For me, if we were to go on traditional methods of creating plug-ins such as with algorithms or physical modeling, UAD(which falls under the latter) has always been a clear winner. Just look at the FATSO plug-in they released in ’09 and read my blog about it.
Recently it’s come to the audio community’s attention that Universal Audio would like some one-on-one time with their customers. Not to long before that, UA actually asked customers to take a short survey (with of course a touch of their generousity, as always, in offering a plug-in voucher for completing the survey). On the survey there were several user questions and also opinion oriented questions on what we, as the customer, would like to see UA create in conjunction with their plugin line. I think the two most important questions were “What plugins would we like to see next?” and “Would we like to see updated versions of the originals?”. Here’s what I’d like to see in order of importance:
- Tube and/or tape emulations
- More utility plugins, such as a very smooth gate or a sonic/soundstage enhancer/manipulator
- A few more classic flagships in audio like API, as an example.
To the second question, it’s an resounding YES! I’d love to see updated versions of the originals. Here’s the deal. I think the originals sound awesome. I do think their recent competition like IK or waves are in some ways outpacing UAD plug-ins but not entirely. I think the inclusion of harmonic distortion modeling these competitors have implemented in their versions of the same classics as UAD makes it appear they have pulled ahead of UAD. However, having harmonic distortion present in a signal doesn’t tell the entire story. First, the dynamism of harmonic distortion is important (a plug-in like Nebula are very exciting in this department! but that’s another blog). Second, the way the plug-in’s processing reacts with the signal is very important and so far, UAD stuff still sounds more organic to me. I think the hype of harmonic distortion and the excitement in and of itself in the competitors’ plug-ins put step ahead but in a novel sort of way. So just thinking about the smoothness of UAD coalescing with updated elements such as harmonic distortion is nice. I in fact think UAD would once again take the throne with MKII versions of their classics! Here we’ll have the best of both worlds. Really, I think the FATSO is perhaps the first illustration of that. Just as I mentioned in the previous blog about the FATSO, it’s huge, smooth, full, dynamic, and sports the correlating harmonic distortion for that final juiciness. So, just imagine what MKII versions could be like if they were to be incepted into our audio world.
