What Are Universal Audio Thinking?! - We Need To Talk About This!

[@SoundsByHeazy]

Jesus, the comments here 🙄 talk about gatekeeping. Just sell off your UAD interface and get something cheaper if you're that pissed off. Or keep your UAD gear and use the DSP for tracking through using the plugins. Heaven forbid making software available to more users.

[@isseknox]

Exactly

[@2StupidMarks]

With new CPU nowadays there isn’t as much need or benefit from DSP especially in a mixing environment. If you are running an amd 7950 for example you can run hundreds of VSTs and it’s not gonna flinch, everyone needs a CPU. Lastly, as someone who has used UAD forever and still has two chained Apollos in the studio, when you run something like the twin (which likely sells way more than an x16) it is super frustrating and super easy to hit the DSP limit, effectively making their plugins useless unless you bounce. Meanwhile you can have 30 native 1176 no problem. I’m sure they can see the writing on the wall and realize the need for DSP is dying out so what they started as a benefit is now seen as a limitations, and it is.

[@YungstarProd]

Its a good thing. More plugins going native means more flexibility. Low latency monitoring still exist with UAD hardware. There's still value in it.

[@Jeff_Brannon]

I bought into UAD dsp cards 22 years ago, back in 2002. Then when computers no longer supported PCI cards I lost everything, unless I wanted to buy a new card. Consequently I stopped using UAD for around 12 years. The arrival of Native UAD is amazing. It’s perfect for modern computers and at last I can get back to using UAD again.

[@alessandro.favero]

I think you are missing the Unison part and the zero latency with UAD and Luna. There’s no other way of doing it there way you can do it with UAD and their plugins (yes they’re not the only manufacturers that do real time, hardware accelerated processing). In terms of subscription and going native, it’s just a shift in the market, we can’t ignore that things are done differently and the competition got fiercer by increasing the quality and dropping the price (waves, plugin alliance, etc). Also, many years ago I did not want to buy into the UAD ecosystem, and stayed out of it for years precisely because I didn’t want to be tied to the hardware and I found incredibly stupid that I had to buy the plugins separately and I could only use them with the interface. Now many more people are going to get closer to UAD. In terms of “devaluing” the plugins, I understand the sentiment that I see around the internet, but… they’re not devaluing anything, really. The quality isn’t changing one bit. Maybe the perception changes when a plugin is 29$ instead of 349. But is that UAD’s fault if our brain works like that, instead of just thinking “oh well it’s better sound for less money now”. Sometimes we’re just jealous that the new guys can have the same quality for less than we spent. Well that’s always been the case with any tech.

[@drunit8122]

Funny you mention Antelope, i sold both my apollo 16's for the Orion+ 32. I needed more I/O in a smaller foot print and wanted better clocking and converters. This thing sounds absolutely pristine. UAD plugins are def some of the best, hands down, so I think they realize hardware sales are slumping and plugins are their answer.

[@massivebeatzz]

These are very old plugins. 13 years old. The delayed and delayed giving people what they owed them. Resizeable graphics, native compatibility, updates. Everything was stuck in the past and the overcharged people triple times. Now that these things cost $39 it is 5 years too late. What are they doing? They're trying to save the failing business because they have no replacement for the outdated shark processors so they quickly try to fix things. They are in panic mode and they need to do that cheaply and quickly. Also targeting 4500 people who own an Apollo interface versus a million people who can buy a native plug-in might help them.

[@NBproductionspresent]

the unison feature is the thing that makes uad special. it changes the physical properties of the interface based on the plugin thats based on the analog counterpart. (mpedance, input and output accuracy and how the plugin reacts in "real time". they are night and day when you compare recording with them versus recording with no dsp then popping the native version of the same plugin with the exact same settings

[@goldmundbyrne7075]

tracking through unison with no latency is the USP

[@pb25193]

I use spark and there is no latency, I put 5 plugins in series after my neural plugin and it's fine.

[@daydayhungryyy]

You missed the whole point. 1. People already bought what they need, revenue goes down. New thing coming out slow , especially after Covid, so they have to think about recurring way to earn. 2. If they want to reach a larger number of new customers, they need to turn their attention to those without UA hardware. 3. Everyone knows UA plugins are very good, so they have to figure out a way to let everyone have a taste, but not having ever plugs without hardware. So, it has to be native, subscription, start with old good plugs that everyone already own. That’s spark. It really that hard to see what they are doing mate?

[@hoopscentral1828]

Im sure with the new imac’s being so powerful, dsp is going to start being obsolete. Im sure they are planning on rolling out with new interfaces in the next couple years that do not involve dsp and thats probably why they did what they did.

[@deja0entendu]

For me, I still see the upside being their low latency monitoring through the plug-ins. I use an x4 live, manipulating my voice with Autotune and processing through a nice chain that the live sound guy can further blend. I wish they would upgrade their interfaces but it looks like they’re going the way of waves. Computer processing completely outpacing what they can offer is to blame.

[@djcode6983]

So what you basically outlined is that UA’s software is their super power. Thats what’s keeping their interfaces up there, and they win TEC awards at NAMM yearly. Like 10 in the past 2 years. I think they have something coming and just got caught holding the bag without a good replacement for Sharc chips. Let’s see where this goes in the next year or so. I’m sure they won’t do nothing with an aging line. Progression means moving on. A new Dante platform that can support up to 128 I/O, Native Plugins, Sphere mic great UAFX pedals sounds like a healthy bet something else will come. A 32 or 64 channel Dante interface with console will be the only thing I sell my x16s for. I’m embracing the change. Time moves on baby!

[@OliverShillito]

It does! Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want UA to kill their interfaces. I’m rooting for something new and cool! 👌

[@consistentlyaverage]

There will be a subset of people which are in some ways a vocal minority, who have bought into the walled garden at an earlier stage and are pissed off because their investment hasnt held its value because the market has shifted and UA have shifted their strategy to remain competitive. But ultimately you got what you paid for at the time, entry into the walled garden, and the edge that allowed at the time depending on how far back in time you go. The UA hardware install base is a literally drop in the ocean compared to the overall amount of possible consumers that didnt want to pay that kind of money into the hardware just for access to the software. I get it people like being in their clubs and they hate seeing other people getting in easier than they did. But time has already been spent in the club whilst the new people werent and that's where the money went. Let's say for example me now I'm only now just trying the UA pultec on my stuff and it's been over 10 years. Well for a lot of the stuff depending on when you bought in you had access to it 10 years ago and it may have made your mixes better for it than those who didnt. And finally them selling these plugins for like 39-50 dollars or giving some away isnt some sort of closing down sale because they are up the creek without a paddle. They will be making more money now.

[@sin_phany_tv]

The one thing that I don’t like about UA connect is that you need a Internet in order to run the native plug-ins, as opposed to the ones in your Apollo/DSP you’re able to run it without Internet so I guess that is the one positive when buying a UAD plug-in And like you said not all plug-ins are native and they’re all not going to be native think about this autotune for instance if they place that as a native plug-in, they will lose customers with Anteries and that’s definitely not going to happen, I’m sure that they’ll just have certain plug-ins natively, but I don’t think they’re going to have for instance their SSL, neve, precision. The other upside is that OK there are many other interfaces that have supposedly better conversions, but there are only two companies that I’m aware of that you’re able to run plug-ins as unison whereas the other interfaces don’t give you that option unless if you had physical hardware and that is going to be pretty expensive, so with that technology and hand and with the plug-ins being so affordable at times this is the best option when recording into your daw. Let me know what you guys think if you care to join this comment thanks, and many others not available for native

[@fredfox3851]

I AGREE. No UA DISconnect for me. I only put my recording computer on the web when I need to update. It is foolish to do otherwise.

[@jrileyhill]

It uses ilok under the hood and You can use a physical ilok.

[@deja0entendu]

Yea. I use a physical iLok. I don’t have internet issues.

[@Barney-ii1no]

can use an ilok but it feels so wrong buying some usb stick for £50+ which you know cost them about 50p to make, those things should be way cheaper at this point it reeks of rinsing the consumer for more money, I'm a stubborn git and wont allow myself to be shafted so will have to put up with them being online only

[@jrileyhill]

@@Barney-ii1no yea fair, having to use a dongle is annoying. I just wanted to point it out cus it seems like some people are under the impression it’s online only

[@fridmanator]

I don’t see what’s the problem? If people want to use the UAD dsp they can, but if you want to use your computer CPU, it’s possible as well.

[@Don_nell]

Software makes Universal Audio more money, that's the bottom line. The interfaces are gonna sell regardless of the software being made native. People buying the hardware still gets the same appeal regardless if the software is sold separately. I think making the software available to more none UA hardware users may even drive more people into the Universal Audio ecosphere to potentially purchase some UA hardware products.

[@yurikalashnikov2460]

The market has completely changed. I’m not mad at them for their change in marketing. The plugin market is saturated with high quality low cost plugins that run great on today’s powerful cheap computers. They don’t have the edge and therefore the value they once had. Even though I own most of their plugins, I don’t use most of them anymore because I’ve largely replaced them with native stuff that doesn’t require internet connection. I don’t need them anymore. Neither do you. That’s why they’re cheaper. If they don’t lower their prices they won’t survive.

[@MixedByDotRob]

Agree 100% - I've been on the Apollo platform forever and I really loved it. It was (and still is) a pretty solid ecosystem. If UA doesn't want to lose their most loyal customers (like me), they should come up with some new plugins that make use of their DSP platform and can't be done natively (yet). That would be cool. Then it would be fine for me to have the ‘old’ UAD plugins in native form, but I would also have a reason to keep my Apollos.

[@OliverShillito]

Couldn’t agree more!

[@daanpendavingh3100]

I suspect that a large portion of the problem is that pc's have become so powerful that there is not much added benefit anymore from the build in DSP. Not to bash on their eco system, I'm not an owner or user.

[@mrpinguin9189]

@@daanpendavingh3100 I do really like the 0 latency monitoring, even when routed through a daw at 32 sample latency it is still not as quick as on the apollo. That's the only thing I actually use the uad plugins for... Other wise I go with uadx aka the native version

[@YoDaddyObama]

When I see people say stuff like this I just laugh. I want to see the people that say this actually leave UA & go buy the actual hardware units that are being emulated by UA. Lets see how profitable you'd be with your skills.

[@Barney-ii1no]

@@daanpendavingh3100 I feel like they know that they cant get away with going on as if you NEED there interfaces to use there plugins, they could do it back in the day but cant rinse it anymore

[@AkiyoshiBeats]

I concur sir. Doesn’t make sense to make plug-ins native while actively still selling interfaces. I’m sure UA saw sales numbers going down for the flagships like the x8 and x16 so making plug-ins native opens up a new market while also eliminating exclusivity. We bought into the dsp landscape which is pretty much obsolete now.

[@djcode6983]

@@AkiyoshiBeats There’s no proof of a declining line especially because of the software. More people want low latency so they are buying in. I have no doubt they will right the ship but native needed to be done to stay relevant with aging tech. DSP isn’t dead and there isn’t a viable replacement for Sharc chips yet. So everyone wants UA make something new and shiny when they just need to continue to provide hardware that makes their software more valuable.

[@cocoloco71]

I honestly feel shafted by Universal Audio. Every day I get an email selling my favourite plugins for$29 from the expensive UAD Bundle! I'm waiting on my Heritage i73Pro Edge. I've also filled 8 slots on a Cranbourne Adat 500. And after watching Olivers Null tests, I have a pair of Behringer 1273's and the 369 KT's on back order. Thanks for the video. I thought I was the only grumpy old git.

[@Chaos-Dynamics]

@@cocoloco71 I have both the 369 and the 1273 and I can tell you that I love them both 👍🏼

[@officialWWM]

I don’t understand why you are struggling with this. When these plugins first came out, computers were not powerful enough to run them. The solution was to provide the extra computing power in the interface. Now computers can easily run these plugins, plus the modern versions of the plugins require less dsp. The interface with extra processing power has now been superceded. Yes, it’s obsolete! It’s tech equipment. It has a limited lifespan, just like your phone or your tv! Suck it up, move on…just like the tech. Personally, I love that the plugins run natively now, it gives me more options :)

[@marksaxon_plays]

With my M3 Max laptop, don't need the DSP. Would be nice to have it but right now, I can run a ton of plugins without DSP. Might still be good to have DSP for tracking but didn't need it when I would track my band. Love the fact I can get UAD stuff natively.

[@alexdierickx3504]

Continued turnover doesn't come from sticking with what you already have. It comes from what you add or replace in your catalog that growth is stimulated. By opening up the market to native users that would never impulse buy a DSP engine or Interface because they want that LA-2A plugin everyone is raving about, do potentially jump on each "sale" they now seem to be having all the time. It's really that simple.

[@VinceJackson1]

The native plugins have brought me back into the UAD family. So maybe there trying to attract a new & old customer base. I'm a hybrid mixer but alot of young producers are completely in the box using low cost interfaces & love it or hate it hit records are being produced like this. After owning a uad-1 dsp I never saw the value in there ecosystem & there interfaces don't live up to there price!!!

[@Chaos-Dynamics]

I'm not into manufacturers that used to have everything tied up in an ecosystem, In my opinion Universal Audio hardware always was way to expensive for what you get. I don't like to use software that is tight into hardware, I don't like to be tight up into an ecosystem. For me Universal Audio just doesn't fit my workflow either, like you mentioned their i/o is very limited or extremely expensive. I need minimum of 24 channels of i/o for my workflow, even Focusrite doesn't offer that anymore. The new Presonus Quantum 8 has double adat i/o which looks promising but I probably would go for a Ferrofish for my next converter upgrade.

[@OliverShillito]

Definitely check out Antelope!

[@Chaos-Dynamics]

@@OliverShillito Yeah I was thinking about them for a while too but I’m not really sure. With Ferrofish over madi I can use RME madi drivers for the same price as an Antelope interface. With RME I know that their drivers will be supported for years to come which is a important factor for me.

[@Chaos-Dynamics]

@@OliverShillito By the way, I want to share this with you. I have a RME Fireface 800 interface which lost it's connection to the FireWire bus. I contacted RME support and they replied back to me within 24 hours. Their user forum is awesome too with a lot of support from both users and RME. The Fireface 800 is a twenty years old interface, it still works on the new M2 Mac and RME still repairs these units. This alone is so awesome in my opinion, I don't know any manufacturer who does that. So for me it will be RME all the way any day. By the way Ferrofish is made in the same RME factory. 👌🏼

[@ConsciousFX]

Charge people $5,000 for their whole eco system and then a few years later, give a good amount of them away for little to no money. I agree, it’s completely disrespectful and disregarding to those of us who made those initial investments. They need to create something for those of us who have actually invested in their interfaces for the reasons you’ve just point out clearly. Anyone from UAD if you’re reading these comments and don’t create an exclusive cost effective bundle for users who have spent thousands on their hardware like myself, you will most certainly start losing customers.

[@waynerowley]

Don’t they have a right to do what they want with their own products? As a customer the choice is always yours to review the purchase and either buy or don’t buy. What the business chooses to do with those products after that is, frankly, none of our business.

[@officialWWM]

It’s called progress. Time moves on. Technology advances. Suck it up…

[@officialWWM]

@@waynerowleyexactly!

[@ConsciousFX]

@@officialWWM That’s the thing they’re going backwards. Not moving on at all actually. They started to when they made the interface sync with the plugins not a bum on the streets can cop a plugin and use with his $20 focus right lol. Which says a lot about your rebuttal to my comment. 😂 it seems like you’re all for sucking things up but I’m good on that. I’ll leave that for you to enjoy 💧 🤣

[@ConsciousFX]

@@waynerowley It’s all of our business we are the consumer. Actually my comment was none of your business but you chimed in so now I’m giving you the business like anyone else. You cleanly can’t afford there hardware and are one of those culture vultures leeching off music for attention. If you gave af enough about the market you wouldn’t sound so ignorant about the robbery that took place. When they first came out, there was OTHER options. It was do business with them or buy something else. I chose to do business with them and spent my money so it is every bit of my business actually. Maybe it’s none of yours but then again, men who have female tendencies to chime in on other men’s comments will act like they actually have a point when they don’t.

[@DavChops]

I've never owned a UAD hardware unit, so my perspective on the native situation is very positive, however I would definitely feel completely ripped off if I had invested thousands of dollars into an ecosystem only for it to be made available on special every few months. You're spot on about the new line of interfaces, why even bother? These days 16 analogue ins are hardly a selling point and as you pointed out, every man and his dog does something with either more I/O or Dante or both for comparable or less.

[@kellygreenii]

The 16D is not an entry-level product. Its target is for professionals who are already invested in the Apollo ecosystem who want to use the plugins in a live setting and need to work with networked audio. (If a product doesn’t make sense, it’s usually because you aren’t part of the target market.) UA is actually late to the party on this…and it makes sense as a transition while UA decides what they are going do to make their hardware more competitive.

[@TheChrispablo]

The only true useful reason to use UAD hardware for me is the no latency use with the console when tracking a vocalist. I can run a full maxed out DAW session in which i could never track latency free otherwise. Other than that i could easily do without UAD. Also im on Windows which....well was a pain to make the system run with thunderbolt

[@dragonemortale9056]

Simply you can still use Apollo if you have a bad CPU or need of extreme extra processing. Apollo still has better latency of the native version and is a solid platform with the extra of the pre amp emulation.

[@MadreDeDiosEstudio]

Sometimes you run out of DSP on your system so… having able the native version is cool too…

[@OliverShillito]

That is a valid point I forgot to mention!

[@Barney-ii1no]

good point

[@athonygraham8353]

there are loads of UAD plugins that haven't and won't ever be made native, because they need the 3rd Party agreement and companies like Softube etc are not going to let them compete in their market, selling their native plugins. Softube are struggling, UAD have got their heads up their arse, Waves are the absolute pits of a company and AI is sprinting down the track aiming to take out the need to buy plugins, or pay for mixers and mastering and that won't be too long. UAD's Apollo X's were out of date before they hit the market, if you're recording and mixing at 96kHz, the DSP is tragic and barely capable of a couple of plugins before you'd get that UAD popup window telling you that there isn't enough DSP to power your plugins. Those sharc chips are so redundant, but even now, UAD are pumping out their new Dante capable Apollo with those old sharc chips. They claim that all the live market is buying them, hoovering them up, I'm not so sure.

[@LipazMusic]

They must be in financial trouble because apart from X16, the non-heritage, so called core versions of the X series available again in stores. And plugin sales are basically constant. Unfortunately they do not listen to customers.

[@3dims]

I don't have any stats to back this up, but these kinds of strategies are often the result of market forces. If UAD are not receiving enough revenue from hardware, then perhaps they have chosen to exploit their software assets to give the numbers a boost.

[@OliverShillito]

Money for old rope right? All of a sudden they make a tonne more cash selling 10 year old plugins with a GUI update as native. Rather than make new plugins or even make better hardware and keep the plugins DSP!

[@3dims]

@@OliverShillito Exactly. Maybe they're building up a war chest to do something cool in the future.

[@GeorgeAmodei21]

Very True! I love UA but agree how they’re running their Company.

[@supercompooper]

They may just need to hedge their bets against the future unavailability of certain DSP chips they need. They may also be discouraged by the incredible costs of re-engineering when new DSP chips do appear with quite radically different architectures.

[@blasegangbeats1865]

We need arm chips and able to switch from native to the arm chip when computer is overwhelmed

[@cohsensi]

@OliverShillito Tracking (live) with Unison and Luna is the USP for me, although it seems that UA is not doing enough marketing for this. And having DSPs is still not bad at all.... 🤗🤗

[@OliverShillito]

No I agree. I have a satellite and favour the DSP stuff over native (just runs well for me!) but even so…

[@cohsensi]

@@OliverShillitoNot trying to advertize for UA, but the API console emulation for Unison really is something and helped me a lot while tracking drums. This is probably useless when you have outboard gear like compressors and nice preamps but thats the point: I don't 😂

[@OliverShillito]

@cohsensi I think their unison preamps are dope. Especially the API ones. I’ve used them a bunch too. I just don’t think it’s enough of a drawer to buy their hardware. Won’t be too long before they are native too!

[@simmermusic3894]

I don't think the native plugins work in unison mode (yet) right? Because lots of people are tracking through their plugins using the preamps and whatnot..

[@OliverShillito]

Not yet but I can see them finding a way to make it work to some degree perhaps.

[@LucasConforti]

UA always was the Apple of the plugins world. Everything has to be exclusive, non consumer compatible, having its own enviroment and specific hardware, etc etc, just for make feel that little bunch of people affording it special, unique and industry leading. Now UA went for the Ford avenue, just like Pro Tools did, any John Doe can access UA plugins having a common CPU and a tight budget. It is annoying to buy a Ilok or depending on having internet to run UA connect, but you can also buy those native plugins that you want and have the perpetual licenses, no specific UAD Harwdware required. It is too much for a change coming from that kind of elitist company.

[@Njoynoiz]

Playing both sides and coming out on top. It’s not like native obsoletes their proprietary stuff, the ability to run native doesn’t suddenly mean resource juggling is a thing of the past, they’re getting money either way and the perspective that they are playing themselves is big projection.

[@TimDolbear]

HI, I have been on UAD since 2001, and a Beta tester with them since 2003. I have an octocard, no interface. Watching them port over to Native and then devalue everything, Giving away LA2a, or Sessing them of r $30, makes me cringe. I do not want to see UA go the same way as WAVES. Yes the plugs should not be $400 each, but $30 or free? when we have all invested thousands into them? And there has been nothing really new plugin wise for UAD for years, everything they release seems to be for Apollo or Console or whatever. There Plugs are the best IMO and rather than sticking with what their strong suite is, they are all over the place... and not working on Plugs. Its very disappointing. Porting it to Native, I get it. I understand, but they seem to be crapping on their long time supporters, which is a HUGE userbase most companies would dream of having.

[@OliverShillito]

Exactly. I still have a UAD satellite but I moved on from my Apollo for fear of it becoming obsolete! It’s a crying shame because like you say. Their plugins are amazing.

[@Notinserviceij]

However this isn't an issue for studios as they claim it back on tax That's why they are so expensive to take advantage of others that don't care about total cost as they'll get it back in tax Now they realise all major studios and people making enough money to do tax write off's have uad plugins they drop the value so they capture people like us, hobbyists Imo this is another perspective to consider The shift in customers is what we start to see

[@therealdjap]

I agree.

[@irradix213]

I wondered about this when I got that deal pkg for Xmas and didn't need new hardware, like why have Apollo?

[@Fear-unknown]

I sold my two UAD interfaces and bought two Antelope 32 IO's and an RME interface as madi front end. don't regret it at all

[@OliverShillito]

I’ve done almost the same. Sold my apollos and bought two antelopes

[@ajcohen100]

Universal Audio realizes consumer computers are getting good enough to mitigate the need for dsp cards. While dsp is still useful for tracking with effects, the newer computers don’t run up against cpu issues nearly as much as they did in the past. And this trend will continue, so UA seems to seethe writing on the wall. So over then next few years we may see the Volt line becoming more prevalent and increasingly including onboard effects like reverb in addition to compression that they offer currently. To summarize: 1) DSP won’t be needed for mixing and mastering in the near future. So their Apollo like will be less interesting as folks will look for native options for plugins. 2) the Volt line may become their bread and butter interface in the near future.

[@OliverShillito]

See id love it if they made a unit like an Apollo 32 or something that perhaps included less DSP chips and more IO options. As the DSP isn’t really needed anymore so there’s no need to pack their interfaces full of it. They could still utilise the Unison preamps but have more line ins and outs. That would be nice.

[@ajcohen100]

@@OliverShillito I think that''ll happen (or something like it).

[@cornballsouptastebad]

Apollo 32 with less DSP but it also functioned like a real digitally controlled analog patch bay would really keep it relevant imo.

[@OliverShillito]

@cornballsouptastebad so basically an Antelope Orion 😁

[@cornballsouptastebad]

@@OliverShillito lol yes an Orion with real time AutoTune monitoring with no latency or fussing with DAW buffers.

[@azeedogz]

For the love of money.......moneyyyyyyyy!😂

[@MKD371]

UAD have said there are some plugins from their lineup which will never go native, sadly.

[@apextraxx2903]

If you have an m series mac you don't need uad.

[@The_Absurdistt]

Unison is UA's market advantage.

[@cocoloco71]

Hi Oliver. Can you possibly do some Series 500 comparisons? I'm going all outboard. I just bought a Flock 32 digital patch bay.

[@borscast]

i have an uad apollo solo. the other annoying thing was at the latest update, when uad cancelled the option,separately download just the unit driver. now every software in one package, and the uad forcing the users download and install this shit iLok manager. i hate this so much. they don’t listen the customers…

[@tlkshowhst]

Current Macs are overpowered for everyday audio production, making their DSP chips obsolete. Plus, you can’t run a mix with their plugins if you’re away from your interface, which is asinine.

[@IntheDAW]

I have to both agree and disagree with you on the native plugins being bad. even antelope makes native versions. apogee makes native versions. what that does is let you use the plugins you normally track with with zero latency in your session without using the interfaces dsp. for people who use the dsp it's mostly for real time stuff and let's be honest most people will not spend 4500 on a 8 channel preamp interface. I own 2 of the x8p because I track thru them and sometimes the sessions have massive track counts so I need the DSP. and with dante now they can go after the high end live market that waves has been dominating with soundgrid. I use dante on digico midas and yamaha consoles at work every single day and I hate the latency I get from some soundgrid stuff. so the new x16 dante is a huge plus you get way higher quality fx that can be used in real time with less latency via dante and I can even multitrack things. its awsome. what they need to do is invest in new shark chips. we need more dsp so we can have higher track counts or plugin counts. if they are going to go dante they need to give us 24 channels or 32 channels that can be ran thru the interface since it only has a few physical IO.

[@rickfowler3710]

I've heard the drivers aren't very reliable on windows. That's what put me off

[@OliverShillito]

I’d heard that was a thing a while back. Not sure if it’s true these days but I’ve been a Mac user for like 20 years so I can’t really speak to that!

[@casualintrovert207]

I use an Arrow Solo On Windows 10 and it works just fine for me, no issues here. Long as you set everything up to the recommended way UAD describes nothing should go wrong.

[@loweroctaves]

Because no one needs DSP anymore computers are so good now so it’s either buy another companies entire set of plug-ins or Ua’s

[@FRANKRICECOLD209]

Waves Just Basically Did The Same Thing For Years They Were Pumping Up Their Digigrid DSP Audio Interfaces That Need DSP Plugins BUT They Just Killed That With There New Version Waves V15 And There new StudioVerse Will No Longer Support DSP Plugins So People Like Me That Paid $3000 + For There Digigrid IOS Interface To Uses There Plugin With DSP Are F.CKED Now And They Don't Care And The Guys That Spent Way More For The Live Show Servers Systems Should Be Really Mad

[@brianeno1639]

They dont have a choice. The competition e.g. waves have moved to native plugins that you can access via subscription. Its the future.

[@pb25193]

Apollo is an obsolete business model bro, native just works better. And their plugins are genuinely CHEFS KISS

[@scohills]

It’s simple, or should be… focus on making better music. It’s 2024. Conversion, plug ins..it really doesn’t matter. Get your workflow together, stop moaning, and get on with it

[@terrordisco2944]

Propriatary is bad. Its not a feature.

[@deja0entendu]

Waves plugin users: First time? 🤓

[@manvince]

Their hand has been forced because of the CPU advancements especially Apple Silicon. UA milked us for so many years by refusing to update their outdated DSP chips from 2008. Now they can't do that because no reasonable person will invest in their outdated DSP chips which as so weak by today's standard. I'm saying this as a long-term uad user. My quad thunderbolt satellite just stopped connecting to my Mac two days ago I'm not replacing it if is completely fried. So for me I hope they convert 💯 of their plugins to native because I'd rather invest in a new Mac.

[@TheSteveKinney]

I’m gonna be honest. Apple silicon is not some miracle. There is a reason major pro studios are still on intel machines and run HDX systems… (aka DSP accelerated systems)

[@mudi2000a]

@@TheSteveKinney but ProTools also gave up on the DSP stuff. It is dead.

[@TheSteveKinney]

@@mudi2000a do you understand what an HDX system is?… Walk into any professional commercial studio..

[@mudi2000a]

@@TheSteveKinney yes I know what an HDX system is. They bought it in the past and of course they will use it. But I don’t think it would be smart to buy this today. Maybe for a niche of studios which need a ton of channels it is still worth it.

[@em8969]

LIKE if you are happy they’re going native😂😂😂 I hear your arguments especially business wise, but as a non Apollo owner ,I’m happy to get them in my hands 😉

[@OliverShillito]

For sure. This is great news for people who wanted them but never got into their hardware. No doubt about it. Their plugins are by far my favourites!

[@em8969]

@@OliverShillito definitely, but business wise, I need to hear their plan😂