# UAD Plugins Alternatives for Cubase on Mac



## TheThumbPuppy (Nov 6, 2019)

_It's my first post on this site. Please bear with me if I break any rules on this site._

I have a rather classical musical education from a Conservatoire, but I am just now in the process of learning how to use Cubase and available plugins.

I'm trying to find good alternatives for the following UAD plugins and I would appreciate it if you could give me some advice:

UAD Studer A800 (Simulator of an old tape machine)
UAD Lexicon 224 (Reverb)
UAD Precision Buss Compressor (Parallel compressor)
UAD Precision Maximizer (Harmonic enhancer)
UAD Manley Massive Passive MST (Equalizer)
UAD Precision Limiter
My first choice would be to purchase a UAD-2 Satellite Octo and the UAD plugins. That would free up cpu and memory from my main computer, which is a MacBook Pro 2019 2.4 GHz Intel Core i9 (8 cores) and 32 GB RAM.

However its price tag is not negligible and I would like to test my capabilities on Cubase first with plugins that may have a similar functionality to the ones above (although perhaps not the same quality) at a lower cost.

I thank you in advance for any suggestions you could give me.


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## Henu (Nov 6, 2019)

Studer: Try out U-he Satin or Slate's VTM. I like VTM for drums, Satin for everything else.
Lexicon: -50% sale currently, can't go wrong with that. Just don't get it from their site (way more expensive)

The Precision I can't unfortunately comment on, as I don't use them personally. For MMP you could go with SPL's PassEQ or some Nebula stuff.


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## Steve Wheeler (Nov 6, 2019)

I've got the UAD stuff. It occasionally comes in handy, but I'm moving away from it a bit because you need a lot of cores to run most of their plugins. I've got an Apollo quad and there's a few plugs that eat the hardware bandwidth a lot. That said, with a lot of the stuff that you listed, there's native alternatives that are comparable. 


Studer A800 - There's a million tape sims out there for saturation. While not marketed as a tape sim, Decapitator from sound toys has an Ampex 350 mode and 4 other distortion modes. One of my favs.
Lexicon 224 - While not the specific piece of gear, there's a bunch of algorithmic reverbs out there. Valhalla Vintage Verb is pretty great for $50. Room is good too for $50. I think Relab has a lexicon emulation that's not specifically a 224. Can't speak on that one though. 
Buss compressor - There's a ton of these out there. Waves has the SSL and Plugin Alliance has the Townhouse. I like the townhouse a lot. People sell them used regularly for $29 to 50. 
Maximizer and Limiter - Pretty similar in function from what I can tell. Waves L2 can be picked up cheap on sale for $29. Fabfilter Pro L2 looks pretty good. I use Sonnox Oxford Limiter, which I like a lot.
Massive Passive - Native Instruments has an emulation of this in Komplete. Not sure how it stacks up, because I rarely use it. BAX Dangerous EQ is ok from Plugin Alliance. Again, you can get this used cheap. Personally, I've been using Pro-Q3 in Linear Phase mode on my stereo bus these days. 
Hope this helps!


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## Prockamanisc (Nov 6, 2019)

I have one rule that's made a huge difference: don't buy the thing that gets you close to the thing that you want. Just buy the thing that you want. Save up, and in the meantime use Cubase's built-in plugins.


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## Henu (Nov 6, 2019)

THIS times a zillion. You'll just end up buying the good stuff later anyway, because the "almost there" isn't just sufficient at some point. And that will just cost you more in the long run.



Steve Wheeler said:


> Relab has a lexicon emulation that's not specifically a 224. Can't speak on that one though.



I can, it's very good. A bit "dirtier" than the Lexicon plugins. For orchestral stuff, definitely get the Lex. Relab is a bit better for rock and more gritty material, while the Lex is very clean, hifi and honey-dripping.


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## TheThumbPuppy (Nov 6, 2019)

Prockamanisc said:


> I have one rule that's made a huge difference: don't buy the thing that gets you close to the thing that you want. Just buy the thing that you want. Save up, and in the meantime use Cubase's built-in plugins.



I'm starting to realise that. I've calculated the difference between plan A and various alternatives and in fact it's not as much as I would have liked it to be. In addition to that if I choose the alternatives everything would be running on my cpu, which may not cope or at best my resources would be stretched. I suppose Christmas is coming up... (not that it makes much difference)


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## TheThumbPuppy (Nov 6, 2019)

Henu said:


> For orchestral stuff, definitely get the Lex. Relab is a bit better for rock and more gritty material, while the Lex is very clean, hifi and honey-dripping.



Thank you about this extra piece of information. I only do orchestral compositions.


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## Michael Antrum (Nov 7, 2019)

For Reverb I love Spaces II and Seventh Heaven. Gorgeous.

Also MirPro 24 is on sale at the moment.

Otherwise, I'd stay with the UAD Plugins. Don't forget their big sale is up soon and when their plug-ins are on sale there are usually some good offers.


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## TheThumbPuppy (Nov 8, 2019)

Michael Antrum said:


> Otherwise, I'd stay with the UAD Plugins. Don't forget their big sale is up soon and when their plug-ins are on sale there are usually some good offers.



Thank you Michael. Do you know when their sale usually starts? Before or after Christmas?


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## Michael Antrum (Nov 8, 2019)

TheThumbPuppy said:


> Thank you Michael. Do you know when their sale usually starts? Before or after Christmas?




June, December and Black Friday, so you won't have too long to wait.


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## noiseinmymind (Nov 8, 2019)

check out some of the boz labs stuff. They have some ward beck emulations that sound amazing!


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## TheThumbPuppy (Nov 25, 2019)

Update: I finally got the UAD-2 SATELLITE THUNDERBOLT 3 CUSTOM at a discounted price that included 4 plug-ins of my choice (I thought 3, but when I registered the product UAD allowed me to select 4).

I then bought the remaining 2 plug-ins on my list at a great Black Friday discount.

Thank you all for your advice


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## RiverOak (Nov 25, 2019)

Congrats! And welcome to the addictive world of UAD plugins. :D


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## Jeremy Spencer (Nov 26, 2019)

IMHO, save $$ and just use the stock plugins that come with Cubase, they all do the same thing....and they are very good. Aside from that, I'd recommend buying a good reverb for orchestral productions, such as Valhalla or EW Spaces II (which is often on sale).


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## brenneisen (Nov 26, 2019)

Wolfie2112 said:


> IMHO, save $$ and just use the stock plugins that come with Cubase, they all do the same thing....and they are very good.


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## RiverOak (Nov 26, 2019)

Wolfie2112 said:


> IMHO, save $$ and just use the stock plugins that come with Cubase, they all do the same thing....and they are very good. Aside from that, I'd recommend buying a good reverb for orchestral productions, such as Valhalla or EW Spaces II (which is often on sale).



I have to disagree. It's like saying that all string libraries do the same thing so you might as well get the cheapest one.
Yes, stock plugins are usually very capable these days. But you might be after a certain sound or functionality they don't offer. They are all of different flavor and quality.

That said, had I seen the thread earlier I would have suggested that the OP looked at some alternatives to the Precision plugins. While they are still very good, I think that there are better alternatives out there both UAD and others. Especially since s/he got the 3+1 bundle and could pick any plugins.


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## jcrosby (Nov 27, 2019)

TheThumbPuppy said:


> UAD Precision Maximizer (Harmonic enhancer)
> UAD Manley Massive Passive MST (Equalizer)
> UAD Precision Limiter



In the same order...

1. Sonnox _Inflator_, Sir Audio _StandardClip_, Polytec _Mango_, Melda _MSaturator_... (All are better IMO... Like _Inflator_ this thing's basically nothing more than just a _soft clipper_, which by default adds harmonic distortion...)

2. Acustica _Magenta_, and/or Acustica _Ivory _- ( Both more accurate reproductions IMO); NI _Enhanced EQ_; IK Multimedia EQ-432, Plugin Alli_ance SPL PassEQ, (Not nuts about this), Ozone Vintage EQ _(Hybrid of Massive Passive and Pultec... No harmonic distortion though.)

3. This thing is pretty outdated, if not ancient... UAD's not necessarily the _witches brew_ they'd have you think it is... Decent, but not anything special aside from the DSP advantages it offers...

Equally as good, better in most ways: DMG _Limitless_, Ozone _Maximzer_, _Elevate_,_ Pro-L2_, Sonnox _Limiter. _(A ton of other options as well... AOM, I.L., Karzog, the list goes on and on.... Any newer lookahead-brickwall-limiter is almost certainly as good if not better...)


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## Auddict (Nov 27, 2019)

jcrosby said:


> 2. Acustica _Magenta_, and/or Acustica _Ivory _- ( Both more accurate reproductions IMO); NI _Enhanced EQ_; IK Multimedia EQ-432, Plugin Alli_ance SPL PassEQ, (Not nuts about this), Ozone Vintage EQ _(Hybrid of Massive Passive and Pultec... No harmonic distortion though.)



More accurate reproductions of the Massive Passive? Apologies if I misunderstood, but definitely piques by interest if so, because I love that thing

Also +1 for the inflator


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## jcrosby (Nov 29, 2019)

Auddict said:


> More accurate reproductions of the Massive Passive? Apologies if I misunderstood, but definitely piques by interest if so, because I love that thing
> 
> Also +1 for the inflator



Demo _Magenta_ and see what you think... Personally I think it sounds a lot nicer, (not just the EQ curves or saturation... It has as a gluing effect, and smoothness in the highs and subs I don't hear in UAD... Mid bands are more accurate and focused as well.)

Plus it comes with really solid emulations of all of Manelys's compressors, (Vari-Mu, Voxbox, Slam), and a 'preamp' module which lets you flip throug the drive stage of most modules mentioned above as well...

Pretty hefty on CPU however... (The one trade-off with Acustica...) Most of the emulation stages are convolution based in some way or another, so the footprint is on the heavier side.

On blowout for 60 Euros during BF. 






Magenta5 - Acustica Audio


Xmas Arctic sale: €79 (€199) save 60% until Jan 8, 2023! A thousand shades of Magenta Magenta 5 is a...




www.acustica-audio.com







*HEY BTW! I've been interested in Hexeract!* Seems a bit like development's been stagnant however... Would love to know if it's still actively being developed, and if there are some improvements/features we might expect to see in the future...


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## Auddict (Nov 29, 2019)

jcrosby said:


> On blowout for 60 Euros during BF.
> 
> *HEY BTW! I've been interested in Hexeract!* Seems a bit like development's been stagnant however... Would love to know if it's still actively being developed, and if there are some improvements/features we might expect to see in the future...



OK, I did not know this, off I go to pick these up! Thanks for the recommendation

I'll drop you a message about Hexeract, don't want to hijack the thread  but long story short not at all and we have some plans!


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