A worthy cause indeed...

Please consider supporting the Bob Moog foundation:

“Our mission of documenting, teaching and celebrating innovative thinking in electronic music has been our beacon as we narrowed our focus over the past year and began the momentous task of preserving Bob’s extensive archives.”

(Oh, and beware the opening salvo of rather “enthusiastic” Moog only music that starts playing when you load up the site…)

Happy Thanksgiving to all of our readers in the US!

Cheers.

I heard back from the support folks at Universal Audio on the 8-core MacPro issue. This is their response:

“We still warn users against the use of the UAD1e in the 8 core systems running Logic as the host application. There has not been any fix offered in the UAD v5.* software for UAD1e…only a fix for the ’spinning beachball’ problem noted in the UAD2.”

So there you have it.

My take? I’m still digging the card even with the increase in instability that accompanies instantiation of a UAD plug-in. The instability is not major for me as I run DP mostly; it’s just notably more than before. I can work around it for now.

The UAD2 seems to not have this problem. Hmmm……

So close, yet...

The current blow-out prices of UAD1e cards are attention getting. If you own an 8-core MacPro and are thinking of taking the plunge on the UAD1e, be aware of the following.

To recap: UAD is blowing out it’s stock of UAD1 & 1e cars. They are still honoring the vouchers that came with the cards, so you can buy an Express Pak for $299 and get a $100 voucher and, with the promo going on right now, you also get a $150 coupon when you register the card. That’s $250 for use at the UAD online store. (It’s like getting the card for $50 in my warped “stay broke forever” reasoning). With the expert pak you pay $599 and get a total of $900 vouchers and coupons.

Anyway, I have always been curious about the UAD line and figured with some of these sale prices + promos, it would be a good time to give the card / plugins a try and, if I like them, maybe upgrade next year to a UAD2. So I bought a UAD1e. Got it installed. Sound quality is good. DSP power not so much — there’s a reason the UAD2 came out — but enough to add some spice here and there.

My problem is stability.

Just a quick note. I’d like to increase readership and participation. If you’ve been following the blog (or are just here on a random visit) and like what you see, please consider:

• leaving a suggestion on what you would like to see covered in the future
• passing the site address on to others
• linking to the site
• leaving a comment
• signing up for the eventual newsletter (email addresses will NOT be sold, shared, or given out in anyway)

Also a quick update: Unfortunately, I have had to start moderating  comments because there is a constant stream of ‘bot messages that assault the site everyday. I’m pretty good about making sure things get posted fairly quickly however. As soon as I figure out how to install a ‘Captcha’ type verification system (a bit of a PIA IMHO but necessary I guess), I’ll do that and remove the moderation.

To everyone who has checked out subnoto::indico so far: Thanks and please continue!

cheers.

nk_e

UAD1 and UAD1e

I had read in various forums (forii?) that UAD customer support is first class. Well I sent an inquiry to them about the blow-out deals. I heard back from them in just a couple of hours and got a second response email in just a few minutes. Excellent.

Anyway, I wanted to make sure my math was right about the special offers. I received this response from UAD:

“You are correct in all your calculations… *($750 voucher with Express [Editor's note: I'm pretty sure he meant Expert] plus $150 coupon for new UAD1 purchase/reg and free upgrade for UAD1 – UAD2 plugins).

One last thing you forgot!!  If you register the UAD1e first… THEN register your UAD2 product you will get an ADDITIONAL cross-grade voucher for being an ‘existing UAD1 customer registering a UAD2 product’!! Purchase and register a UAD2 Solo you get an additional  $100 voucher… UAD2 Duo $150… UAD2 Quad $250.

A great time to purchase!”

I’ll say.

[EDIT 11/19: Note Corrections] So let’s get this right. Buy a UAD1e Express Pak for $299 and a UAD2 Solo for $499. Get a $100 voucher with the purchase plus a $150 coupon when you register the UAD1e.

Just finished listening to the 1st episode of the 5th season of a show carried on NPR called RadioLab. This is really inventive, interesting radio. It features modern sound design and production techniques and is always about something interesting.

This week, the subject was “Choice” and how we make it and why.

“Choice: We turn up the volume on the voices in our heads and try to make sense of the babble. On a journey around the country to understand how emotion and logic interact to guide us through our options, we ponder how we get through the million choices and decisions we make every day. Forget free will, some important decisions could come down to a steaming cup of coffee…”

Great radio and modern production techniques...

It was a fascinating hour and well worth the listen. And although they did not speak specifically to the choices made in a creative endeavor like music, the observations have interesting implications.

Check out the show here.