Home | Electric Guitar | Acoustic Guitar | Bass | Effects | Keys & Synth | Drums & Perc | Software | Computer | Recording/Live Sound | MIDI

Community

Resources
127th AES Convention Coverage (New York, NY Oct. 9-12)
Harmony Central Winter NAMM 2007 Coverage
Anaheim, California: January 18 - 21
Winter NAMM 2007 Home | Videos | User Picks | Complete Coverage
Guitar/Bass | Keys, Synth, Samplers / DJ | Software | Recording / Live Sound | Drums & Perc
PRESS RELEASE

Universal Audio Introduces UAD-Xpander ExpressCard DSP System For Laptops

January 20, 2007

Universal Audio, a manufacturer of high-quality vintage audio hardware and DSP software plug-ins for digital audio workstations, today announced the UAD-Xpander, an ExpressCard DSP system for laptops. The UAD-Xpander will be offered in 3 versions: the UAD-Xpander Xpress (Estimated street price $999 including a UAD$500 voucher), the UAD-Xpander Xpert (Estimated street price $1399 including a UAD$1000 voucher), and the UAD-Xpander Xtreme (Estimated street price $2199 including all UAD plug-ins to v4.5 - almost $3000 value). The UAD-Xpander Xtreme will uniquely feature a highly polished chassis with custom Xpander logo. All UAD-Xpander's are expected to ship Q1 2007.

"The UAD-Xpander is the worlds first ExpressCard-based audio product and offers the legions of laptop-based musicians, remixers & producers a state-of-the art solution to running the sonically superior UAD plug-ins on the road. " said Mike Barnes, VP of Marketing for Universal Audio. "Now professional mobile mixing and mastering is a reality and the new ExpressCard bus means that laptop customers can enjoy the same power as the UAD desktop solutions. Our UAD-Xtenda PCIe to ExpressCard adapter also means you can even switch your UAD-Xpander between laptop and desktop PC's."

Key Features Include:

  • 44.1-192k Mac/PC DSP Audio Accelerator for laptops
  • Noiseless, Fanless, Alumi-Cool chassis design
  • Ultra-fast (2.5Gbps) ExpressCard 34 interface
  • Includes 14 Powered Plug-ins & UAD$ voucher
  • Travel-Case with compartments for all components
  • Optional UAD-Xtenda kit with PCIe desktop adapter
"ExpressCard is the future for all DAW-class notebook PC's including the MacBook Pro and many PC laptops, and provides PCI Express connectivity in a small form factor. It naturally supercedes Cardbus just as PCI Express has evolved as a significant enhancement from PCI." said Joe Bryan, VP of Technology at UA. "The ExpressCard 34 module allows us to deploy our existing mature and very stable cross-platform drivers to the widest range of Mac/PC laptop customers, and with over 6x the bandwidth of FireWire S400, it offers headroom for future UAD developments. By using the ExpressCard port for high-performance DSP, we offload the lower-bandwidth FireWire ports so they can be used for critical audio IO and hard disc traffic. "

About the UAD DSP Card
At the heart of every UAD DSP Card & Powered Plug-Ins package is the revolutionary UAD DSP card. Because of its high resolution, floating-point processing, ultra high-speed memory and hardware dithering, the UAD delivers outstanding high-headroom sound quality at sample rates from 32 to 192khz. Unlike other DSP cards, the UAD uses a single, unpartitioned vector processor, allowing for larger and more sophisticated plug-in algorithms offering a new level of power and complexity not found with host-based plug-ins. By greatly reducing the burden on the computer's CPU, the host application can now deliver more tracks, automation and native effects.

   

(Click for close-up)

For more information, visit their web site at http://www.uaudio.com/.

68 readers say this product rates (out of 5):
4.09
Vote on this product!
Based on the article, what do you think of this product? (1-boring 5-cool)
1 2 3 4 5   

Recent Universal Audio headlines

More Universal Audio Headlines

Similar Products at Musician's Friend
Email: webmaster@harmony-central.com | © 1995-2009 Harmony Central, Inc. All rights reserved.