Gear Slut Seeks Advice

[aaroncomp]

Nah, I'm not really a gear slut (only in my mind). But, I am interested in possibly getting a product to handle some plugins to allow my DAW to run smoother, etc. etc.

Currently I have read a little about the UAD-1, Powercore, Waves APA, and Muse Receptor. I currently own both VST and Dx plugins, some which are Waves. Rack vs. PCI options - I love rack gear since I see it, and I know it's not covered in dust, etc., but I like the idea of having it in my computer (more portable, no cables). I've read many praising the UAD-1. The Waves APA would work with my existing Waves plugins, which is good, but I've heard some prefer the UAD plugins better, and this would add to my plugin selection. I haven't read much about the Powercore and the opinions people have of it, but it looks appealing. Finally, the Muse Receptor is nice in that it offers the option to run any VST or VSTi. However, it cannot run Dx, offers no plugins of it's own, and gives me the feeling that compatibilty issues would frequently arise.

A few quick specs on my current setup: P4 3GHz, 1gig DDR, Raid0 Raptors + 4 storage drives, Audigy 2 soundcard (yeah yeah); Firepod, RNC, MP20 Pres via Audition 1.5.


So, let me know what you all think about these options and any others you know of. Thanks.

 

[noisewreck]

I have a UAD-1. It's got great EQs and compressors. In fact I use the EX plugin (combined 5-band EQ and a rather savage compressor) as my main channel insert in Cubase SX, rather than the SX EQs. Also, the Nigel plugin (a guitar FX/amp/speaker simulator) is rather good, although it only works in mono, and if you put it on stereo tracks, they'll be summed to mono. I love the 1176LN and the LA2A compressor/limiters. They don't sound like the real things, but are lovely in their own right. The 1176 does great things when driven hard, adding it's own slight distortion that does wonders for bass and drums, whereas the LA2A is rather transparent, and you can push it pretty far w/o adverse effects.

However, when it comes to reverbs and delay/chorus stuff it's really lackluster. Some people rave about the new plate reverb that came out not too long ago, but I haven't tried it myself. However, the Dreamverb is anything but dreamy. In fact, a reverb has no right to sound this bad, considering it's running on a dedicated hardware.

So, my suggestion is if you're looking for great sounding EQs and compressors, with some... er... vintagelike flavor, then I'd say go for it, if you're looking for great reverbs, filters look at...

The Powercore also has really good EQs and compressors, but where it really shines is where UAD-1 fails. It's got great filters, delay/chorus/phaser stuff, the reverbs are much much better, it's got a version of Virus running on it, not to mention overall, better third party support. So, I'd say the UAD-1 and the Powercore would complement each other rather nicely.

I don't have experience with the other stuff that you mention, although they sound good in theory.

Another option (and perhaps cheaper... depending on which option you look at) is to use another computer to run the VSTs on. If you're using Cubase, then you could use System Link to link both computers.