Universal Audio In Trouble

[Eric Lambert]

Originally Posted by BScout

You just bought Bock's company.
And now he's out?

I don't like when these things happen, but Dave must certainly have seen a payout that apparently did not include an employment duration guarantee, and it's something he would have agreed to.

[BScout]

Sure, but UA has also been marketing off of Bock and what future products he was bringing to UA. Which is dead or in name only now.
They haven't even released (yet) the flagship Bock mic under UA branding.

The DSP chips are very old (and under powered -- more so even than HDX) and the subscription plugin (software only) platform seems their direction. Everything says that hardware at UA is dead or nearing death. Investing in their computer hardware seems full of folly at this point.

[hurdy gurdy]

Originally Posted by BScout

Sure, but UA has also been marketing off of Bock and what future products he was bringing to UA. Which is dead or in name only now.
They haven't even released (yet) the flagship Bock mic under UA branding.

The DSP chips are very old (and under powered -- more so even than HDX) and the subscription plugin (software only) platform seems their direction. Everything says that hardware at UA is dead or nearing death. Investing in their computer hardware seems full of folly at this point.

No doubt. Right now I'm thinking should I buy any of their plugins that "rely" on my UA hardware. Or just cool out (wait it out) for those plugins to appear on UA Spark?

Len

[Stephen Bond]

Originally Posted by James Steele

Or the LA-2A clones. I got a Warm Audio WA-2A not long ago and it's pretty decent for the money. I just don't have $4500+ laying around for the real deal.

All good points.
Prices need to fall as people save for their planet saving Teslas

In all seriousness, UAD was motoring for the elite. I just prefer elite motoring at a budget price of Plugin Alliance (for example). My plugin tally agrees!

UAD 0 Plugin Aliance 166

For all you subscribers, these are bought perpetual plugins. That's approx $2500 over the last 10 years. I make that $250 per year.

Times have changed. You can buy everything, currently 180+ plugins for $1000

https://www.plugin-alliance.com/en/p...ndle-2022.html

Compare with UAD, I would have 10-20 plugins at that price and have another $1000 to pay for the basic hardware.

Stephen

[smurfyou]

So they basically hired Bock to get his microphones and name. Got it.

[sdelsolray]

A summary from PT Expert:

https://www.pro-tools-expert.com/pro...55etSymRW0xOik

[Eric Lambert]

This wasn't a hire-and-fire scenario -- Dave was with UA for almost 2 1/2 years. A lot happens in that length of time in this industry.

Why are assumptions leading to such negativity? None of us truly knows what happened or why. If anyone is paying attention to the tech sector, layoffs have become quite common.

And again, though I feel bad for Dave and wish he'd remained at UA, he didn't give them his company for free.

[Sugarnutz]

Originally Posted by UniversalAudio

Hey Sugarnutz,
This is of course not true. Here's some details for you.

Universal Audio has made the difficult but necessary decision to part ways with 10 employees from our worldwide workforce. It was difficult but required to meet new macro economic realities, in the interest of the company's long-term health.

This of course sucks and we feel for those affected. But it doesn't impact our ability to bring new things to market and continue to deliver all the amazing products we have in our line up.

It caused me to reevaluate purchasing a UAD2 Octo and $1000 worth of plugins for it. So how true is that? I won’t re-up for the Spark Native plugins either. These things may not ring totally true but like me they do influence people on how willing they are to part with their hard earned cash.

[briaboy]

From the UAD forum....

"(David's)...emotional post (totally understandable) was poorly worded. He said "many" (when it's really a few) and someone took that and changed it to "majority" (crazy huh?) and off we went...."

[hurdy gurdy]

Originally Posted by Eric Lambert

This wasn't a hire-and-fire scenario -- Dave was with UA for almost 2 1/2 years. A lot happens in that length of time in this industry.

Why are assumptions leading to such negativity? None of us truly knows what happened or why. If anyone is paying attention to the tech sector, layoffs have become quite common.

And again, though I feel bad for Dave and wish he'd remained at UA, he didn't give them his company for free.

Absolutely, huge things happen all the time in the corporate world in no time fast. It's the Wild West out there. I can't wait to get out of the corporate world because it suck's big time! After sleeping on it FWIW my two cents -UA have been around a long time and you can't argue with their success. Who reallyknows but I'm sure we'll continue to see good things from UA.

lb.