Universal AudioReviews of uaudio.com

I have had Apollo Twin USB for 2 years, and i have yet to record any audio. When i first got the product 2 years ago i installed all the software and drivers and the plugin lagged and froze and crashed my system ( 16 gig ram / 6 gig gpu ) i gave up and 2 years later i decided to give it another go. Ive been back and forth with support for over a week. Delete, re install, user admin, change accounts, blah blah. My computer runs all my software and apps perfectly fine. But there is literally nothing i can do to use this well over 1000 dollar product. UAD Console and Connect are the worst music apps ive ever used. Id like to say the plugins sound nice but ive never used them

I had bought plugins with intend to use them natively, 1,5 year later i bought a soundcard of off them. When i tried to register these plugins i unintentionally registered them to my friend’s “twin” (i didnt now was in my account), these plugins are then locked to the hardware they were bought for. I contacted customer support and explained my problem. A guy named Sam responded to my email very fast, he then got a more detailed explanation of my problem and immediately moved over the plugins, so that they were registered to my soundcard. - Problem solved

I am more than disappointed with this company and especially with their fatal customer and pricing policy. A provider that promises customers who buy one of their extremely expensive UAD plug-ins that they can later upgrade to the native version free of charge and then charges them 49€ is not trustworthy for me. What is going on with this company? Aggressive marketing obviously takes precedence over cultivating long-term customers. When I ask why I am being asked to pay again, I receive a list of the price catalog from customer support: „We offer customers who own the UAD-2 (DSP) version of both the SSL 4000 E Channel Strip Collection and SSL 4000 G Bus Compressor Collection the opportunity to upgrade to the native versions of these plugins for just $9.99. Customers who own one of these two plug-ins can upgrade to the full SSL 4000 Series Bundle, which includes the native versions of both plug-ins, for only $49.“

The offer of a really nicely designed audio-interface, the 176 VOLT, as promoted by one of their stockists, for a very reasonable price and with an apparently industry-standard compressor and free software was too great a bundle to go elsewhere. The software includes a DAW called Ableton Live Lite, which, although free, doesn't come with a decent de-esser and which you have to pay over-amounts for should you decide to purchase a plug-in as an alternative solution; and it only comes with eight recording tracks. If you are a vocalist who performs with much sibilance then this bundle is not for you. The compressor on the interface turned out to be so hissy (ground-floor noise) that it was unusable and the replacement had a faulty power-port. The stockist suggested that the model was made for the price rather than to a standard and I couldn't agree more. I own an M-Audio Firewire 410, bought over ten years ago, and it has never developed a fault (it can't be used because its connections and drivers are old). Those who work for Universal Audio are polite and helpful and reply to emails in quick time; this is all very well, however, when the equipment itself is of a poor quality.

Was very excited at first. Until I had a problem. Awful customer support which I interpret to mean they don't take their customers professionalism seriously. I need my recording studio to work dependably. If I do have an issue, I need professional help and I need it fast. With this company there support is incredibly poor. Your basically on you own 95% of the time. They want you to trouble shoot your problem with their answer bot and when that doesn't work wait around for an email that could show up at anytime or never. Their other solution is to go online to their support page, So basically read a book. Any product is only as good as its support. Probably going back to Pro Tools.

Unethical software seller. They have sold products that have quickly become obsolete and unusable. They aggressively advertise promotions then immediately slash prices after the promotion has ended and customers have invested. They sell individual products then within weeks bundle them in to packages containing the same products for far less cost - they provide no prior notice of intent to do this. They provide no compensation for customers who have overpaid as a result of these unethical pricing strategies. They promise customers ownership of product versions then break that promise by charging when new versions become available, sometimes adding a minor feature to claim it’s a ‘new’ product and justify the charge. They provide discount coupons but then price products so coupons don’t qualify - coupons expire before they can actually be of meaningful value to the customer. They require software to be running on your computer while their products are in use, which is intrusive and unnecessary. Their products are average at best. Customer service is slow and very unhelpful. My review is not based on a single experience but a year of dealing with them. They are tight, petty and increasingly irrelevant. Awful company.

Been team UAD for about 10 years now, love it, these plugins sound stellar and very hardware-like, never had any serious issue with the hardware either, my first Apollo bought back in 2014 is still working just fine :) Now almost exclusively use the Spark Collection UAD Signature Edition and loving it !

Best sounding plugins and interfaces, worst software/activation experience of my life. Cracked software worked better in 2001. I haven't been able for Ableton to recognize the plugins the first time it opens ever. And I've gone from multiple OS, UAD and Ableton versions. iLok gets stuck. Sometimes no plugin works. Sometimes only the ones you need the hardware to work. I have spent just today about an hour trying to open a session with everything working. Granted is a big session but I've had to restart Ableton 4 times, re-authorize all plugins a couple of times, restart, all that. And this is my project in my home studio. Imagine have this happen with a client. I have an M1 Max Pro, BTW. Not like I'm with a 10yo computer trying to make crazy stuff. Console is very much not user friendly, I was stuck with customer support to set up Console to work with OBS, while watching kids stream with a a USB microphone. So, if you want good sound, go ahead. If you want reliability, go somewhere else. I would not trust their software or interfaces in a complex scenario or live situation. Imagine you play a gig in a venue without internet, god forbid. At this point in time I'd say use the plugins you can use without their hardware and buy an interface from another company. Good pres are nothing if the rest is a mess. The internet model most audio companies rely on is infuriating. How I miss the old days where you had an offline system and you truly felt like you had a place for making music. Plugins were a part of your system, not some cloud depending trash. Now everything is tied to some IT system that generates constant issues with updates and incompatibilities. And all this I suppose to avoid piracy. We all had to pay the price of companies' greed, because in the end, professionals and people who make money will always buy, a big amount of aficionados will too, and just a bunch of kids will crack, to eventually become either the professionals or aficionados that will. UAD was the target of my frustration, but this goes for most plugin companies and iLok.