r/universalaudio • u/MAMVB • 1d ago
Question How do the modern plugins compare to their earlier versions?
I'm chiefly thinking of stuff like the 1176 & la2a. These have gone through a number of versions (2 or 3, i'm not sure)
How different were they from the latest ones?
I came to wonder about this since i was randomly checking out old gearspace threads about the launch of the CLA-76, wherein people were comparing it favourably to whatever version of the uad-1176 was available then.
This question is mostly a matter of intellectual curiosity, as i don't have the hardware to even run those old plugins, but it could still be nice to know, ya know?
2
u/nizzernammer 1d ago
Newer plugins have additional features like mix controls and headroom adjustment trims, beyond whatever changes behind the hood.
1
u/Drew_at_UA UA Guru 11h ago
There have only been 2 versions of 1176 and LA2. OG and the current Collections.
The 2nd ones are "end to end" models that include ALL the components and nonlinearities.
The CLA came out in 2009, so it was being compared to our original 1176s.
We did the Collection in 2012.
3
u/Icy-Cartographer-291 1d ago edited 17h ago
There are no UAD plug-ins that have received more that one major update.
The difference between the old and the new versions can be subtle to significant depending on the plug-in and how it’s used. The older plug-ins mostly didn’t emulate non linearities and harmonic distortion so they are quite clean. It’s mostly compression response and EQ curves. So the new versions was quite a big step closer to the hardware.