UAD-1 and ProTools LE

[Motorbreath]

Hi there,

The advantages of ProTools TDM versus LE are not just track limitations and price, but the DSP cards for running plugins.

I know this could sound very elementary (my dear Watson), but could the UAD-1 be considered an "Accel Junior" card for PT LE? Isn't that what the Accel cards do? Everything I've read about the plugins and performance of the UAD-1 has been good.

What am I missing?

 

[bennychico11]

it's similar to what accel cards are used for, but you couldn't ever use it for PT LE or any PT system. Digi hardware ONLY is required to use Pro Tools.

 

[Motorbreath]

Thanks for the reply. Yep, I understand you still need Digi hardware to run ProTools. No prob there. But if I *add* a UAD-1 card to the system (that is, in addition to an MBox or 002R), it is basically doing what the Accel cards would do, right? Running plugins on the DSP of the card instead of consuming host resources?

Assuming the UAD-1 and ProTools can coexist (which according to the box, they can), does it only process the plugins that come with it, or can you off-load some of the work of the other PT plugins to it?

 

[bennychico11]

hmmm...looking at the Mackie site, it appears you have to get the VST-RTAS wrapper along with it to make it work. And in turn, no you will only be able to work with plugins that are VST ones in Pro Tools. Any of the RTAS plugins will only be processed on the CPU. I think because the UAD-1 only has support for VST/AU/Mas/DX plugins, in order to get it to work in LE you need the VST wrapper. Also, it does say that there is no TDM support, but some of the plugins appear to be TDM plugins as well and will probably just use the TDM cards for a TDM system...not the UAD-1 card. So the card wouldn't do any good in a TDM system.

so in short...for LE, yeah, looks like it should work, but you need the wrapper too

 

[xstatic]

The UAD card will only run the UAD plugins. All other plugins in a Pro Tools LE setup will still be run directly from your processor. The UAD is TDM'ish in the sense that those plugs will not add much strain to your CPU in comparison to native plugins, but you can't make the UAD card process something like the waves plugins for example.

 

[Motorbreath]

but you can't make the UAD card process something like the waves plugins for example.

That's the conclusion I was coming to. I have heard that the plugins that come with it are pretty killer, but that pretty much makes them killer plugins with a PCI dongle that happens to have DSP on it. Still, one guy I know here in my town that has the UAD-1 has four of them and and is loving it.

Thanks for the input everyone!