Universal Audio makes some of the best audio interfaces and plug-ins on the market today. If you’re serious about your sound, you can get far better results with UA gear, software and plug-ins than you would with a more entry-level alternative.
But that significant jump in quality comes at a cost, in more ways than one. UA gear is significantly more expensive (though well worth the investment), and the company’s superior plug-ins require a good deal more processing power than other options on the market.
This brings us to the UAD Satellite family of devices. Your existing setup — even if it includes an Apollo audio interface with its own onboard DSP — could eventually run out of processing power.
When you run out of DSP, the UAD Satellite can help take your tracks to the next level. But do you need one at this stage in your home studio? And is the extra DSP you get with the UAD Satellite really worth the extra money?
Find out what you need to know in this review of the UAD Satellite.
What the UAD Satellite Isn’t
We need to start with some clarifications about what the UAD Satellite series isn’t. The most important thing to understand is that the UAD Satellite isn’t an audio interface. There are no audio inputs on the unit at all. If you plan to use it in conjunction with live recording, you’ll need a separate audio interface.
That separate interface can be a UAD Apollo product, but it doesn’t have to be.
What the UAD Satellite Is
The UAD Satellite family of products is a family of (somewhat) portable digital signal processing (DSP) accelerators. They provide an external hardware solution for processing those powerful UAD-2 Powered Plug-ins (and others). They also serve as a gatekeeper of sorts to the UAD-2 plug-in library (along with UA interfaces): you’ll need some kind of UA hardware if you want to use the company’s plug-ins.
The latest UAD 2 Satellite devices connect via Thunderbolt 3 (though UA has kept a USB model around for good measure) and offer powerful processing enhancements in addition to the DSP in your audio interface (if your interface has any, that is).
You’ll often see the UAD Satellite used in professional mixing environments where UAD2 plug-ins are a part of the mix. When you’re dealing with a whole bunch of tracks or you want to run quite a few plug-ins at once (or both), you’re going to need some extra processing power. The processor on your PC or Mac can’t do all the work itself. That extra juice is exactly what the UAD Satellite provides.
The same basic idea goes if you’re setting up a home studio where you’ll do both your recording and your mixing. If you need more processing power than you’ve got with your existing gear, a UAD Satellite may be the solution you’ve been looking for. It can take the burden of digital signal processing from UAD-2 Powered Plug-ins, freeing up your CPU, along with any bottlenecks, slowdowns, or performance issues.
Just How Much Money Are We Talking?
When the post title includes the question, “Is more DSP worth the money?”, we’ve got to cover how much money we’re talking.
The latest model of UAD-2 Satellite from Universal Audio comes in multiple configurations. There are two versions of the Thunderbolt 3 model, the OCTO core and the QUAD core. You’ll also find Custom and Ultimate 9 editions with significant software and plugin add-ons. Here’s the basic breakdown of the UAD-2 Satellite family:
- Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite Thunderbolt 3 OCTO Core: MSRP $1499; typical price $1199
- Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite Thunderbolt 3 QUAD Core: MSRP $999; typical price $799
- Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite Thunderbolt 3 OCTO Core Custom: MSRP $1,999; typical price $1599
- Universal Audio UAD-2 Satellite Thunderbolt 3 OCTO Ultimate 9: MSRP $5199; Sweetwater price $3699
So, obviously, these are a pretty significant chunk of change for most at-home musicians. Especially if you’re starting from scratch: a Satellite Quad plus an Apollo Twin X is going to set you back somewhere in the neighborhood of $1700 to $1800. (A UAD Satellite Octo adds another $400 minimum.) And those figures are before you factor in the cost of additional plug-ins beyond what comes with your hardware.
The good news here is that most at-home studios aren’t going to go from zero to 100 overnight. Most newbies would have no use for a Satellite (yet), and more experienced home studio folks considering a Satellite probably already have a UA audio interface — it just isn’t keeping up with their DSP demands.
A Note about Included Plug-ins
Every UAD-2 Satellite device includes some assortment of powerful UAD-2 Powered Plug-ins. The Analog Classics Plus bundle, for example, is stock with any purchase.
Depending on the bundle or model you choose, you might also get the ability to pick and register for several additional plug-ins. If you bought an Apollo audio interface and chose the Heritage Edition, you got that same perk and could potentially round out a very nice set of plug-ins.
Beyond the “free” plug-ins, buying a UAD device gives you access (for a price) to the entire catalog of UAD plug-ins. These aren’t all included in your bundle (unless you choose the very expensive Ultimate package, which includes most of them) — but you gain the ability to use them after purchasing. And that’s a big part of the draw to UA hardware— gaining access to these very impressive analog emulations.
One last note: it’s important to keep in mind that various retailers and editions may throw in different sets or collections of plug-ins, even beyond those listed in the Custom or Ultimate 9 editions. So, if you’re shopping right now, the various offerings and specials may be different than when we put this post together.
Check current prices on Amazon for the UAD Satellite QUAD
Check current prices on Amazon for the UAD Satellite OCTO
Why You Would Need More DSP Power
We alluded to this earlier, but it deserves its own explanation. Why exactly would you need more DSP power? What are the situations where your existing gear wouldn’t be powerful enough on its own?
The answer is complicated and highly contextual, but here are some basic points to help clarify.
First things first: plug-ins require processing power. To be more precise, if you want to do any kind of digital processing of your audio signal (digital signal processing, or DSP), you need a piece of hardware to do that processing.
Your computer’s CPU can do some of this. But it’s busy doing a ton of other stuff, like keeping your overall session alive (not to mention the computer itself!). Add in too much processing, and you’re going to start seeing issues. You might encounter latency issues, stability issues, slowdowns, or even inconsistent applications of a plug-in.
Good Interfaces Are a Start
Good audio interfaces offer onboard digital signal processing. That’s half of the draw to the UA Apollo line of audio interfaces: they offer an impressive amount (though exactly how much depends on the model you choose). And the number of DSP processing cores in an Apollo audio interface is one of the biggest differentiators in price.
But here again, like your CPU, your audio interface has other jobs, and it doesn’t have an unlimited supply of DSP. You’re limited to one, two, four, six, or eight DSP cores, depending on the model.
Lesser Interfaces Don’t Help at All
If you’re using a lower-grade or entry-level audio interface, it probably doesn’t have any digital signal processing ability. And even if it does, it probably isn’t compatible with UAD-2 Powered plug-ins.
This is actually one scenario where a UAD Satellite makes perfect sense. There are plenty of scenarios where you might want to keep using a non-UA device as your audio interface — but you still want access to those sweet, sweet UAD-2 Powered plug-ins. A UAD Satellite gives you that access.
UAD Satellite Does More
So, whether you just aren’t getting quite enough DSP power out of your UA Apollo audio interface or you don’t have any DSP power at all, a UAD Satellite is a simple way to greatly increase your DSP capabilities.
The cores in the UAD Satellite are more powerful and more robust than the ones in the UA Apollo line of interfaces, as well. The interfaces feature UAP Core DSP Acceleration, while the Satellite line of DSP accelerators feature more powerful SHARC processors.
And when you pair a UAD Satellite with a UA Apollo audio interface, the machines work in tandem, giving you even greater levels of DSP power.
How Much Power Do You Need?
We still haven’t answered one of the central questions: how much DSP power do you actually need?
The problem is, this question is nearly impossible to answer without knowing the specifics of your setup as well as how many plug-ins you want to run simultaneously (and which ones, even).
If you already have an Apollo audio interface, you can do some testing for yourself. If you don’t, it’s a bit tougher to know what to do.
With an Apollo interface, if you’ve never run into processing limitations before, pull up a large session and just start messing with it. See how many (and how complex of) plug-ins you can load up before you start encountering issues.
Of course, if you have already encountered issues, you already know you would benefit from more power.
If you’re just getting into the UAD ecosystem and plan to buy an interface first anyway, go ahead and do so, and follow that same advice.
If you don’t have a UAD baseline to work from at all, here’s our best general advice.
- Consider the bitrate that you typically record at. The higher it is, the more processor-intensive applying plug-ins will be.
- Consider the typical session size you create. Are you doing very complex work with dozens of tracks, or is your music typically simpler in nature?
- Consider the level of processing you anticipate. Will your music be heavily processed with many layers of effects? Or do you prefer a lighter approach?
While these questions won’t scientifically answer exactly how many cores you need and of which type, they are a great place to start. The more intensive your projected needs, the more likely you are to need a UAD Satellite.
Final Thoughts: So, Is a UAD Satellite Worth It?
As we wrap up this review of the UAD 2 Satellite family of devices, we come back to the central question: Is adding a UAD Satellite to your home studio setup worth the money?
My honest answer: it depends.
If you’re already invested in the UA ecosystem and you need more DSP power, then the answer is an obvious yes. The same goes if you have an established setup (and an appropriate budget) and you’re looking for both access and processing ability for those stellar UAD-2 Powered plug-ins.
But if you’re just starting out? You don’t need a Satellite, at least not yet. The same goes if you’re rocking an Apollo interface and haven’t encountered any processing limitations.
In either of those scenarios, you can certainly hold off for now. You may reach a point down the road where you should consider expanding your system with a UAD Satellite — and when you do, now you know what you’re getting into.