DSP cards and the Universal Audio UAD 2

In keeping with this month’s theme of “Gear and Software”, I wanted to talk a little more about my number 1 “My Perfect 3″ find: The Universal Audio UAD2 DSP Card. DSP cards for use in DAW’s have been around for a while now, predominantly starting with Digidesign and ProTools, then later came the UAD-1 card from Universal Audio and TC Electronics released the Powercore card around the same time. The Digidesign DSP cards used a proprietary TDM architecture that ran only in ProTools hardware and software. For the rest of us who did not have a spare 10-15K lying around to get into ProTools, we were left out. When Universal Audio and TC Electronics…

Why Every Composer Should Own an Analog Synth

I’m not quite sure how big the analog renaissance really is, so maybe my post is old news. Regardless, I’d like to take some time focusing on the use of an analog synthesizer in your studio. “TOUCHABLE” SOUND If most young composers are like me, they’ve spent the majority of their musical lives in the digital world, staring at a computer monitor and pushing virtual buttons and moving pixelated sliders to create music. And while this is all fine and dandy, many young composers have little hands on experience with electronic instruments. Even if they have, it’s usually with modern digital synthesizers consisting of nested menus, a few buttons, and a couple of knobs. Some…