If I were buying today I'd buy the PCI version, simply because the deal is so sweet, and they do have a trade-up program, although there is no telling how long they will provide that. On the next hand (how many hands does this person have?), there are PCI to PCIe expansion boxes on the market, though they cost a lot more than the UAD-1 cards! However, it won't be too long before computer motherboards no longer provide PCI slots. So you can take bandwidth off the table for comparison purposes. In short, they are an indespencible part of our work load.įor multi-channel applications that are conceivable today you'll run out of DSP horsepower long before you will run out of even PCI v1 bandwidth.
![can you use uad plugins without hardware can you use uad plugins without hardware](http://softwaredownloadcracked.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/q-300x155.png)
We use them 6 days a week in both catagories and they continue to perform as wonderfuly musical as many of their harware counterparts. The UAD-1 effetcs are some of the nicest out there for both mixing and mastering. That being said, with a good quality mic pre going into the computer you should rarely have to compress while recording especially with the added headroom that 24bit affords you. So even if your inserting them into the FX chain while recording ( which the natural latency of the PCI/PCIe would prevent anyway except maybe a reverb ) the end result will still be 'after' the A/D conversion.
![can you use uad plugins without hardware can you use uad plugins without hardware](https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4521/69012697-3af55380-093e-11ea-9409-cdfabaade3b5.png)
![can you use uad plugins without hardware can you use uad plugins without hardware](https://media.uaudio.com/assetlibrary/b/l/blog_10_uad_plugins_to_own_thumb_@2x_1.jpg)
The UAD_1 effects are 'post' converter effects ( playback or realtime monitoring ) You cannot limit/compress the incomming signal before the harware converters. Would it mean that you have the availability of hardware compression during recording as you would with outboard gear? I don't mean to hijack this thread, but are the UAD cards used for recording and mixdown and mastering or all of the above?