UA Amp Pedals Suck

[doninoakland]

They should have headphone out, XLR out, and an FX loop.

They're massively overpriced plug-ins in a box.

They should have at least 30 amp models, and more than one boost or OD - the ones they chose are not the ones I like. Actually, why not have a complete set of effects? I need a flanger.

They should have more knobs and switches for more control. The Dream reverb by itself should have 2, 3, maybe 4 knobs. Just one knob for reverb is an embarrassment.

The tones on the demos all sound horrible through my laptop speakers.

The fan boys are delusional - there is no justifying a wait list for such horrendous products.

What else?

 

[prettygeetarist]

I agree on everything, and above all I would like to add: if you like digital, instead of taking all three UAD pedals you can buy a Kemper and be fine.

 

[NoiseNinja]

Yes, I agree, my dirt cheap but pretty amazing Joyo American Sound and Oxford Sound should be free of charge and be digital so they could have 30 mediocre digtal amp emulations that I would have no use for instead of being all analog and just emulating respectively Fender and Orange type amps pretty impressively, even if that is just what I need.

Also you could expand this to other analog pedals, why aren't they all digital multi effects instead, cause everyone knows everyone needs not just one great analog tone exactly to their personal preferences that makes them sound like them, but rather 100 crappy digital ones that sort of almost can make then sound like everyone else, I know I definitely rather have access to a mediocre digital ring modulator that I have no use for than a great analog chorus, even if that is what I really need, cause just like knowing it is there if I at some point for God knows which strange reason ever should need one?

Honestly seems to me like you want amp-in-a-box pedals to be multi effects, so why not just buy a multi effect and let amp-in-a-box pedals be what they are and are good at being?

Also investing in some better speakers might blow your mind and change your perspective on things.


Edit!: Seems like I missed the specific UA part of OP's point, and in that case he might actually be on to something.

 

[Fantastic Cook]

I'm catching this weird vibe, almost like you guys don't like these pedals...

 

[Twisted_Kites]

…and if you follow their biz model you‘ll discover why they don‘t have more available in the pedals.
hint: they want to sell them to you.
that’s why there’s a USB jack on the pedal.
they will eventually sell you a whole library of sound….or better yet, have you subscribe to a service to get them.
just like the rest of their products.

 

[Bluesful]

Sir, I like my new UA pedal.

 

[3waytie4last]

I'll take, Programmers who don't play music for $200, Alex.

 

[Jazzandmore]

Funny thing is nobody makes someone buy a pedal they don’t like. Simply concentrate on things you do like, and purchase.

 

[Magnets And Melodies]

Pretty sure nobody here played one in person yet. Including me.

But yeah I agree they sound pretty crappy.

 

[Mungi64]

 

[Melloncollie91]

Pretty sure nobody here played one in person yet. Including me.

But yeah I agree they sound pretty crappy.

I saw a video that was comparing the UA Vox sim to the ACS1 and the iridium. They all sounded good but different. If somebody liked the UA more then great but it didn’t blow the other two away depending on what you want.

 

[rectoflyer]

I've kinda come full circle on these.

At first, I was just confused by the concept. Everyone knows that with digital devices, you can obviously fit more than one amp in an enclosure that size. Hell, I own a Zoom MS50G, which is smaller yet has a bunch of amps as well as effects and sounds amazing.

Then I found it mildly irritating that they thought they could get away with it. It certainly appears to be a con on some level, even if people are lined up to empty their wallets. People did likewise for Theranos shares...lol.

Now, I simply find it amusing.

Consider this: the current modeling technology available from L6, Fractal Boss, Zoom, Kemper and even Strymon is amazing. Imagine what the next generation will bring? I'm not even talking about realism in terms of amp tones. I'm talking about things like feel, dynamics, features, pitch tracking, etc, etc. I'm willing to bet that the next generation Kemper device will blow your mind.

So in that context, having one amp per pedal for $400 is sort of silly and ridiculous and hilarious.

But don't let my misgivings dissuade you. Go ahead and drop the coin.

Everyone's laughing at you behind your back.

 

[Benz2112]

Have you tried listening to the demos through your cellphone speaker? Let us know how it goes.

 

[PedalDegenerate]

I've kinda come full circle on these.

At first, I was just confused by the concept. Everyone knows that with digital devices, you can obviously fit more than one amp in an enclosure that size. Hell, I own a Zoom MS50G, which is smaller yet has a bunch of amps as well as effects and sounds amazing.

Then I found it mildly irritating that they thought they could get away with it. It certainly appears to be a con on some level, even if people are lined up to empty their wallets. People did likewise for Theranos shares...lol.

Now, I simply find it amusing.

Consider this: the current modeling technology available from L6, Fractal Boss, Zoom, Kemper and even Strymon is amazing. Imagine what the next generation will bring? I'm not even talking about realism in terms of amp tones. I'm talking about things like feel, dynamics, features, pitch tracking, etc, etc. I'm willing to bet that the next generation Kemper device will blow your mind.

So in that context, having one amp per pedal for $400 is sort of silly and ridiculous and hilarious.

But don't let my misgivings dissuade you. Go ahead and drop the coin.

Everyone's laughing at you behind your back.

I really want to think they're super cool. But for what it would cost me to buy a Ruby and a Dream, I can just buy a used Fender and Vox that they're emulating.

 

[Z3P0]

Have you tried listening to the demos through your cellphone speaker? Let us know how it goes.

I’m rocking vintage audiophile single speaker AM radio to listen to these demos…

 

[Rod]

I still like analog. Even if it’s an Amp1

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• Rod
• May 19, 2022

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• Rod
• May 19, 2022

 

[Chadley]

I really want to think they're super cool. But for what it would cost me to buy a Ruby and a Dream, I can just buy a used Fender and Vox that they're emulating.

You can buy a vintage Deluxe reverb and AC30 for $800?

 

[Chadley]

…and if you follow their biz model you‘ll discover why they don‘t have more available in the pedals.
hint: they want to sell them to you.
that’s why there’s a USB jack on the pedal.
they will eventually sell you a whole library of sound….or better yet, have you subscribe to a service to get them.
just like the rest of their products.

Imagine the horror! Companies selling things…

 

[Chadley]

I do think it is interesting the amount of initial disdain that these pedals have stirred up. I don’t remember the Golden, Astra and Starlight doing the same? Maybe I missed it.

I have the Dream ‘65 and have been floored by it. I can’t wait to pick up the Ruby. I really consider them next generation modelers and am okay paying a premium for them.

It’s also okay if others aren’t. I would suggest that you try one before making a judgement.

 

[moirearty]

I do think it is interesting the amount of initial disdain that these pedals have stirred up. I don’t remember the Golden, Astra and Starlight doing the same? Maybe I missed it.

I have the Dream ‘65 and have been floored by it. I can’t wait to pick up the Ruby. I really consider them next generation modelers and am okay paying a premium for them.

It’s also okay if others aren’t. I would suggest that you try one before making a judgement.

Yep. People hate on UA because they're a high-end brand, very expensive (interfaces/software/studio hardware) and have a kind of lock-in ecosystem much like Apple for their higher-end audio interfaces and software, though that is changing a little bit with a subscription model shift.

The biggest problem with UA in my opinion, and many other audio software houses are the same, is that you can't resell individual plugins alone. I'm very seriously hoping laws are passed that force change on this in the future and I encourage anyone who has a state representative that is technically savvy to contact them about these practices, because it's asinine that you can have thousands of dollars worth of stuff you can't sell without also selling hardware and then moving plugins between "systems" in the UA admin page is basically impossible... maybe support would help, who knows. But this is overall purely just stupid wholly anti-consumer behavior - the've said in the past it's because their UAD-2 plugins required DSP so of course you have to sell a hardware system with plugins, well that's not the case now since there are native versions... which they do charitably give the owner of the DSP plugin for free - but again this justifies their need to force you to buy the hardware locked plugin, so they can get away with forcing a "system" sale instead of pick and choose which is what it absolutely should be. But that is where the UA disdain should be directed, imo, but again they're not alone - you can't even resell Spitfire Audio stuff at ALL which is even worse and those libraries can be thousands of dollars for some higher end collections.

UA also does a piss-poor job of customer loyalty and you gain basically nothing by owning everything, because if you're someone who buys most of their plugins if you need to add another Apollo for example to your system you are forced to pay for "heritage versions" of their interfaces now which conveniently raised prices by like 20%+ that come with plugins you already own and get no credit for if you also own for example UAD ultimate 9 or whatever. It's extremely stupid. The $25 coupons they throw out every 4 months don't help matters, and they usually have a minimum purchase of like $99 so you can't use it on a $75 plugin etc. They know what they're doing to extract the absolute most money out of people. Another great example of this stupidity is that I gain NOTHING by subscribing to UA Spark except for the one single EXCLUSIVE instrument that I can't even purchase outside of Spark if I wanted to. Eventually I'll be able to, but they want to hook you. Just like they used to make you wade through all of the plugins you didn't own yet (to encourage demos! and also make you feel FOMO because maybe that 5th EQ will really change your game!) in the list of those to put in slots in console. LUNA has fixed this thank God, but the person that decided this was a good idea at the time, and the person who coded it should both be ashamed of themselves for being despicably user-hostile.

But their software sounds really, really good, and LUNA is pretty exceptional so I put up with this nonsense, and it's not like Drew is the problem here it's the bean counters and management at UA, and I see this slowly, slowly shifting, but it better not go so far that we can't own the software anymore or there will be blood in the streets on places like gearspace and they will lose a lot of the prosumer market. I think they know better and see what has happened to AVID in the consumer / semi-prosumer realm where everyone now is basically buying focusrites and using Ableton / Logic / Bitwig / Reaper / Cubase etc.

Hating a $400 pedal because of the price on this forum where half of the people probably have thousands of dollars worth of effects and/or amps... hilarious. People are dead right that you usually, with a multi-fx unit, find a couple models that you like and stick to them. These pedals fulfill that role very well and sound amazing, and are stereo!

I agree if you can swing the price and think they'd be useful in your workflow they're worth trying - Dream in particular has blown me away consistently for the last week+ now and I've played more guitar through it than I have through anything else in months because it's just really easy to work with in my setup.

Nobody's perfect, companies have problems, but the things people complain about are hilarious when there are actual like, severely bad practices at some of these companies that deserve real scrutiny - not design decisions that were intentionally made or some marketing spiel that anyone with 2 brain cells can read through and understand.

No, I didn't think I could buy a Dream instead of a Fender Blackface and get the exact same experience, because I'm not a damn idiot. But the Blackface also can't output stereo to my other outboard effects, doesn't blow my walls apart when I crank it, and there's near-zero menu diving compared to an Axe-Fx and basically no need to tweak anything - you're off to the races very quickly especially now that they've added great presets. Acting like UA is supposed to spoon feed people the difference between a modeler pedal and a tube amp is hilarious. No kid will be interested in or able to afford a $400 amp sim pedal, and anyone who is an adult should be intelligent enough to understand what they're buying and do the smallest modicum of research beforehand if they're concerned. If you're angry there's no actual spring behind your spring reverb knob fed by input and output tubes I feel bad for you as a fellow human because that's some serious hangup that can't make living life in the world we do easy. Also just FYI - Tore was not lying when he said they did something to make the spring in Dream perform differently because of where it's at in the 'circuit' - it does actually do Ducking now and the Golden does not. It's the same algorithm but it gets out of the way when you play and has the nice reverb trails during the empty spaces.

But anyway, return policies exist for a reason - try things. Life is better and more enjoyable when you get off forums and actually spend more of your time playing your music, and I've been having a great time doing that with these products.