UA 710 Twin-Finity and UAD-2 bundled
| Posted in Music Technology
The Universal Audio 710 Twin-Finity is the subject of a reinvigorated buzz among studio owners this afternoon since the announcement of a new deal from the manufacturer offering a bundled UAD-2 Solo DSP Accelerator card with the microphone preamp. Though the 710 Twin-Finity was first launched in 2008, the inclusion of the UAD-2 Solo card has sparked fresh interest in the 2U, half-rack preamp.
While much of the renewed interest is undoubtedly due to the promise of picking up a UAD-2 Solo effectively for free, home studio fanatics are nevertheless now taking a fresh look at the preamp itself and finding out what made it a hit in the first place.
According to UA, the 710 Twin-Finity was “created to add the tonal versatility and sonic inspiration missing from generic audio interface preamps”, and upon its launch it was greeted with enthusiasm by the press. Reviewers particularly latched on to the inclusion of a ‘blend knob’ in the design that enables the user to move smoothly between a 100 per cent transistor signal to a 100 per cent tube signal, meaning owners can find their own signature preamp sound.
Also included within the 710 Twin-Finity feature set are dual gain-stage controls so that users can vary the amount of colouration and distortion within the preamp by turning up the gain (more than 70dB) much as a guitarist might crank up the gain on an amplifier. The VU meter boasts a mode named ‘Drive’ which has been designed to report on how hard the preamp’s input section is being driven. Nor is the Twin-Finity just for microphones – the inclusion of discreet JFET DI inputs means that it can handle electric guitars, bass guitars and other electric instruments.
In terms of creating a renewed interest in the Twin-Finity, Universal Audio could not have settled on a better option to bundle with the preamp than the UAD-2 Solo, which is viewed by many as the point of entry into a definitive software DSP platform, delivering the sound and channel-counts of large format analogue consoles plus a growing fleet of plug-ins created to emulate classic and respected hardware processors. As recently as NAMM 2010, UA announced partnerships with Dunlop, Lexicon, Studer, DBX and Manley Labs to produce software versions of each manufacturer’s best known products.
Will this new offer spark a number of UAD-2 flavoured deals in the coming months? The likelihood is that the pairing is a one-off opportunity. Nonetheless, it means that fans of home recording can adopt the UAD-2 platform for free while picking up an impressive mic preamp to boot in the shape of the 710 Twin-Finity.
About Barney Jameson
A contributor, editor and in some cases creator of more music and pro audio magazines than he cares to remember, Barney Jameson is a veteran of writing about gear, and a pretty keen singer songwriter to boot.
Having started his musical education reading old copies of the Melody Maker while riding the tube to University in the mid-nineties, Barney once sang in a band called Sugarstone, troubling record company chequebooks not quite enough to make it a career option. Instead, he achieved his goal of starting a music magazine of his own when he founded Playmusic in the early noughties. Later on, having exploited VIP access to as many festivals as possible, he wrote about the pro audio industry throughout Europe and the Middle East, travelling to far-flung destinations such as Dubai, Doha and Muscat (nice mountains).
As the latest addition to the DV247 team, Barney has big plans. But when he’s not plotting online domination of the musical instrument world, he keeps himself busy writing songs on a battered old acoustic guitar and playing them to audiences in his home town.
Tags: UAD-1, UAD-2, Universal Audio mic preamp