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At little over the size of a DVD case, the Satellite is easy to transport.

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We've covered UAD's plug-in releases for the last couple of years and, particularly with the release of the UAD-2 card, have watched the company grow and grow.

With more and more esteemed names added to the roster of manufacturers who have teamed up with UA's software boffins, it's now possible to replicate the sound of Neve or SSL console mixes, add Moog filtering to instrument paths or even replicate the sound of Studer tape.

The list keeps growing and, with the imminent release of software Version 5.9, Lexicon's 224 reverb and new collaborations with Brainworx and SPL are soon to be added.

"Now you can sling your entire software studio in a bag and take it from computer to computer."

This is and has been good news for existing UAD card holders but, as many reading this will testify, there are tons of us who now work on laptops, iMacs and Mac Minis, for whom full UAD compatibility has been impossible.

If you find yourself in this frustrated group, the subject of this review should be music to your ears, as the UAD-2 Satellite is an external FireWire 400/800 device, which gives any of those Macs, and more, access UA's software plug-ins.

Burning Your Mixes Up

It's worth indulging in a little history here, as those with older or less fully spec'd Macs will no doubt be wondering whether they'll be able to run these high-quality plugs.

The UAD system contains its own processing power and, in the case of Satellite, is available with either two (Duo) or four (Quad) SHARC processors that handle all of the processing required to run the plug-ins.

As this is the case, even systems which struggle to run more than a handful of native plug-ins from your computer's CPU, will be able to access as many UAD-2 plugs as machines with processing power to burn. It goes without saying that there's no quality loss either - card or external box the way the data flows might be different but the sound is identical.

There are some restrictions over which computers are compatible with Satellite however. You need to be running an Intel-based Mac (there's currently no support for PC) and you need to have Snow Leopard 10.6.4 as the minimum software requirement.

UAD released a new operating system to coincide with the release of Satellite in the form of Version 5.8.1 so this needs to be downloaded but thereafter you're away with the plug-ins themselves capable of operating within AU, VST or RTAS hosts.

Special mention to the ease in registering the system (which is available with various 'suites' of plugs from the off). Installing your particular suite and (they hope) buying new plugs and having them appear in your library, is a breeze. All the UAD-2 plugs appear (there's over 40 of them) and should you go for one that you don't own you're invited to activate it as a timed trial or click the 'to buy it right from within your DAW. Very slick and almost too easy…