To expand the processing power available for my growing collection of Universal Audio plugins, the UAD-2 Satellite Octo is a welcome addition. The unit itself has very little in terms of connections, simply a power connector and a USB3 port. It essentially adds an addition 8 SHARC DSP processors available for my DAW, increasing the total number to 10 including the 2 inside the Apollo Twin USB. Connection and installation was very straight forward as my UAD-2 install already had the drivers ready for the unit to be connected. I just had to go through the very simple registration process online for the Octo to be available under the UA Console application.
With both the Apollo and the Satellite units being external devices I will be able to easily use them with any other system I might want to run my UA plugins on. I might well purchase a laptop at a later stage and this will be flexible for use in other locations.
I had actually decided to hold off purchasing this as there had been a significant price increase over the last few weeks. I suspect this was as a result of recent exchange rate changes against the dollar. However, this had dropped a little, though not down to the previous level. I contemplated doing something in the new year. Early in January UA added a promotion on the expanders giving a substantial reduction below even the lowest price. It was an opportunity not to be missed. Andertons had one in stock and I ordered on a Sunday and to my surprise it was actually dispatched that day and arrived the following day (Monday) - now that's a first for me!