A question about UA accelerator cards

[apanacci]

Hey guys, does anyone use the UAD-2 Satellite DSP Accelerator (FireWire). I am thinking of getting a Duo. Is that enough to add to my Wave and DP plugins ? Do they work well together? I am running DP8 and PT 11. I have a 2009 Mac at this time. Down the line if I upgrade to a new Mac, would it work with Thunderbolt?Any thoughts would help, thanks.

[kgdrum]

Hey guys, does anyone use the UAD-2 Satellite DSP Accelerator (FireWire). I am thinking of getting a Duo. Is that enough to add to my Wave and DP plugins ? Do they work well together? I am running DP8 and PT 11. I have a 2009 Mac at this time. Down the line if I upgrade to a new Mac, would it work with Thunderbolt?Any thoughts would help, thanks.

UA plugs are awesome and there are no issues with them coexisting on systems with other plugins from my experience.
I will recommend getting at least a Quad,the newer UA plugins need the more powerful cards,with that being said the 2013 MacPro will only work with the Octo(if you're talking PCIe card) with a firmware upgrade.
BTW you've mentioned FW, TB & card(PCIe) so I'm not sure which way you're trying to go but imo Thunderbolt or PCIe are preferable over FW.
fwiw I use a Quad and an Octo both PCIe cards in my rig.
If you're just getting started you want to do this when UA has a promotion like ($1000) free plugins with an card purchase which I think they're actually having now,if you have the budget you can get the Custom bundle which gives you any 3 plugs for about $300 more between this and the promotion you can grab a bunch of the more costly plugs relatively inexpensively.
Then if you can grab a few more during the sale which ends 1/1 you can save mucho dinero!!

IMHO this makes the card essentially free if you're using my twisted logic,good luck

[James Steele]

One factor to consider is from what I've read, ONLY the OCTO card will be compatible with a TB to PCIe expansion chassis, so no way to use the QUAD or less cards in the future should you ever go to the newer MacPro.

[towerproductions]

That's true about the octo card being the only one compatible for a pcie to thunderbolt box . That's why I sold my quad card earlier this year and bought an octo card so I could get more mileage down the road if i upgrade to a new mac pro. I also got the $1000 of free plugins with it and was able to time it during one of their big sales so I made out pretty well with bunch of plugins that I didn't already have.

The plugins do work well and help the cpu hit. My only beef right now is in DP 8 is the UAD plugin preset names disappear and becomes default after the project is closed even though the settings will remain the the same. Kind of a pain if you want know which preset you started with but at least the settings don't change. Motu is aware of this problem and say there will be a fix in an update in the future, although I've been waiting well over a year for that fix.

[RROY]

I asked UAD Support about the preset name problem with DP. They told me DP was not tested or supported for UAD2 products. They recommended contacting MOTU to resolve preset name issue, which I have done but not heard back form MOTU other then they would look into it. Not impressed with the lack of support for Digital Performer with UAD2, considering the amount of money spent with UAD over the years. Starting with UAD1, which I believe was supported for DP.

[towerproductions]

I asked UAD Support about the preset name problem with DP. They told me DP was not tested or supported for UAD2 products. They recommended contacting MOTU to resolve preset name issue, which I have done but not heard back form MOTU other then they would look into it. Not impressed with the lack of support for Digital Performer with UAD2, considering the amount of money spent with UAD over the years. Starting with UAD1, which I believe was supported for DP.

When I spoke to UA they said the same thing that DP wasn't supported but does that it does work and the preset name problem was on Motu's end and no other DAWs have the preset name issue. I 've never had any other issues with UAD plugins in DP .

But when I called up Motu they did confirm that the preset name problem was on their end and there would be a fix in some future update. DP always was supported in the past by UA but perhaps this is why it isn't now. I'm not impressed that Motu has taken this long for a fix considering all the DP users that have UAD plugins. I've noticed this preset name issue for at least the last 2 years .

I suggest all UAD users get in touch with MOTU by calling them up or put it in the suggestion box asking to address the name issue and perhaps it might get fixed sooner than later.

[James Steele]

Can someone give me a very short synopsis or point me to the thread to understand what the "preset name issue" is?

[David Polich]

Can someone give me a very short synopsis or point me to the thread to understand what the "preset name issue" is?

The issue is that presets saved within a UA plug-in's own GUI don't get recalled the next time you open that DP project.

However, this is SO easy to address. Just save a preset as a DP user preset. End of problem.
In fact I save every plug-in or VI setting as a DP user preset.

[RROY]

Another work around is to use the VST version of UAD2 plugins. They do not have the same issue as AU version. From what I gather the problem is in the way DP handles AU plugins. Although, it is odd that only UAD2 exhibits this problem with DP.

[towerproductions]

Can someone give me a very short synopsis or point me to the thread to understand what the "preset name issue" is?

The issue is that presets saved within a UA plug-in's own GUI don't get recalled the next time you open that DP project.

However, this is SO easy to address. Just save a preset as a DP user preset. End of problem.
In fact I save every plug-in or VI setting as a DP user preset.

I am not always saving new presets, nor do I want to. Many times if I am in hurry I will just call up a stock UA preset as many of them are very good. This issue happens without any editing or saving as a new preset . Call up any stock preset in any UAD plugin and don't change anything, the name will be there in the GUI as long as the project is open. Close the project and reopen it and the name now shows up as default.

I should not have to rename a preset if nothing has changed in it. MOTU should just fix this issue in an update and then that would be the end of the problem.

[Basstrup]

For the satellite you will most likely need a FireWire PCI card so it will sit on it's own FW bus - check http://www.uaudio.com/support/uad/satellite-support - scroll down on thae page, there they state the compatible FW cards for macs.

My personal experience is, no problem with UAD plugins and DP. They all work beautifully. BUT originally I got a Satellite - I liked the idea of portability and FW over using a PCIe slot. I also got the recommended SIIG NN-FW0012-S1 FW PCIe card, however even sitting on it's own FW bus the mac regularly lost connection to the Satellite - and all the plugins stops working as the authorization is "gone". I got the dreaded -38 and -98 aud errors making the Satellite useless. After a couple of RMAs and some nudging at NAMM UA agreed to swop my Satellite to a PCIe card. And ever since everything has worked beautifully.

I recently added a UA apollo quad to my rig (mac 3.1 - 2 x MOTU 1296 - 2 x MOTU 896 - 1 x MOTU 24i) - attached to a FW800 port on the FW800 PCIe card the apollo runs with no issues.

After my experience with the Satellite I got my vendor to agree that they would take back the apollo within 30 days if I would experience any similar issues as with the Satellite. I would highly recommend you do the same.

[kgdrum]

I was under the impression that an Octo was required for use with the nMpro while that's true for the pcie cards it's not the case with the UA satellite,see this:


Quote:
Originally Posted by nst7 View Post
It appears this problem is indeed with the UAD PCIe cards. Apparently, the Satellites are okay.
Hi all,

That's correct - FireWire Satellites work great with the new Mac Pros with the Apple Thunderbolt to FireWire adapter.

The OCTO PCIe card is required for that computer and can be used with a supported Thunderbolt to PCIe expansion chassis. The SOLO, DUO and QUAD cards are not compatible.

There's complete compitability info on our website here:

UAD Compatibility
UAD-2 (PCIe format) Support Page

Cheers!

-GK
Gannon Kashiwa

[James Steele]

Right... I have a DUO which shall never make the leap. As well as MOTU PCIe interfaces, which shall also never make the leap. But hey... I got some good use out of them and with my hexcore update to my MacPro4,1 which turns it more or less into a 5,1, I'll be okay for a year or more longer.

[waitsongs]

Adding my two cents on the Satellite firewire issues... I have a Quad attached to a PCIe firewire bus card on my 2008 MacPro (my firewire 828mk3 runs on the other firewire bus), and I sometimes have disconnect problems during a heavy mix. With less complicated sessions I rarely have problems, and on my 2011 Macbook Pro, I don't think I've ever had a disconnect, even with the same heavy mix that would disconnect on my MacPro.

I opted for the Satellite for portability and the ability to use it on both my laptop and MacPro, so I put up with the random disconnects, even though they can be frustrating. Overall, I love having the Satellite.

About size... get the biggest one you can afford, since I find it fairly easy to max out my Quad, particularly when working at higher sample rates.