After four and a half years of being an industry standard DSP platform, Universal Audio's UAD-1 system was getting a little long in the tooth. While there were multiple versions of the card for desktop users and the portable UAD-Xpander, they all used a single, aging SHARC DSP.
Power users added multiple UAD-1 cards to their system, but in late 2006, the Neve 33609 compressor was released. It sounded amazing - but with one instance consuming an entire UAD-1 card, it was clearly time for a speed boost. Finally, the UAD-2 is shipping - powered by a new SHARC DSP with 2.5x the power of its predecessor.
The UAD-2 is also available in Duo and Quad models, with 2 and 4 DSPs on board respectively. These can be mixed and matched in any combination up to 4 cards in a single computer, offering a massive increase in horsepower over the UAD-1 platform. You can also connect up to 4 UAD-1 cards alongside up to 4 UAD-2 cards.
There are nine cards in the UAD-2 range, starting with the US$499 UAD-2 Solo through to the $1999 UAD-2 Nevana 128 with four DSPs, all the Neve plug-ins and a $100 voucher for more software.
Laptop users will notice that the ExpressCard-based UAD-Xpander solution is yet to receive an update to the new platform, but Universal Audio have announced that they are working on a solution.
As usual, generous crossgrade offers are available for existing customers, see this page for details.
For more information, please visit Universal Audio.
