Caisson wrote: One for the Uad users, is this product one of high quality? do the plugins really off that vintage tube/analog sound to vocals and instruments.

They help add some of those qualities, yeah. Mostly, the UAD-1 gives you access to some great-sounding, old-school compressor emulations without added host CPU stress. Personally, I love the card. I think most owners do.

TWO..Im using a Grace 101 on a Rode NTK going into a dbx 166xl compressor, and i've been listening to alot of other recording, and alot of the vocals sound full...... Now I know the ntk is a tube mic, but the Grace is not......so i've been think of chucking the dbx and the Grace and getting a Ua 610

The UA610 will only give you a tube preamp. If you want the 610 pre (which can sound great on the right stuff) coupled with a UA compressor look at the LA-610 (has an LA2A) or 6176 (has an 1176LN).

The NTK is a decent mic, but it may not be the best one for your voice. Have you test-driven others?

In your (RO) opinion would this give me a thicker sound going into recording? and would this be a substantial upgrade? and back to question 1.....will the UAD be able to offer me thicker sound plugin wise?

A tube in the chain doesn't automatically translate into a thicker sound.

My suggestion: Get the UAD-1. Play around with adding the Pultec and 1176 or Fairchild to your vocal track. If this doesn't take you where you want to go (it may), then test-drive as many hardware mic-preamp-compressor options as you can.

Don't be fooled. The UA LA610 may have the same 610 preamp that is shared with other UA products but the compressor on the LA610 is only based on the LA2A. It is not an LA2A nor do I think it is close to the LA2A as other gear such as the Manley El-Op, or many of the other LA2A type clones.

Thickness is as much the source, the mic, ect.. of the entire audio signal chain than it is just the mic pre and/or compressor you choose. And since most people don't have a clue as to how to use a compressor/limiter, when they do use it, most of the time things end up sounding worse or even thinner than before.

AudioGaff wrote: Don't be fooled. The UA LA610 may have the same 610 preamp that is shared with other UA products but the compressor on the LA610 is only based on the LA2A.

Yeah, this is true actually. It's still an opto FWIW.

I believe the 6176 does have an actual updated 1176LN though.

I was leaning toward the uad-1 at least I can try it out to see what it offers.
I can try that for a while and save up for at least a better pre-amp. The grace is clean but I think a great river or an a-737 would sound better for over all use. also I think a U87 through a Great river/UA/avalon 737 would give me the thicker sound that im looking for.

a chrispick....does the dsp allow you to record with the plug in activated. or is it just for processing later on

Caisson wrote:
....does the dsp allow you to record with the plug in activated. or is it just for processing later on

The UAD-1 was never designed nor intended to be used, in a live input monitoring context, because of it's inherent I/O latency, which is twice your system latency. In addition to that, it is cumulative, IOW, each additional UAD-1 plugin, in an FX chain adds to that latency:

Example 1:

Project @ 2.9msec with (2) UAD-1 plugin in an FX chain:

2.9msec + 5.8msec (1st plugin) + 5.8msec (2nd plugin) = 14.5msec

Example 2:

Project @ 1.5msec with (2) UAD-1 plugins, in a FX chain:

1.5msec + 3.0msec (1st plugin) + 3.0msec (2nd plugin) = 7.5msec

Even (1) plugin @ 1.5msec will give you a total 4.5msec plugin latency, at best.

When used in a mixing situation (where the UAD-1 is best suited), your host app will automatically adjust for any inherent latency via PDC. When using input monitoring there is no host PDC and the inherent cumulative latencies can be very problematic when tracking.

Other than the Nigel amp sim, it is best to use the PPI's on previously recorded tracks, during the mixing phase. That way your host app can automatically handle any PDC issues. If you must you use plugins when tracking, it is best to use native non-PDC type plugins or better yet to use an outboard FX and leave the UAD-1, for when it's time to actually mix.

Cheers,

Billy Buck