What are the issues with a UAD-1 and a G5 2.0 dual?

[John_McEnroe]

Ive done a search but I dont know if any new updates have been released. I am thinking of getting a G5 2.0 dual and a UAD card. My sound card is a motu 828mk2 firewire. Are there any issues I should know about? I really dont want to get the computer and the card only to find out im getting pops and clicks or poor performance. Its hard to tell how well the card works because some people seem to be reporting no problems while others are having quite a few troubles...

I forgot to say, I will be using Logic 7.

I would love to hear from one of the UA guys, but anyone's input would be much appreciated! I would love to get one of these cards working for me!

 

[T-fonk]

No probs. 2x2 Ghz/ logic 6

 

[fj]

Put the sound card in the top slot and the U audio card(s) in the bottom 2. That way you will have separate PCI busses for the audio card and for the Uaudio. It made a world of difference for me.

 

[John_McEnroe]

I have a Firewire sound card, MOTU 828mk2, no known issues with this card?

 

[Royal T]

What's this? I thought you went by Johnny Mac these days?

 

[Guest]

I have a Firewire sound card, MOTU 828mk2, no known issues with this card?

G5's have been known to have problems when you combine firewire audio interfaces with the UAD1 - though I believe some more recent firewire boxes like RME's firefox seem to be immune. Tread carefully.

Cheers
Chris

 

[John_McEnroe]

Hmm, thanks for the reply Chris. So only SOME people with this setup have problems? I would love to hear from one of the UA guys, maybe today now that the weekend is over.

 

[UAJames]

Hi John,
Our support pages have the full list of current G5 issues:
http://uaudio.com/support/software/UAD- ... tesau.html

Basically we are still working with Apple on resolving a performance issue in the PCI-X based G5s that stems from the specific PCI-X controller used on the logic board (AMD-8131). At this point it's running at about 85% (average UAD-1 CPU usage reported from users I have heard from) instead of 100% which is why many users, who do not always run heavy loads on the card do not notice any problems. If you need any more specific info please email me directly I'll be happy to answer any questions. Thanks.

 

[John_McEnroe]

Great, thanks for the quick reply James. I will be sure to email you with any other questions. Cheers!

 

[max cooper]

I have a dual 2.0 G5 running PTLE and I had been hesitating to get a UAD because of the G5 thing and also because of having to run the fxpansion VST/RTAS adapter. I shouldn't have waited. I could have been using these plugins all this time.

I bought one card, took it home and installed it. It ran great, although I could see right away that I was going to need at least one more. About one hour later, I got home with the second card. I loved how problem free the installation was. I figured that with a hardware/software/third party software product, I was going to run into some issues, but it really was a trouble free experience. Thanks, UA.

One thing about my rig is that I'm running 6 G RAM. Until I got my RAM up to a decent level, my system was unstable. Once I decided to ante up and give the machine the RAM it needed, I ceased to have problems (except for the Digi authorized upgrade to 10.3.5, but that's another story...at least problems due to system resources).

 

[John_McEnroe]

I would reallly love to get one of these cards but I just can t justify it if the thing is NEVER going to work 100% (ie a hardware issue). It has been out for so long it seems to me there MUST be some kind of hardware upgrade in the works...either a firewire version or PCI-X or something...

 

[max cooper]

Ya know, that's basically why I didn't get one for so long, but it would absof**kinglutely be worth the price of admission if you could run just one Pultec and one Fairchild per card. You'll get more than that, but DAMN my mixes sound good and I haven't even worked with the plugins much. I actually can't believe I'm raving about plugins.

Really. Just. Do. It.

 

[John_McEnroe]

About how many plugins are you able to run max? The ones I used to use on my PC the most were the pultec and LA2A as well as the 1176. I would probably be using these along with the cambridge and fairchild. If im only able to get one of each I dont think its worth it for me, but if you are getting better performance...who knows. I think the thing that is hard for G5 users is that they really have no idea of what to expect performance wise. If UA put up a chard of that 80% performance really means I think that would really help.

 

[MPC]

In my case it means about 1 less Pultec Pro, 1 less 1176LN and 1 less Fairchild....something like that, with a G5 and Magma Chassis. Maybe add one or 2 less plugs if you are using the PCI bus in a G5. Total count with my G5 with 2 UAD in a magma cards are about 7 1176LN, 3 Pultec Pro, 2 LA2A. that's just a ball park....different combos of lesser UAD processor intensive plugs yield slightly differing results. I suppose one card in the computer should yield about half that. Remember also, G5 PCI issue also seems to lessen the performance of each additional card. Let's pretend you get 10 plugins with the first card, that second card seems to yield slightly less, let's say 8 or 9 plugins....that's what I've found at least. But, even given that, I think UAD plugin for plugin are best, waves are very good but the 1176, LA2A, and Fairchild...whew....waves RenComp is good but UAD comps really do begin to approach their hardware equivalents.

I'm into my UAD and all but if it got 1 Pultec, and 1 Fairchild per card, I would of bought Pro Tools by now....thankfully UAD got it together to the point that even when an unforseen hickup like this G5 issue comes up UAD 1 is still a great value.....it would be a bit silly to be a rumor monger but it's been about 3 years since the UAD came out, something new (UAD card) should be out soon....I hope. You will get good use out of even 1 card on a G5, I liked the plugins so much, I bought 2, so for about 1k for the 2 cards you'll have a ton of mixing power....really, I promise!

I've used the card in a professional setting making professional demands of the product, delivered CDs to picky mother F***er indy and major jazz labels and (not too picky) hip hop labels with it.....UAD 1=Good.

 

[max cooper]

John:

check this post:

http://www.chrismilne.com/uadforums/vie ... php?t=1041

I'll open the plugins you mention until failure tonight and report the results to ya.

 

[Frederick]

How about the UAD-1 Card in a G5 Dual 2gHz and a Motu PCI-424 Card? Someone told me that a lot of it depends on where you put the card or it won't be recognized!

 

[max cooper]

So I fell off the edge of the Earth last week.

I disabled the second card so I could see how many plugins my system will run on one card.

On a session with 16 mono audio tracks, 3 stereo audio tracks, 3 Midi tracks, 7 stereo Aux's, and one stereo master fader, I'm running two stereo 1176's, one stereo Fairchild, one stereo Precision Limiter, one stereo EMT 140 and one Stereo Pultec Pro.

The system is PTLE/002 rack/G5 dual 2.0/6 G RAM/two internal 200G SATA drives, one external 70G FW 400 drive with BFD sounds on it, BFD running as a ReWire (when I bounce, it won't be ReWired), Arturia's Moog Modular as a plugin for sub-bass reinforcement, and session at 24 bits, 44.1kHz.

Also have several instances of McDSP's MC2000 compressor and URS EQ's on individual channels.

I use a couple of different guitar amp emu's, Nigel included. When I do, I dupe the track the emu is on and make the original inactive, then I \"print\" the emu to the track to save DSP.

Hope this info helps.

An interesting conversation occured shortly after this \"test\" between one of my co-op studio partners and myself. We were discussing mixing and working \"in the box\" vs. analog summing and recording to tape.

My home system has cost about $14,000. In the early '90's I had a home recording rig that cost about $11,000. When I compare the output of the old system to the new, I've come to one conclusion: more work is getting done on the new system. For all that I spent on the old system, the \"console\" was never very good, and even when I finally got to work with a TAC Scorpion, it didn't get much better. Also, my last tape machine was an Otari 5050, and it sounded beautiful, but only had 8 tracks. On top of all that, I never was able to get a mixdown \"deck\" that I liked the sound of. I think that despite the constant \"bagging\" many of us give the ITB systems, we're better off now, overall.

Rant over.