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.
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