Question

Is there still an advantage in using a DSP-powered audio interfaces?  For example, the UAD plug-ins.

Answer 1

In a world of powerful CPUs and low-latency audio interfaces, the biggest advantage of DSP-powered audio interfaces is the quality of their effects plug-ins. A hardware DSP based system has a clearly defined but also clearly limited amount of processing power. Native processing adds flexibility to the system. In a modern DAW such as Studio One, both types can be safely and reliably used side-by-side.