Opinions on UAD vs Waves?

M

Madman Lorenzo

New member
Hello all.

An old man now returning to the home studio. Missed the hobby, but back in the mid 2000s had a semi-decent amateur studio setup on the go. Seems weird it's now so long ago! Anyone remember tweakheadz.com from back in the day?

Anyway, have some more money and time and looking to get back into the hobby, excitedly navigating my way around the evolved world of home studios. I tell you what, you younger folks have a great landscape to learn in these days. Looking forward to picking things up again.

Getting the shopping list together and looking at plugins reminds me of an age-old question: UAD or Waves?

Back in the day I was lucky enough to buy two UAD PCI (yes PCI) cards; the Mackie limited edition version with the LA2A and 1176 limiter. Remarkably, I still have these (and fully intend to use them!) Sentiment at the time though was Waves were jostling with UAD for top position. Is that still the case? I had my finger on the pulse of things when Waves had the V-series come out, although never did own them.

Nowadays Waves gear (some of which I still recall seeing) seems exceedingly cheap where UAD are, well, seriously expensive.

Will be working on PC with Cubase, produce mostly soft rock and ambient. Any and all opinions on UAD vs Waves very much welcome. And hello to everyone out there! :)
 
As far as quality goes, they are neck and neck. If they are the pci instead of the pci-e cards that you have, you won't be able to use the newer versions of their plug-ins. There was a point when you traded in the original pci cards for the newer pci-e cards, but that was over a decade ago...

I've been out of it for a long time now, but waves was going to a subscription model last time I paid attention. So those will cost a monthly fee.

The uad stuff isn't subscription, but is useless when the hardware they run on becomes obsolete.

Pick your poison.
 
there are so many options now,
you don't have to run with only one mfg....

look at what you need first...

maybe a G Series SSL master compressor...

or maybe a simple RTA EQ of some kind...

if you hunt, you'll find individual plugs, usually on sale, that will fit the bill...
and that includes UA and Waves.



by them one at a time, and don't get caught up in 'plans' that give you way more than you really need.


also, a lot of new DAWS have native, built in VST's that are the equivalent of many 3rd party plugs,
could be you don't need any more than what's in the DAW
 
Thanks both, glad I'm hearing there's not much in it quality-wise.

My old UAD cards can still run, so that's the LA2A, 1176 and Pultec EQP1A available. From there I'll mix and match some Waves plugins (likely exploring the Neve and API range, although I remember being a bit "is this thing on??" about the Neve stuff. Years back though.

REMARKABLY IK have kept T-racks going! I have very fond memories of mastering (sort of) with that! That's a compulsory purchase, no matter what anyone thinks. Hehe.

I think I'll probably be sorted then after Cubase Artist 12.

Again thanks for that.
 
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