Subject:Pro 6.0a and UAD-1 Best Advice

Posted by: Paulie

Date:8/2/2006 1:41:13 PM

Can anybody advise of the best version of UAD-1 software to be using with 6.0a ? I have found UAD-1VST FX to be unstable with 6.0a. I cant really identify where it all started going wrong.

Can anybody recap on the issues and give some best advice?

Thanks in advance
Paulie

Subject:RE: Pro 6.0a and UAD-1 Best Advice

Reply by: billybk

Date:8/2/2006 2:07:30 PM

Hey paulie,
What sorts of UAD-1 related issues are you having with ACID Pro 6a? I have (2) UAD-1 cards that I regularly use with ACID Pro 6 and the only issue I have is native CPU munching. Which only really manifests itself, once I start using 8 or more plugins, in a project. Sometimes, I can use 12 or 14 plugins and not get any or very little native CPU munching. I typicially use the ol' disable/re-enable trick from the UAD-1' s Performance Meter, during playback to reclaim the CPU. This has also been the case though, even in ACID Pro 5. Other than that, the UAD-1 plugins work pretty much flawlessly, for me, in my ACID and Sound Forge projects.

Cheers,

Billy Buck

P.S. It would be helpful if you fill out your system specs, in your personal profile.

Subject:RE: Pro 6.0a and UAD-1 Best Advice

Reply by: Erik-Nygaard

Date:8/3/2006 5:26:30 AM

Hey Billy

Interesting that you have no problems in Sound Forge.
I've experienced that parts of a processed wave may have bits missing. This is after using plugins like Neve, Pultec Pro, Fairchild in a chain. I've no problems with single plugins (and no problems with Acid-6 at all)

Subject:RE: Pro 6.0a and UAD-1 Best Advice

Reply by: billybk

Date:8/3/2006 6:31:24 AM

Interesting that you have no problems in Sound Forge.
I've experienced that parts of a processed wave may have bits missing. This is after using plugins like Neve, Pultec Pro, Fairchild in a chain. I've no problems with single plugins (and no problems with Acid-6 at all)


I routinely use UAD-1 FX chains, in SF, not necessarily the specific Neve, Pultec Pro, Faichild combo that you refer to, but I have used various other combinations, such as:

Precision Mastering EQ & Precision Mastering Limiter
Precision Mastering EQ, Mastering Multi-Band, Mastering Limiter
Pultec EQ, LA2A & Precision Mastering Limiter
Neve 1073 & Precision Mastering Limiter

I'll try the specific Neve, Pultec Pro, Fairchild
combo that you refer to. When you say, I've experienced that parts of a processed wave may have bits missing, what exactly do you mean? That there are actual slices, of the rendered wave file visually and audibly missing?

Cheers,

Billy Buck

Subject:RE: Pro 6.0a and UAD-1 Best Advice

Reply by: Erik-Nygaard

Date:8/4/2006 1:26:48 AM

The last part of a cymbal hit may be missing, no audio in a small slice of the wave.
Its not a consistent thing.

Subject:RE: Pro 6.0a and UAD-1 Best Advice

Reply by: billybk

Date:8/4/2006 5:17:28 AM

The last part of a cymbal hit may be missing, no audio in a small slice of the wave.
Its not a consistent thing.

I had a situation several years ago that affected my renders when using UAD-1 plugins. I would get intermittent "gaps" in my audio that were so small you may not hear it in a real busy mix. it did not happen in every render, maybe 6 out of 10, but it was maddening, as this occurred over several months & I could not figure out why. It only happened when I had multiple UAD-1 plugins, on the master bus, of a audio host app (SONAR/ACID) or in Sound Forge. If you opened the file, in Sound Forge and zoomed in to 256 samples you could clearly see very small "gaps" , (anywhere from 40 to 80 samples), in the audio file. I would get several of these over a 2-3 minute length wave file.
I consulted with Cakewalk tech support, UAD-1 tech support, Sonic Foundry tech support and the various DAW sites looking for answers. No one could figure out why it was happening. Until finally, I took a look at my system IRQ configuration and lo & behold, both my UAD-1's were sharing IRQ's with other devices (USB Host Controller & Audio card). Even though when I first installed my cards I made sure they were not sharing, somehow they began sharing after I installed subsequent devcies & drivers. I found out that Windows will & does re-allocate IRQ assigments, as needed, to accomodate new devices and driver intalls. So what was not sharing yesterday could be sharing today. Once I got my UAD-1 cards on their own IRQ's (I ended up having them share their own IRQ), the "gaping" on renders completely disappeared.
The UAD-1 card needs to have a uninterrupted flow of streaming audio data to do gapfree renders. If it is sharing an IRQ, that flow can be interrupted by that other device right when it is rendering, which causes the "gaps" to occur.

Cheers,

Billy Buck

Subject:RE: Pro 6.0a and UAD-1 Best Advice

Reply by: Paulie

Date:8/7/2006 2:24:13 PM

Apolies for delay and thanks for your help

BillyBk. I just went into a small 6.0a project and added Realverb Pro VST v4.0. Instant crash. No fluke tried it a second time with same results. I have been sticking to DX versions on 4.0.

Are you running on latest version of UAD-1 plugs? Are you running VST's only or do you still have your v4.0DX versions loaded and working ?


Thanks
Paulie

Subject:RE: Pro 6.0a and UAD-1 Best Advice

Reply by: billybk

Date:8/7/2006 4:44:30 PM

"Are you running on latest version of UAD-1 plugs? Are you running VST's only or do you still have your v4.0DX versions loaded and working ?"


Yes, I've been using the VST versions exclusively, since I upgraded to ACID Pro 5, back in November 2004. I no longer even have the DX versions installed. I am currently using the latest v4.3 and have purchased every plugin released, so far. The Neve 1073 EQ is probably my favorite plugin (DSP or native) right now. It makes just about anything sound better.


BillyBk. I just went into a small 6.0a project and added Realverb Pro VST v4.0. Instant crash. No fluke tried it a second time with same results. I have been sticking to DX versions on 4.0.


That is really weird, as I have never had a UAD-1 VST plugin crash ACID Pro 6, in any of my projects. With my (2) UAD-1 cards I can sometimes have 12,14,16 or more DSP VST plugins going, at a time. Just for grins, I've had (4) Roland RE-201 Space Echo's going, at one time while playing through one, via input monitoring, in realtime.
You get an instant crash, as soon as you add a UAD-1 VST plugin to an ACID track, as an FX? Just by adding it? It could be that your UAD-1 VST installation is corrupted somehow.



Billy Buck

Subject:RE: Pro 6.0a and UAD-1 Best Advice

Reply by: Paulie

Date:8/8/2006 2:48:12 PM

BillyBK

Thanks for your help. I suspect that I have been mixing DX FX with VST. So I removed all of the UAD-1 FX and started again and i'm now up to 4.3 VST.

Its a shame as all my old projects use DX but i'll have to live with that.

Acid still reports the DX effects as being on the machine (which they are not) I need to find a way of completely removing all traces of the UAD DX FX. I'll start another thread for that

Thanks
Paul