UAD Amp pedal plugins - best bang for buck amp sims?

Ruby, Dream 65 and Lion now available as plugins. 

I imagine within 6 months you will be able to get the whole lot in one of their super ultra mega bundles for £50.

monquixote said:

I imagine within 6 months you will be able to get the whole lot in one of their super ultra mega bundles for £50.

Usually I’d agree, but does it make sense for them whilst the hardware is also available?

Can see them eventually included in their most expensive bundles.

It always seemed like only a matter of time.

I’ve just been trying them out. They are very good. If only they would run in the Apollo console. 

guitaraj said:

I’ve just been trying them out. They are very good. If only they would run in the Apollo console. 

I’ve seen a few people saying this. What am I missing here?

I’ve never owned a UA interface, but understand they handle some of the plugin processing. Computers progress much faster than interfaces do though - I’m guessing if you have an old computer it’s an issue, otherwise being Native is surely a huge plus?

jamesguitar said:

monquixote said:

I imagine within 6 months you will be able to get the whole lot in one of their super ultra mega bundles for £50.

Usually I’d agree, but does it make sense for them whilst the hardware is also available?

Can see them eventually included in their most expensive bundles.

I'm not sure, they seem happy to devalue their brand like giving away plugins free with plugin boutique that were previously £200 and doing £50 bundles that contain what would normally cost several thousand pounds. 

This kind of makes me think of them as the plugin version of DFS and so I wouldn't buy anything off them full price.

monquixote said:

jamesguitar said:

monquixote said:

I imagine within 6 months you will be able to get the whole lot in one of their super ultra mega bundles for £50.

Usually I’d agree, but does it make sense for them whilst the hardware is also available?

Can see them eventually included in their most expensive bundles.

I'm not sure, they seem happy to devalue their brand like giving away plugins free with plugin boutique that were previously £200 and doing £50 bundles that contain what would normally cost several thousand pounds. 

This kind of makes me think of them as the plugin version of DFS and so I wouldn't buy anything off them full price.

Waves, iZotope and Plugin Alliance have had so much success with this strategy that it’s not surprising other companies would follow. I think it ultimately works out well for the consumer; if you want something and you’re well off, then you’ll likely buy it straight away at full price. If you’re more budget conscious then you’ll wait it out.

I'm prepared to stick my neck out and speculate that to become known as "the plugin version of DFS" was not one of the UAD marketing manager's strategic goals.

Basher said:

I'm prepared to stick my neck out and speculate that to become known as "the plugin version of DFS" was not one of the UAD marketing manager's strategic goals.

Department of Financial Services?

I am far from familiar with the world of plugins but as an occasional purchaser but seems to me if you want it right now you pay the ticket price or small deal offer. Then a few times a year they do a big roll up bundle offer.

i presume these plugins require one of their interfaces

Jez6345789 said:

I am far from familiar with the world of plugins but as an occasional purchaser but seems to me if you want it right now you pay the ticket price or small deal offer. Then a few times a year they do a big roll up bundle offer.

i presume these plugins require one of their interfaces

So I got a email last night saying I could upgrade my UAD bundle for $199.

jamesguitar said:

So I got a email last night saying I could upgrade my UAD bundle for $199.

Upgrade includes all three of these amp software versions (Ruby, Lion and Dream 65), plus another 7 of their best newly ported plugins (including Topline Vocal suite, Ampex tape, Manley Variable Mu comp, Helios Preamp, SSL channel strips and Bus Comps etc).

monquixote said:

jamesguitar said:

So I got a email last night saying I could upgrade my UAD bundle for $199.

Upgrade includes all three of these amp software versions (Ruby, Lion and Dream 65), plus another 7 of their best newly ported plugins (including Topline Vocal suite, Ampex tape, Manley Variable Mu comp, Helios Preamp, SSL channel strips and Bus Comps etc).

That was exactly why I was advising against buying one for £250

Just trying out the Lion on the 14-day trial. Wow....I'd never tried the pedal but this really good. I can't attest to accuracy because I've never played or recorded a real plexi but it nails what I would hope that would sound like.

Sounds epic through the Laney LFR212 too. Not sure I could bring myself to gig with a laptop but the plug-in has definitely got me thinking about buying the Lion pedal.

jamesguitar said:

monquixote said:

jamesguitar said:

So I got a email last night saying I could upgrade my UAD bundle for $199.

Upgrade includes all three of these amp software versions (Ruby, Lion and Dream 65), plus another 7 of their best newly ported plugins (including Topline Vocal suite, Ampex tape, Manley Variable Mu comp, Helios Preamp, SSL channel strips and Bus Comps etc).

That was exactly why I was advising against buying one for £250

I run a commercial studio, so already had some of the UAD plugins. If I didn’t then I’d probably go for the standard 3 plugin bundle (and get all three amp sims for £250). 

They sound and feel more like the original amps than the Neural etc equivalents. The Neural stuff is great too though.

PFAllen2 said:

jamesguitar said:

monquixote said:

jamesguitar said:

So I got a email last night saying I could upgrade my UAD bundle for $199.

Upgrade includes all three of these amp software versions (Ruby, Lion and Dream 65), plus another 7 of their best newly ported plugins (including Topline Vocal suite, Ampex tape, Manley Variable Mu comp, Helios Preamp, SSL channel strips and Bus Comps etc).

That was exactly why I was advising against buying one for £250

I run a commercial studio, so already had some of the UAD plugins. If I didn’t then I’d probably go for the standard 3 plugin bundle (and get all three amp sims for £250). 

They sound and feel more like the original amps than the Neural etc equivalents. The Neural stuff is great too though.

@monquixote @jamesguitar 

As experienced UAD plugin user (and buyers),is the current bundle deal the best vaue proposition or is there likley to be a Black Friday/Cyber Monday promo which works better?

You certainly need to check around, you can buy the Galaxy Echo/Dim D/CE-1 plugins for £99+£74+£74 as discounted seperates or at £99 as the classic FX bundle, at the moment.

PFAllen2 said:

jamesguitar said:

monquixote said:

jamesguitar said:

So I got a email last night saying I could upgrade my UAD bundle for $199.

Upgrade includes all three of these amp software versions (Ruby, Lion and Dream 65), plus another 7 of their best newly ported plugins (including Topline Vocal suite, Ampex tape, Manley Variable Mu comp, Helios Preamp, SSL channel strips and Bus Comps etc).

That was exactly why I was advising against buying one for £250

I run a commercial studio, so already had some of the UAD plugins. If I didn’t then I’d probably go for the standard 3 plugin bundle (and get all three amp sims for £250). 

They sound and feel more like the original amps than the Neural etc equivalents. The Neural stuff is great too though.

@monquixote @jamesguitar 

As experienced UAD plugin user (and buyers),is the current bundle deal the best vaue proposition or is there likley to be a Black Friday/Cyber Monday promo which works better?

You certainly need to check around, you can buy the Galaxy Echo/Dim D/CE-1 plugins for £99+£74+£74 as discounted seperates or at £99 as the classic FX bundle, at the moment.

I suspect there will be a massive bundle deal on Black Friday if you can hang on, but they seem to regularly have pretty good deals and once you are on the train they seem to hit you with new offers.

What I would say is that as plugins I would prioritise Fab Filter and Sound Toys over UAD although all are excellent those are always my go tos.

I got a £25 'thanks' coupon when I upgraded my SSL plugins the other day - tbh I would have been annoyed if I didn't, because it made the Ultimate 13 upgrade £174 (which includes the native SSL stuff, but I ended up ahead by about £15). That's five new plugins for me - the three guitar pedal emulations plus the Topline vocal stuff, so net £34.80 per plugin is very good. Some of you who have been holding out on some of the other stuff that's in the bundle might do even better.

Black Friday will likely have good bundles but it's rare to get anything for less than about £30 per plugin in the end for the stuff you need (at least in my experience anyway), except in the really big bundles, so do the maths and see if it works out... lately their best multi-plugin offers have been from curated lists of stuff, the newest things are always excluded. The issue is that sometimes the price-slashed bundles will overlap a lot with what you already have, so you need to figure out if they're actually worthwhile or if a Custom bundle on a deal is a better way forward.

I have the lion pedal and it's excellent going straight in to my desk monitors. It just lacks a few switching options. I'm sure they will eventually have the Dumble, the tweed and 5150 as a plugin too, so I'll be holding off buying any of their pedals for a while.

So, I wasted a lot of today messing around with the Lion plugin, comparing it to Neural Amp Modeller, Tonocracy, and Neural DSP Soldano (I have some presets voiced like a Plexi).

Ultimately, while I liked it a lot, there's no way on earth that I would fork out £149 (let alone the "full" price) when I already have the other stuff - it's just too close (for my purposes anyway). They're all slightly different but not sure I'd say which is better. Ultimately, the Neural DSP plugins are half the price (when also on sale) and also have graphic EQ, pedals, reverb, delay etc. etc. included, so are much more useful to me - I don't want a ton of different plugins, and the Lion would necessitate this. Neural can also be used standalone. Further, NAM and Tonocracy are completely free. The latter is crazy good for the asking price of zilch.

Lion does sound very good though - YMMV? 

steveh said:

So, I wasted a lot of today messing around with the Lion plugin, comparing it to Neural Amp Modeller, Tonocracy, and Neural DSP Soldano (I have some presets voiced like a Plexi).

Ultimately, while I liked it a lot, there's no way on earth that I would fork out £149 (let alone the "full" price) when I already have the other stuff - it's just too close (for my purposes anyway). They're all slightly different but not sure I'd say which is better. Ultimately, the Neural DSP plugins are half the price (when also on sale) and also have graphic EQ, pedals, reverb, delay etc. etc. included, so are much more useful to me - I don't want a ton of different plugins, and the Lion would necessitate this. Neural can also be used standalone. Further, NAM and Tonocracy are completely free. The latter is crazy good for the asking price of zilch.

Lion does sound very good though - YMMV? 

Yeh, I’ve had a play with them also and I do think they are not a whole lot better compared to other options. I’ll likely use them but I feel as a plugin your aim is usually to get the final sound easily in one plugin and that’s where the Neural plugins are great with the extra built in fx and the mic options are better also.

as a few people mention I do think that they break up fairly quickly and maybe a good idea would be for the audible volume to compensate when you change the amp gain level so you can change the gain structure while keeping the volume consistent.

I think these plugins will be useful for finalising sounds on productions or having some nice tones for playing but I also don’t love the presets included.

I have the subscription to UA so will use them but not sure they will be first choice. Currently that’ll be My kemper or Neural plugins. Maybe as I use them more, building a gig like rig on my DAW will be useful for tweaking after recording. 

steveh said:

So, I wasted a lot of today messing around with the Lion plugin, comparing it to Neural Amp Modeller, Tonocracy, and Neural DSP Soldano (I have some presets voiced like a Plexi).

Ultimately, while I liked it a lot, there's no way on earth that I would fork out £149 (let alone the "full" price) when I already have the other stuff - it's just too close (for my purposes anyway). They're all slightly different but not sure I'd say which is better. Ultimately, the Neural DSP plugins are half the price (when also on sale) and also have graphic EQ, pedals, reverb, delay etc. etc. included, so are much more useful to me - I don't want a ton of different plugins, and the Lion would necessitate this. Neural can also be used standalone. Further, NAM and Tonocracy are completely free. The latter is crazy good for the asking price of zilch.

Lion does sound very good though - YMMV? 

Just seen UAD now offer much cheaper bundles on select products and the amp sims are included in these. These are their new ‘UAD Select’ bundles as opposed to a temporary sale. You can also include different plugins in the bundle (Lexicon 224 Reverb, Sound City Studios room sim, 1176 compressor etc). Price -

2 for $79
3 for $109

Lewy said:

Just trying out the Lion on the 14-day trial. Wow....I'd never tried the pedal but this really good. I can't attest to accuracy because I've never played or recorded a real plexi but it nails what I would hope that would sound like.

Sounds epic through the Laney LFR212 too. Not sure I could bring myself to gig with a laptop but the plug-in has definitely got me thinking about buying the Lion pedal.

For the trial do you need to have a UA & iLok account?

Maybe I'm missing something but I really don't get the love for these. I have owned the Dream 65 pedal and sold it after a month or so because it was only ok for me.

I have tried the demos for the current plugin versions and they are no better than the many other options already available. Of course, YMMV.

I agree I thought the only saving grace for the Dream 65 was the verb sound.
It had digital clipping artefacts that you can hear in every YouTube demo too. Very disappointing.

I might try the lion and tweed plugin if I can get a free trial though 

susbemol said:

Maybe I'm missing something but I really don't get the love for these. I have owned the Dream 65 pedal and sold it after a month or so because it was only ok for me.

I have tried the demos for the current plugin versions and they are no better than the many other options already available. Of course, YMMV.

I was seriously thinking about getting the Woodrow ‘55 pedal earlier this year. But watching Psionic Audio on YouTube test a couple of the other pedals in the range, it put me off. When changing settings/turning knobs I could barely hear any difference in the tones. 

Just realised @PeachyJack is demoing the plugins for Universal Audio. Nice one!

https://youtu.be/04CEltg1fJc?si=9RGeXU-QPByanbXN