Today I just went to the studio and spent 4 hours trying out the new set of plugins, comparing them musically to both the other UAD plugs and Waves SSL which I love. So let's get the show on the road!
Neve 88RS EQ:
In the \"opinions\" thread the neve strip hasn't got a lot of praise. People are underwhelmed by it.. IMO I'm overwhelmed I've been to heaven and it was every bit as good as I thought it would be :lol: . The very first thing that came into my mind when I first engaged the EQ on a guitar track was that \"this sounds extremely close to the action and vibe I'm used to with our Amek 9098 strips\". This is EXACTLY what I was looking for in a channel strip. A very clean sounding EQ for all the \"bread & butter\" stuff. It does that thing that the 1073, 1081, Helios and Pultec can't do. What I was missing in the UAD range was just this! All the other stuff is GREAT, but has so much vintage vibe to it that it just can't be used for the majority of processing that I've until now used the Waves SSL strip for. I also got to say that I think the SSL and Neve 88RS complement eachother beautifully. The SSL still has a character compared to the Neve that I find better in maybe 20% of cases, but I really did prefer the Neve 88RS on 8 out of 10 occations compared to the SSL channel.
When comparing the EQ to the other UAD EQs the thing that comes to my mind is that \"yeah, this is exactly how it's supposed to be\". You know, there is a reason why people have Pultecs and 1073's in studios with the large format consoles just because the console is there for the \"day to day\" stuff while character can be introduced with just patching in the right vintage style gear. So the bottom line is that.. yeah, this sure sounds like a console!
Neve 88RS Dyn:
Also a big fan of this section compared to the SSL channel. The SSL easily sounds \"cheap\" to me when using the compressor (although the gate and expander are pretty damn nice) but the Neve just blows it out of the water. It's again a superb \"middle of the road\" compressor for the day to day processing. Love the snap and agression you get with it on drums and the over-the-top squash that just sounds awesome on backingvocals! Again compared to the the other stuff like the 1176, LA2A, Fairchild it is a compressor with far less character and non-linearities. That's exactly what I want in a console channel strip! The Gate/Expander section is really nothing out of the ordinary to me, it just sounds very good and does what it's supposed to. It can be very quick and still sound great (which again the SSL channel has a little trouble with) and the expander is very smooth and lovely.
Neve 88RS Filters:
Sounds very smooth and musical compared to the SSL and other filters. I would've liked an 18db/oct slope personally.. but hey you can't have it all. 8)
In Use:
* Backing Vocals - It's so good for modern sounding backing vox. The high-end has the etheral modern sound that I was always missing with the other plugins and the dynamic squash with 25db on them sounded better to me than any other UAD compressor I tried.
* Drums - Really great for getting snap and attitude out of drum tracks. I do still prefer the 33609 since it adds an edge to the sound that the 88RS doesn't. For the modern clean sounding drums... great! For the old school vibe... get the old vintage plugins!
* Guitars - What can I tell you.. I'm still a sucker for the 1073 on rock guitars, but this thing KILLS on cleaner stuff like acoustic and clean electric. Beautiful! Again the modern sound that I was missing.
* Lead Vox - Again can't really understand why some people seem to hesitate putting it on a lead vocal track. It sounds killer if the modern/pushed sound is what you want. Sounds cooler to me than using the 1176 for extreme compression since I think it starts to sound fake a bit too early, but again this is a 33609 fav of mine!
Neve 88RS EQ:
In the \"opinions\" thread the neve strip hasn't got a lot of praise. People are underwhelmed by it.. IMO I'm overwhelmed I've been to heaven and it was every bit as good as I thought it would be :lol: . The very first thing that came into my mind when I first engaged the EQ on a guitar track was that \"this sounds extremely close to the action and vibe I'm used to with our Amek 9098 strips\". This is EXACTLY what I was looking for in a channel strip. A very clean sounding EQ for all the \"bread & butter\" stuff. It does that thing that the 1073, 1081, Helios and Pultec can't do. What I was missing in the UAD range was just this! All the other stuff is GREAT, but has so much vintage vibe to it that it just can't be used for the majority of processing that I've until now used the Waves SSL strip for. I also got to say that I think the SSL and Neve 88RS complement eachother beautifully. The SSL still has a character compared to the Neve that I find better in maybe 20% of cases, but I really did prefer the Neve 88RS on 8 out of 10 occations compared to the SSL channel.
When comparing the EQ to the other UAD EQs the thing that comes to my mind is that \"yeah, this is exactly how it's supposed to be\". You know, there is a reason why people have Pultecs and 1073's in studios with the large format consoles just because the console is there for the \"day to day\" stuff while character can be introduced with just patching in the right vintage style gear. So the bottom line is that.. yeah, this sure sounds like a console!
Neve 88RS Dyn:
Also a big fan of this section compared to the SSL channel. The SSL easily sounds \"cheap\" to me when using the compressor (although the gate and expander are pretty damn nice) but the Neve just blows it out of the water. It's again a superb \"middle of the road\" compressor for the day to day processing. Love the snap and agression you get with it on drums and the over-the-top squash that just sounds awesome on backingvocals! Again compared to the the other stuff like the 1176, LA2A, Fairchild it is a compressor with far less character and non-linearities. That's exactly what I want in a console channel strip! The Gate/Expander section is really nothing out of the ordinary to me, it just sounds very good and does what it's supposed to. It can be very quick and still sound great (which again the SSL channel has a little trouble with) and the expander is very smooth and lovely.
Neve 88RS Filters:
Sounds very smooth and musical compared to the SSL and other filters. I would've liked an 18db/oct slope personally.. but hey you can't have it all. 8)
In Use:
* Backing Vocals - It's so good for modern sounding backing vox. The high-end has the etheral modern sound that I was always missing with the other plugins and the dynamic squash with 25db on them sounded better to me than any other UAD compressor I tried.
* Drums - Really great for getting snap and attitude out of drum tracks. I do still prefer the 33609 since it adds an edge to the sound that the 88RS doesn't. For the modern clean sounding drums... great! For the old school vibe... get the old vintage plugins!
* Guitars - What can I tell you.. I'm still a sucker for the 1073 on rock guitars, but this thing KILLS on cleaner stuff like acoustic and clean electric. Beautiful! Again the modern sound that I was missing.
* Lead Vox - Again can't really understand why some people seem to hesitate putting it on a lead vocal track. It sounds killer if the modern/pushed sound is what you want. Sounds cooler to me than using the 1176 for extreme compression since I think it starts to sound fake a bit too early, but again this is a 33609 fav of mine!