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Plugins Reviews/breakdown

stereospace

Active Member
Greetings..

Im a long time UAD user, well actually pretty much only use UAD+real hardware now.. but I thought I'd share this with you..
Its only a share, not factual, and its my personal choices, and what I share may not be good for you...

I will list the ones I own and have used MANY times and how/what on/where etc.. :-

EQ

Harrison 32C

This has been my GOTO plugin for Drums & vocals, the Mid crossover on this EQ is flawless, and great to "beef" up a snare or kick, and brilliant to remove some sizzle from Overheads, really no other EQ comes close to this when mixing drums... I just grab, and go, always works, never fails.

For vocals, its great to add air, and remove any "nasal" mids, I find this EQ is best for Corrective EQ here, and not creative.. (I'll explain a different EQ i use for that later) - but 10/10 I always start with this, for any Vocal.

Cambridge EQ

Well its OK. for some thin Q sculpting, works great for those harsh mids sometimes caught with elec guitars on max overdrive sort of scenario's..but I don't like the high end on this, it thins it out too much, so I just use it for a subtractive "fixing" EQ.

Massive Passive EQ

Disappointing by this, I have a real Massive Passive and have done so many A/B tests, but the warmth or tube strength is not there. - I brought it due to the massive is such a lush EQ that having that available on more places would be fantastic.. but sadly not.. so Now I don't use it at all. (Don't get me wrong, its still great, but because I own the real H/W I know the difference, and I simply wont settle for 2nd best if I have real vs software) if you never used the H/WQ then don't stop, its still fantastic..

Pultec's

Terrible on Drums, but amazing on Bass and guitars.. wow, slam these across your guitar buses for a instant warmup and extra clarity, I use these strictly for, well actually the color and making the tracks im working on either more close or further away in the mix.. great at that!. always use AFTER Comp, never before.

Also my Vocal EQ Spice.. I cant explain it, but it does something to the transients.. (odd for a EQ I know) but makes them smooth and the vocals thank you for that!. really great vocal sweeter.

COMPS

LA-2A's

Well run of the Mill really, UA did a fab job on this to make it sound like the real deal.. I don't own the originals, but have used them many times, and these really do give the Punch on things like the H/W big brothers.

Love these on all things Punch.. so I use them on Drums/ in Comp mode, and then again for Limit mode on Buss. - great on Vocals too, due to the variable speeds of these, be wary how you use them, try not to put too much through one at a time, else you start to loose the point of them and therefor loose the punch.

1176's

My Perfect Bass companions.. really drives the bass guitars hard.. and gives it some edge, (if that's what you like), and personally I do. so I use them here all the time.. I prefer the LA2A for Drums and Vocals, and this on things like Bass and Keys.. its good for Full range and bass range instruments, at least that's what I found..

Fatso's

These fattys are amazing really, I use these all the time, and recently prefer them on my Mixbuss rather than my hardware API2500, Love the richness of the sound, they caught the analogue vibe well on this for sure, I don't think you can make anything sound bad with this on anywhere!...I typically use it for Parallel drum/vocal mixes.

Neve 33609

Never is known for its color, but this is not it!.. I think they just modeled the accuracy of the unit but didn't include the anolouge circuitry? - But its very transparent to me, in fact incredibly so. Bit of a complex beast to get right.. but once you get used to it its great for a submix buss or the mixdown buss. (automate the gain levels for some extra juice going into choruses)

Other

Studer A800

Well This is always first & last on my mixbuss, I experiment with different tapes...for varied flavors... but its random the results, sometimes its "wow" other times it can break a mix. depends on lots of equations within the rest of the mix obviously.. but this is always there regardless, and sometimes as I sad can take time to get right..
(i will cheat here and say that I use Slates VCC on every track aswell)

Cooper Time Cube

I was after some FAT delay, mostly for slapback things and a bit of guitar delays to mix in that offers the subtle warmth of older gear. and this was it.. - most delys I use are great on there own, but too sterile most of the time.. but the cooper has that true vibe feeling.

Ocean Way

Well I had massive high Hopes for this.. as sometimes as a mix engineer (and as you all know) we get send some god awful tracks sometimes.. that you often think.. damm why didn't they just do..... well this was my answer to that. but sadly, never actually been impressed with anything so far... - had decent results once on a drum buss, using it to add extra "room" to them.. by adding it in parallel and blending to taste, but just gave massive comb filtering no matter what you did.. so ended up knocking it off, and I try to get into it, but never seem too.. everything always just seems too far away, despite setting the mics closest including the time align features..I wont knock is all the way down just yet, but I think its way overpriced for what it is.. that I think some good IR's can do better with a bit of EQ tweaking to help...

SPL Transient Designer

Great, and brilliant for Kick drums.. to bring out soem sustained boom, that you dont want to compress and can be interesting to use it in a arty way too. - i.e Let the attack be negative so there is barely any transients, then over compress with your fav comp, and hear some interesting results. - then clamp it down again with more transient imaging, and you can have some cool effects....just a good fund plugin, I use it for Kicks and acoustic guitars.

SPL TwinTube

Ok this is amazing also, but it can also be destructive, if used subtly, it can have quite an impact of bringing out the vocal (especially male) - gives it some grit, without the need of pushing it further away or closer in the mix. - so a lil harmonic values can really change the "figure" of the voice, but ONLY in a positive way. as the old saying goes.. a little goes a long way.. this is true here!



Typical Scenario...

Track: KICK - Plugins in order. :-

Slate VCC
Harrison EQ (control rumble, if this fails then Cambridge)
LA2A give some Squeeze and peak control
SPL Trans (if applicable)
Harrison EQ (making it sound sweet)

Track: VOCAL :-

Slate VCC
Cambridge/Harrison EQ (Corrective)
LA2A (Peak and level control)
Pultec EQ (Give some sheen/shine)
SPL TwinTube (give a lil air and fidelity)

Track: BASS

Slate VCC
Cambridge EQ (corrective)
1176 (Bring it all together GLUE)
Harrison/Pultec EQ (Making it work)
SPL Trans (if applicable)
Pultec (Automation EQ only) to Automate the amount of bass in diff parts)

Track: SUBMIX/MASTER

Struder A800
Fatso's (Only subtle, controlling only)
Neve 33609, (For automation of Gain/levels) and subtle Comp.
Cambridge (Final EQ, corrective only, Small amounts)
Struder A800 (Set to final sound before Print)

---> this then goes to 2buss, where
Massive Passive
Api2500 live for final Mixdown
(using a Neve 8816 btw)


So, as long winded as this post is.. but is UA worth it.. YES and NO!.. whilst they supply great characters of equipment, but There is just too much of this in today's market.. with software and the pinnacle of todays engineering, time to be creative I think and do something new and unique...

I don't have the full range of UAD2 Plugs like some of you do, but I'd never want them either. there will be too much choice, and in my world if you have too much then you try to use it all, and rather than getting to REALLY know your equipment you end up going round in circles, and your mix will suffer.

Hope this has helped anyone thinking to get any of these plugins.

Thought I'd share
now Be well.

SS

EDIT: Updated, added TwinTube
 
Last edited:

mpayne0

Venerated Member
Yep. It was indeed!

Get some channel strips to talk about!

BTW, are you reviewing MKI or II for the comps?
 

Dhallas

New Member
Another good plug in is the dbx 160. I have the vu h/w to compare and really dig the plug on kick, snare and bass. just touch the meters with level and feel the attack. i also love the emt 140.
 

DanButsu

Administrator
Forum Admin
Moderator
Awesome read. Thanks for sharing!
 

masque

Venerated Member
great post! thanks for taking the time to share your thoughts on all those plugs and how you use them!
 
nice post my man. and i agree with your view of too many choices with plugins.
 

masque

Venerated Member
well theres four minutes of my life I will never get back....lol :D
 

UAD2

Active Member
If only he could get over his reticence and tell us what he really thinks ?:)
I'm not sure why he's so upset because he doesn't even own the VoG (he's running it in demo mode). :roll: He makes the assumption that UA didn't model the VoG. Maybe Steinberg modeled it too or maybe they used UA's curve as a reference.

I don't know why he's blaming UA for all his woes, but he ought to buy it first before bitching about it in the way he did. (It would also help his argument if he owned the hardware version of the VoG before accusing UA of not accurately modeling it.) However, the video does bring up an important point for people to see what's included with their DAWs before impulsively buying anyone's plug-ins. Plug-in technology is improving across the board every year so it's not surprising that Steinberg's tools would improve too. It doesn't mean that UA didn't do their job well. Maybe they both did. :idea:
 

Syncamorea

Established Member
More God on the cowbell!
 

shaytron

Active Member
He makes the assumption that UA didn't model the VoG. Maybe Steinberg modeled it too or maybe they used UA's curve as a reference.

I don't know why he's blaming UA for all his woes, but he ought to buy it first before bitching about it in the way he did. (It would also help his argument if he owned the hardware version of the VoG before accusing UA of not accurately modeling it.)

that's the best part - he's not accusing UA of failing to accurately model the VoG. he just claims that it isn't as unique of a tool in the software world as it is in the hardware world, and that UA shouldn't market it so aggressively. he thinks it's ok for littlelabs to charge $500 for the hardware version, because it's harder to find hardware resonant high pass filters - but as soon as UA makes a software version for a fraction of the cost, it's a crime, because there are other (cheaper) ways to accomplish a similar thing.

one of the biggest blowhards i've ever encountered, and that's saying a lot in the internet age.
 
Thanks for the info.
 
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