UAD Guitar "Paradise" .... Huh ?

[BenIfin]

In short I have a UAD Upgrade Voucher by virtue of having owned a Dream 65 Pedal which gets me the UAD Guitar Paradise Bundle for US $79 - down from US $199 ... so around AUD $115 at the moment ... a freakin steal for the $$ - too cheap not to buy.

I have read and heard on Y/T nothing but positive reviews.

So ... before buying it - thankfully - I D/L the full demo yesterday and started with mid-gain-Enigma Amp Tones and Classic Rock-Lion Tones .... all the basic classic rock stuff.

What T.A.F is going on !!!!!!!!!!!!!!

They have levels of brightness, shrill and fizz I have never encountered before - ever - not with Helix, my FM3, nor all the NDSP Plugs I demo'ed, Amplitube, the Nembrini stuff, S-Gear, Genome Amps, Tonex, NAM ... and some other stuff I cant recall. And the Gain just gets crunchy and crispy in a really bad way as you turn it up

I have literally been able to dial all of these in with my "permanent IR" to varying degrees of more than useable in like 5 - 10 minutes [max.] in every case ... a peice of piss as we like to say ..... and as my M4 is so powerful, they have all run at 96k* perfectly and glitch free.

I then tried the Stock Cabs - maybe that's the go - they are either even worse or have 5 doona's over them.

My Motu M2 HiZ Input is zero'd out and the Plugin Input Gain is set to 0 and only ever turned down if its clipping - very rare - exactly how UAD recommend in the Software .. and exactly how every other plugin I've set up.

I *know* this is *supposed* to *sound great* ... because everyone has blown their beans over it .... but just [to me] it just sounds like total shite .... nothing like my times with all the others I mentioned above.

Have others here tried it out ? or are using it successfully ? Thoughts ? Ideas ?

Maybe (?) its not designed to run at 96k* ? Could this maybe be causing these sorts of issues ?

But as I said, none of this has ever been the case with the NDSP Plugs I demo'ed, Amplitube, Nembrini , Genome Amps, S-Gear, Tonex and NAM.

Got me stumped.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Have you listened to any examples online of how it’s supposed to sound? Does it sound similar to that for you?

I thought it sounds fantastic. Significantly better than Nembrini or Genome or S-Gear or Amplitube etc.

If you’re using the MOTU M4 with gain at 0, you’ll probably need to add a little level (4dB or so) in the plugin to reach unity. Lowering will move away from the intended tone - the motu at 0 is 16dBu max headroom, UAD is designed for 12dBu (or 12.2dBu).

 

[BenIfin]

Have you listened to any examples online of how it’s supposed to sound? Does it sound similar to that for you?

I thought it sounds fantastic. Significantly better than Nembrini or Genome or S-Gear or Amplitube etc.

If you’re using the MOTU M4 with gain at 0, you’ll probably need to add a little level (4dB or so) in the plugin to reach unity.

Thanks for chiming in - I respect you're views and opinions here, and as such, when I read your comments about its sonic quality, it got me interested.

Listened to a lot of Y/T demo's and it sounds excellent - but none of them have these extreme levels of brightness, shrill and fizz.

I did try adding a bit of juice at the Plugins Input Gain as you suggested, but no-bingo.

I've posted on the UAD forum asking if running it at 96k could be causing these issues so will report back if I hear anything.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Thanks for chiming in - I respect you're views and opinions here, and as such, when I read your comments about its sonic quality, it got me interested.

Listened to a lot of Y/T demo's and it sounds excellent - but none of them have these extreme levels of brightness, shrill and fizz.

I did try adding a bit of juice at the Plugins Input Gain as you suggested, but no-bingo.

I've posted on the UAD forum asking if running it at 96k could be causing these issues so will report back if I hear anything.

The tones should be basically 1:1 with the Dream 65 pedal you have. If it’s sounding different from that, something isn’t right. I’d start with working out how to get those sounding and behaving the same.

UA likely upsamples internally to at least 96k (if not 192kHz) but it’s hard to pinpoint any potential issues remotely. I’d just compare block by block and if possible at different sample rates.

 

[laxu]

Are you sure the cab sim is working correctly? It absolutely should not sound shrill or fizzy.

 

[MirrorProfiles]

Not hearing any issues at 96k. I exported a clip recorded at 96k from a 96k session and a 48k session. Lion amp, one of their cabs, added their 224 too.