Universal Audio Reviews 121

Their plugin manager ua Connect is a crock of s☆☆t.
After every Windows 11 update that installs - problems are experienced with their plugin manager uad connect which stalls unexpectedly after an update.
They need to major overhaul this flakey program big time and make it stable - after all - we pay enough for their plugins that arent cheap (although they should be giving them away after this experience).
They need to take a leaf out of korg / waves / bx plugins plugin management apps / systems, ditch the antiquated ilok crap and bring themselves into the 21st century and maybe then we might have a plugin management system that actually works.
By the way - telling people to uninstall reinstall uad connect on your website is not a solution around the problems your software causes and the studio downtime taken to put this s☆☆t right everytime.
Get the software working properly and ditch ilok - let's have some movement on this sooner than later - your product is total crap at the moment!!!

Universal Audio has seriously lost its way.

As much as I love their hardware and plugins, their policies are a mess. First, you have to install the UA Connect app to get the Apollo Twin drivers, which is fine... until they dump 11GB of plugins onto your machine, most of which I don’t even have licenses for, like why?

It’s just unnecessary bloat, and I end up spending ages deleting stuff I don’t need. And once you’ve got the drivers installed, you can’t even get rid of UA Connect without breaking UAD Console. So now I’m stuck with this app I don’t want...it never used to be like this.

Then, if you ever need to restore from a Time Machine backup on a Mac, forget about it. Apple blocks the UAD extension and makes you reinstall everything, including that 11GB of junk.

I reached out to Universal Audio, and they’re not interested in changing any of this. So, I’m done with the UAD "family" (or for want of a better word, cult)

Switched to a Focusrite 18i20...Install the drivers, and everything just works. No bloatware or restrictions.

Well done Universal Audio, you’ve really messed up...Creativity should never be this complicated.

I am writing to formally complain about the business practices of software companies (specifically Sonnox and IK Multimedia), which I believe are in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 regarding unfair contract terms.

I have invested over £5,000 in legal software licenses. However, these companies are effectively preventing me from exercising my right to resell my property by imposing exorbitant 'license transfer fees'. In some instances, the fee is as high as £50 per individual plugin.

This is not a reasonable administrative cost; it is a predatory financial barrier designed to destroy the secondary market. By making the cost of transfer nearly equal to the market value of the product, these companies are:

Confiscating my digital assets by making them unsellable.

Engaging in monopolistic behavior by forcing users into a closed ecosystem.

Circumventing established case law regarding the exhaustion of distribution rights for software.

I request that you investigate these fees as they constitute an unfair burden on the consumer and a clear abuse of market position. A 'transfer' is an automated database entry change that should cost a nominal fee, not a ransom.

Cette marque est une honte ! J’ai acheté une UA Arrow il y a plus de 3 ans, et elle est littéralement en train de me lâcher dans les mains. Elle ne sort plus de son depuis mon MacBook Pro : il faut le redémarrer pour réinitialiser l’extension du noyau et récupérer du son. Et quand ça marche, c’est parfois un grésillement.

UA ne tient pas ses engagements et ne maintient pas son matériel. Le fric, toujours le fric. Fuyez ! Plus jamais je n’achèterai chez UA. En plus d’un support catastrophique, je dois me taper des plugins qui coûtent la peau de Luc pour pas grand-chose. Inadmissible. Plus jamais cette marque.

Si je veux de la qualité, j’irai chez Focusrite ou RME. Vraiment, fuyez !

WORST SUPPORT I HAVE EVER EXPERIENCED IN MY LIFE!

very bad company, not offer any form of support or email to contact them. chat is completely uses as it's AI and not offer connecting with human, so bad

Long time customer and have spent thousands on hardware and software. I keep having to re-install software and have managed to get 2 different accounts going that need to be merged. The AI Bot help keeps crashing and not allowing me to create a support ticket. This in pathetic for a company with a long history of superior products

no service no response no phone no help whatsover

Universal Audio makes the world's best audio interfaces and plugins. End of story. I've owned the Apollo interface and that thing captures crystal clear audio. Recently got their Oxide Tape plugin and let me tell you none of my other tape plugins compare, including Baby Audio, Arturia, and Softube. Oxide Tape brings the warmth and the sizzle. I am absolutely shocked. Same thing goes for their Pultec plugin. As far as I know, they simply are an elite company.

Nonexistent customer service. They spam you with advertising emails that you cannot unsubscribe from. You can click the unsubscribe-link in their emails and it takes you to a form that does absolutely nothing, no matter how many times you use it to unsubscribe. You can't manage your email notifications in your account settings. You also can't manually delete your account. I've requested deletion well over a week ago using their dedicated deletion request form, but I've yet to hear back from them and I doubt I ever will.

All I wanted to do was try out the free version of LUNA. To do that I had to go through quite an arduous installation process using their UA Connect installation manager. The free software requires you to use iLok as well, to install the free license, if you can believe that.

Had to jump through a lot of hoops to get my Arrow installed on Mac. Installing the drivers is a pain because you have to lower your security on MacOS first.

I thought it was because the device might have been developed for 'Windows first'.. only to find out I cannot get it to work properly on Windows at all. After installing it just freezes my computer for half a second every few seconds.

Looked online and it's all very common. The hardware might be nice.. but the software (and especially the drivers) are absolutely awful.

Would never recommend anyone to buy UA hardware. The problems have been going on for years and they have yet to fix it. You cannot trust this company with reliable drivers/software.

The thing where this company forces you to have ALL their plugins listed in Logic Pro makes their product unusable to me. It completly destroyed my workflow in Logic Pro with these cluttered menus. To find your EQ you now have to scroll through 80 plugins that you dont own to find your EQ. Same in every menu. You dig your own downfall right now as we are MANY who are leaving your products after 10-15 years of using them, only because of this shameful sales tactic that makes you wanna puke all over your Apollo and throw it in the trash where it belongs. This was the last company I thought would do something like this so im pretty surprised.

Time for something new with freedom, never will I buy any nasty UAD product ever again in my life. Good job guys 👍

So much blabla about this company...

Black Friday and another occasion for a free plugin ?! Would be stup|d not to try this company once in my life...

What an error.

Have to give so much click, data, profiles to register on iLock (?!), UAD connect (?!), uad site, etc ...
..and in the end to get the uad connect thing not working and "this coupon has already been claimed". W. the F. ???
And so much ads and no real button or windows about what is installed where etc.
The worst user experience till now.
Though kontakt was. You get it further, guys, wahou...

Summarize :

No easy test for just a product = no way to say it could maybe be good.

Accordingly :

ANY OTHER PRODUCT YOU CAN REALLY TEST ARE DE FACTO BETTER.

And far better than those adds and adds and adds and no plugin downloadable (ad lib).
If you are using your PC without connection, bloatwares, security ressources suc.er and so on, this kind of marketing will never bring money to those so smart people.

To UAD : you can satisfy catching new born pigeons from time to time.

Pigeons always learn to fly. And in 2025 they speak all together.
WavesAudio = +800 avis / average note above 4,4/5 (on this site where mainly people complain!!) and sooooo many good plugins and faaar better priced....
So, honestly... UAD you lost my time, but it's okay for saving my money, thx !

Some of the reviews on here are proof positive some people shouldn’t be let anywhere near a computer.

Universal Audio make some of the premiere top tier plug ins and audio gear I use every day. Their eco system is such that you get to use powerful industry standard, tried and tested plug ins and hardware. Their customer service relies on their support site and they do get back to you, are super helpful and encouraging. I’ve had little problem with UA.

Stay away from UAD. Bought UAD complete 3 and UAD Complete 4 released about 9 - 10 days after purchasing UAD Complete 3. No grace periods they didnt upgrade me for free. Instead they are asking for 149 USD to upgrade. Ridiculous. UAD doesnt care about its customers. Support companies like Steniberg who gave me a free upgrade to CUBASE 15 pro with an amazing 5 weeks grace period. UAD will burn your pocket and not care about you.

A few years ago, I had the opportunity to do a side by side comparison of audio interfaces by different manufacturers. I was a little shocked at how much better the Apollo interfaces sounded compared to competitors.
I now own an Apollo Twin Mk2 and Apollo x6. Both are fantastic.
I had a recent experience with their customer support, which was pretty good overall - especially after the case was forwarded to a senior specialist.
Plugin quality is pretty outstanding.
But - while they sound great, are stable, and work well, the installer always installs all plugins - including the ones you have not purchased - in all formats, which literally wastes gigabytes of disk space, and requires tedious manual clean up after every install and update.

Kann mein Plugin nicht mehr verkaufen nacxh Verkauf Hardware... toll

A dinosaur company that will not survive much longer. customer assistance is a scam, apps and plugins are now no better than most of their competitors. The experience is like out of the 90s at best. Outclassed now. Nothing they offer can't be done with reliable products like Isotope, FabFilters or even stock plugs from Logic these days. No wonder UA dump their products like milk pat the sell by date. But the graphics are still good, congrats!!

2 stars ONLY because my Apollo drags the UAD customer experience rating out of the toilet.

Seriously, CS at this company is a joke. I am not even going into specifics but query response wait time is laughable. It's as though they have, like, 3 reps to field hundreds of queries a day or something. One would figure paying a premium for their great equipment might ensure a decent if not exemplary care for their customers. Not so. It's as though they figured a major price drop (during sales) in their plugins would suffice. This "Let them eat cake" attitude is surely biting them on the *ss as so many are complaining. They really ought to get this part of their game in order.