media cases you have to anyway even when the work is only lined up for stereo broadcast -for possible future use) within the next few years. Anyway it really is cool (I said I'd never do it a few years ago -only 2 ears, binaural, phase and user setup poblems etc.) and alot of fun when you get into it. Myself and my engineers spend TOO MUCH TIME working around this to get the Fairchild etc working properly in a surround mix, it needs sorting before people resort to using steinberg surround stuff. :roll:

The problem will be that the UAD it is not really powerful enough now a days for surround or modern high sample rates. We need UAD2 -extreme edition+!!! (ok maybe not that title).
 

neil wilkes

Venerated Member
Once you start ng in Surround, itns stereo for evermore.
It's also far simpler & quicker to get a great mix happening too. You use a lot less EQ and reverb, as the space is already there (so no need to create a feeling of space with reverbs) and as you have a true centre channel rather than a false one created by stereo imaging to create a \"phantom\" centre, you'll find that all the various different instruments slot into place with far less EQ used to try & give everything it's own area to sit in.

UA really should be supporting surround. It would merely be a case of using a wrapper for each plugin in surround mode, in the same way that Steinberg's Surround edition is done.
 

anha

Member
One could always hope that V4.0 would bring something cool for surround but we could still always wait for V4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.8, 4.9, 5.0, 5.1 yes that might be the one.
 
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