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Brandon Drury
Owner of Echo Echo Studios, Brandon Drury, has recorded and mixed over 600 songs in his very busy home recording studio.  

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UAD-1 vs Focusrite Liquidmix vs TC Powercore
By Brandon Drury | Published  09/19/2007

Hello all,

I've decide that I'm just about ready to upgrade my plugins. I've been using Waves Platinum for a long time, and I think I'm ready to go for something a little different. I was asked why I wanted to upgrade from my Waves plugins on the forum today.  You can read all about it on the forum.

The only problem is I have no idea which route I want to take. I'm leaning towards the Focusrite Liquid Mix to handle all my EQ and compression needs without worrying about running out, but then I'd like to have something in the way of reverbs too. People seem to say that the UAD-1 is of tremendous audio quality but it's track counts are not that high.

As always, price is an issue as well. To get two UAD-1 PCI cards and the plugins I want, it's going to cost well over $2,500 and that would really eat into my studio monitor upgrade savings plan. Hmmm.

There is also the issue of using PCI vs Firewire. Firewire isn't portable. Then again, I'm not sure why I'd ever need to take any of these fancy plugins on the road. I hear there is extra latency with any new DSP process. That makes sense. I can still track with my Waves plugins without any grief.

If anyone has any advice, don't be shy about jumping on the UAD-1 vs Focusrite Liquidmix vs TC Powercore forum thread and giving me some advice!

I've even considered the idea of going with a computer upgrade and getting some nicer native plugins.  I DON'T KNOW!!!

Brandon

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  • Comment #1 (Posted by Mark)

    I own a UAD-1 and find the sound quality to be the best out there (short of actual hardware). I've successfully used bussing and bouncing to minimize the amount of plug-ins I need to use at once. On the cost, I would say prioritize and go for the newer plugins. All the Neve stuff rocks! I find buying plug-ins one at a time to be much easier on my budget. I can do everything I want with just a few plug-ins. Here is my setup and how I use them.
    #1 Precision Limiter > Makes tracks as hot as possible without clipping and brings out all the detail! By far my favorite!
    #2 Neve 1073 > Awesome, awesome, EQ. It brings out what you want and suppresses what you don’t in a very musical way
    #3 Neve 33609 > My newest one. If you want THE best drums you’ve ever heard this is the one to have. Awesome on other stuff too.
    #4 LA-2A > I bring this out to add warmth and body to stuff (vocals, bass)
    #5 Plate 140 > Great old school natural sounding reverb.
    #6 Dimension D > The most natural chorus I’ve ever heard
    #7 Pultec Pro > Great for old school warm sounding EQ
    You could get 1, 2, and 3 for about $500 – 600 (look for discounts All EQs are 20% off this month!)
    With 1,2, and 3: you can get the best compression, the best EQ, and the best levels. To me those three get me 99% there most of the time.
    I hope this helps.
    Thanks.
     
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