Brief Summary
The availability of native UAD plugins without a subscription means that a whole new group of potential users will be checking out UAD plugins. If Julian Rodgers had to choose five from the range, which bundle would be the best choice for him based on these must have plugins?
Going Deeper
Of course if you get the Diamond Edition bundle, you don’t have to choose, it is after all a bundle. But it’s a useful exercise to see which bundle best suits me, and by implication how your choice would differ.
The Diamond Edition bundle consists of a selection of audio plugins and instruments. As it contains all the Native plugins currently available here’s the list. Keep in mind that the collections offer multiple plugins, for example the LA-2A collection features three revisions of that hardware optical tube compressor. So while there are 21 products included, the total number of plugins is more than that.
Diamond Bundle Contents
Pure Plate Reverb
Brigade Chorus
Studio D Chorus
Galaxy Tape Echo
Waterfall Rotary Speaker
Instruments
Moog Minimoog
PolyMAX Synth
Opal Morphing Synth
Ravel Grand Piano
Waterfall B3
Plugins
Teletronix LA 2A Collection
UA 1176 Collection
API 2500 Bus Compressor
API Vision Channel Strip
Century Tube Channel Strip
Hitsville EQ Collection
Pultec Passive EQ Collection
Oxide Tape Recorder
Studer A800 Tape Machine
Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb
Hitsville Reverb Chambers
The three bundles on offer are the all-in Diamond Edition, the Mix Edition focuses on audio plugins and the Creative Edition contains a mix of virtual instruments and audio plugins. To find out the details of each click the button below.
So looking at the available content we see a good spread of audio plugins and instruments, Compression is well represented, as you would hope with UAD, likewise EQ. A couple of channel strips, tape emulation, and effects. All of these are available on UAD DSP and will be familiar to Apollo users with the exception the Waterfall Rotary Speaker Leslie emulation. But when we look to the instruments these are all plugins which have never been available as UAD DSP plugins, though will be familiar to LUNA users.
Not all the UAD DSP plugins are available as Native versions. I don’t know whether this is the plan, assuming that there is an appreciable amount of work needed to port DSP plugins to Native I’d imagine that the slowest selling DSP plugins won’t come over but I think it’s fair to assume that all the popular stuff will eventually come over, with the possible exception of guitar amps as the latency performance is a major selling point of those. Of the DSP plugins which aren’t available natively I do miss some of the UAD-only plugins which aren’t available natively elsewhere, for example the Manley plugins so I’ll watch with interest to see whether they come across in time.
So, on to my selection, my top 5 which I expect to actually use in the context of my existing go-to plugins…
1176 Collection
I use Avid Pro Compressor as my utility channel EQ, I use Softube’s CL1B as an AAX DSP optical compressor but for an 1176 I use BF76 or Softube’s FET compressor, both of which are fine plugins but having the UAD 1176 available I just know this is going to find its way into my mixes. The 1176 is as popular as it is because it’s just so useful. The excesses of all buttons in get the headlines but actually, it’s capable of very gentle compression and it sounds great. My default is the familiar all-black Rev E, the blue Rev A does what you’d expect but it is the more modern AE that I’m into at the moment because if its 2:1 ratio. You have to have an 1176 and if you’re going to have an 1176 plugin it should probably be these.
Waterfall B3
I’ve said quite a lot about my Nord since I bought it last year and a lot of the reason I bought it was for live work, including lots of tonewheel organs. This has led me to focus on Hammond sounds more than I ever have and I’ve come to appreciate the subtleties of the tonewheel organ more than ever. I like Nord’s organ engine, it makes a very attractive and supremely playable sound but when I heard the first demo of Waterfall I had to admit that it sounded better. One things which really works is the Leslie effect, a notoriously complex effect, which on the Nord sounds great over speakers but doesn’t do quite as well over headphones. This seems better, Probably not news to UAD who have released it as an audio plugin. I can see me replacing live takes from the Nord with Waterfall.
API 2500 Bus Compressor
I’ve tried so many bus compressors but I keep coming back to an SSL style bus compressor. I like that compressor but I also know that I use it because I know it so well. I occasionally try something else but usually go back, I think it’s lack of familiarity. This is why I don’t use Fairchild plugins. One bus compressor I’ve used and really like but haven’t invested the time in getting really comfortable with is the API 2500. It’s different from my usual SSL (or sometimes Neve) choice and it has some really interesting features in the control set. For example the Thrust circuit, which isn’t as exciting as it sounds but does an excellent job of filtering the detector in a useful way to balance the sensitivity across the spectrum. Getting to know this properly is one for my ‘to do’ list.
Galaxy Tape Echo
Capturing the character of hardware is the thing which UAD have built their reputation on. While audio engineers might debate the relative merits of compressors and preamps the audio equipment with character which listeners really notice, beyond instruments and their associated amplifiers, are probably the pieces which are stylistically associated with eras or genres, or both. The Roland Space Echo is one such piece which, while objectively terrible is aesthetically rather wonderful and is closely associated with specific genres. I’m a big fan of music which references this gear so if I can dub-ready wobbly echoes dripping in atrocious (but rather great) spring reverb which by definition stays within the genre, I’m all in!
Pultec Passive EQ Collection
Lastly I’ll have to go with the Pultec Passive EQ Collection. While you get the filter and midrange all I’m interest in is the EQP-1A. For smooth brightness and big lazy bass it’s everyone’s first choice. I love the Manley Massive Passive but even when I’m on an Apollo and have it I still use the Pultec for top and bottom, it’s familiar, it’s quick and nothing does what it does better. There are lots of very serviceable Pultec EQ plugins out there but this is the one I judge them against. 100% on my list.
So there are my top 5. Yours might be different. Of course if you are a Diamond bundle owner you don’t have to choose but it’s worth mentioning that 4 of my 5 are in the Mix Edition bundle and the one which isn’t is Waterfall, which I particularly like for its Leslie. The Waterfall Rotary Speaker plugin is also in the Mix Edition bundle so maybe what I should do is check out putting my Nord through that to see if I prefer it to the Nord’s Leslie effect.
Regardless, the new Native bundles - Diamond, Mix and Creative Editions bring some old favourites from their previous homes in DSP and Subscription environments out into the world of perpetual licensing. If those conditions previously ruled you out of UAD maybe it’s time to check them out.