Universal Audio UAD SYSTEM ver.6.3.2 - Manual (Page 28)

UAD System Manual - 28 - Chapter 3: UAD System Overview
CHAPTER 3
UAD System Overview
The UAD Environment
The complete UAD Powered Plug-Ins environment consists of many compo-
nents. These components are:
• One or more UAD DSP hardware accelerator devices
• The UAD device drivers
• The UAD plug-ins
• The host computer system
• The plug-in host application software (DAW)
• An audio hardware input/output interface and its drivers
All these components operate together simultaneously within one computer to
form the complete audio processing system.
The other UAD component is your account at my.uaudio.com ( page 36 ) and
the UA online store, where UAD devices are registered, UAD coupons are re-
deemed, and UAD plug-in licenses and authorizations are obtained. Al-
though my.uaudio.com is not required during normal system use, it is essen-
tial for initializing the overall UAD system because authorization is required
to use UAD-Powered Plug-Ins (see
“Authorization Overview” on page 37 ).
The UAD Hardware
The UAD DSP (Digital Signal Processing) hardware accelerator devices pro-
vide the “power” behind UAD Powered Plug-Ins. Most UAD plug-ins use ex-
tremely complex algorithms to provide the quality sound and accurate mod-
eling Universal Audio is famous for. The UAD processor engines are signifi-
cantly more optimized to perform the complex DSP routines required for these
algorithms than a standard desktop computer CPU can deliver.
All UAD-2 devices are Mac and Windows compatible unless stated other-
wise; the hardware is identical for both OS platforms.
Note: Multiple UAD hardware types can be used concurrently in the same
computer. For details, see Chapter 5, “Using Multiple UAD Devices.”