For years, Universal Audio’s world-class plugins were only available for owners of their hardware units. The introduction of UAD Spark has changed all that. It is a subscription model that allows users to access an evergrowing library of their plugins natively. Any plugins that users purchase for use with UAD hardware will be provided natively at no cost, and the current cost of $149 yearly is competitive with comparable plug-in subscriptions. If you were to open a mix or mastering session of mine, you’d discover plenty of instances of UAD plugins. Let’s break down some of my favorite products available for UAD Spark, and how I use them when working.
UAD SPARK PLUGINS
1. Studer A800
While there are newer tape saturation plugins on the market, I’ve yet to find anything that challenges the sound quality, versatility, and authentic feeling of the Studer A800. 12 months of work went into this emulation of the classic tape machine, and you can sense the attention to detail in every facet of the plug-in. Now available for UAD Spark, the feature-rich Studer includes four unique tape types, each with their own tonality and responsiveness, as well as EQ and bias controls that can be tweaked to transform everything from vocals to strings, to drums. Have a listen on drums:
Mix Insight: I use the Studer for too many different applications to share just one. It’s a saturator, equalizer, and even a sort of compressor all in one. I suggest sitting down with the manual, opening up a multitrack, and playing around until you feel more comfortable with it.
‘NOISE OFF’: Not sure why the original Studer A800 didn’t have this feature
Note: In these examples, Version A is with no effect, Version B is with a bit of top end added using the HF Driver, and Version C is a saturated, vintage, noisy special effect sound.
2. Empirical Labs Distressor
UAD collaborated with Dave Derr from Empirical Labs to carefully craft this comprehensive emulation of the iconic EL8 Distressor. Introduced to the market in 1993, the Distressor quickly became a favorite among engineers due to its rapid attack, capacity to shape transients boldly, and distinctive harmonic qualities. Dave Derr enthusiastically supported Universal Audio’s interpretation of his cherished hardware compressor, proclaiming it as “the best Distressor emulation in the world.”
The EL8 has pretty much everything you’d need in a compressor—8 different ratio settings, a detector circuit that can be tweaked to alter the tonality of the unit, distortion settings for adding harmonic content, and much more. Differentiating itself from the hardware unit, the UAD Spark version has a mix blend knob, as well as a headroom control.
A pair of hardware Distressors, now available as a plugin for UAD Spark
Mix insight: While you should obviously try out the Distressor on drums for its renowned power and punch, don’t sleep on it for sources that need a touch of “attitude” including vocals and bass. I like dialing in pretty extreme settings (10 dB of gain reduction or more) and then dialing back the mix knob, allowing some of the dry signal through.
Note: In these examples, Version A is with no effect, Version B is with a large amount of compression, and Version C is also with a large amount of compression, but with the HP Detector enabled, allowing the resulting signal to have more bass.
3. Capitol Chambers
Universal Audio, in collaboration with Capitol Studios, developed the Capitol Chambers plug-in, a remarkable emulation of the legendary echo chambers beneath the iconic Capitol Tower in Los Angeles. Drawing inspiration from the rich history of these subterranean chambers, utilized on recordings by musical legends like Ray Charles and Frank Sinatra, the plug-in recreates decades of unparalleled hi-fi ambience. Through meticulous research and development, UA utilized historical technical diagrams from the early ’60s to precisely replicate the microphone and speaker configurations found in Capitol’s chambers. This includes vintage setups with Altec 21D mics and custom speaker/horn configurations, as well as modern configurations using Shure SM80s, all positioned exactly as they were during the creation of countless hits.
The Capitol Chambers plug-in offers a groundbreaking level of control with its Position slider, allowing users to manipulate spatial and time responses by repositioning the chamber mics. Whether adjusting from the maximum distance stock positions to experimenting with direct speaker-to-microphone effects, this tool provides unparalleled versatility. From subtly enhancing vocals or drums to saturating strings with the most natural and intricate reverb ever recorded, Capitol Chambers stands as a testament to Universal Audio’s commitment to delivering an authentic and timeless audio experience.
Mix Insight: While stereo reverbs are undoubtedly effective for creating a sense of width and depth, I quite enjoy using the Capitol Chambers in mono for generating rich, vintage reverb tails. Mono verbs can place an element back in space, potentially creating further separation of anything placed within a stereo reverb.
Note: In these examples, Version A is with no effect, Version B is with a short decay, and Version C is with a much longer decay.
4. Manley VOXBOX Channel Strip
The Manley VOXBOX Channel Strip plug-in is an authentic emulation of Manley’s exquisite tube-driven preamp, dynamics, and EQ circuits specifically designed for vocals. This plug-in faithfully captures the elevated, smooth sonics of the modern boutique hardware, featuring a high-fidelity Class-A tube mic preamp, smooth optical compressor, Pultec-style passive EQ, and a transparent de-esser/limiter. When employed properly, the result is vocals that are clear, detailed, and full of character.
The Manley VOXBOX Channel Strip plug-in enables UAD Spark users to create rich-sounding vocals with the high-fidelity, Class-A tube mic preamp. The Pultec-style passive EQ, with 33 selectable frequencies, allows for sculpting vocals with broad-stroke precision while maintaining sweetness in the top end and definition in the lows, even during extreme boosts and cuts. The flexible optical compressor, consistent with the hardware, provides the ability to tame transients before the preamp, offering exceptionally smooth-sounding tracks with interactive Attack and Release combinations.
At the heart of the Manley VOXBOX is a sublime de-esser, offering ultra-transparent control over sibilance and beyond. The two-knob interface provides complete command over vocals, electric guitars, or bright overheads, while the de-esser frequency control can be turned off to transform this section into an aggressive and colorful limiter.
The beautiful behemoth that is the Manley VOXBOX, now available as a plugin for UAD Spark
Mix Insight: Versatile beyond vocals, the Manley VOXBOX has long served as a secret weapon for bassists, clean electric guitars, strings, and drums, thanks to its high-end tube signal path and musical EQ and compression features. The plug-in’s flexibility extends to Apollo users, who can utilize UA’s Unison technology to track in real-time “through” the Manley VOXBOX Channel Strip plug-in, replicating the original boutique hardware’s line/mic preamp impedance, gain stage “sweet spots,” and precise circuit behaviors for an unparalleled recording experience.
5. API Vision Channel Strip
The API Vision Channel Strip, embodying the distinctive color of API’s flagship analog console, has left an indelible mark on hit albums from Stevie Wonder’s Innervisions to Radiohead’s In Rainbows, delivering punch, presence, and color for over 50 years. In 2013, Universal Audio introduced the API Vision Channel Strip plug-in, faithfully capturing the essence of API’s flagship analog console. The latest API Vision Channel Strip Collection builds on this legacy, offering a more authentic API tone with switchable EQ modules and a meticulously modeled output section. It encompasses the essential recording and mixing functionalities of API’s iconic compression, gating, and filter modules.
This collection enables users to track and mix through an emulation of API’s flagship analog console, sculpt sources with a new 560L series 10-band graphic EQ module, punch up signals through the API 212L preamp, reshape ambience with the 235L Gate/Expander, and tame transients with API’s legendary 225L compression circuit. The Parametric and New Graphic EQs, accessible with a click of the EQ Type button, offer the choice between the revered 550L 4-band parametric EQ and API’s famous 560L series 10-band graphic EQ, allowing users to quickly and effectively shape their sound with analog punch, low-end transparency, and ultra-tight imaging.
The super versatile API Vision Channel Strip
Further, the 225L Compressor, with its versatile and character-filled compression, provides flexibility across various instruments and genres, while selectable “New” and “Old” functions offer distinct compression styles. The API Gate/Expander and Filters, featuring the ultra-fast 235L Noise Gate/Expander and the fully sweepable 215L’s Hi and Lo pass filters, empower users to shape ambience, control noise, and sculpt broad-stroke EQ, preserving the original tone of the source material.
Mix Insight: While this collection of plugins emulates a classic console from before the days when electronic music dominated the charts, there’s something about the thick low-end end and mid-forward nature of API gear that lends itself to hard-hitting electronic drums. I love using this channel strip on kicks, snares, high hats, and even drum buss.
Note: In these examples, Version A is with no effect, Version B is with EQ and compression added, and Version C is with the preamp saturating, as well as EQ and even more compression.
6. EMT 140 Plate
Endorsed by EMT Studiotechnik GmbH, the EMT 140 Classic Plate Reverberator plug-in for UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces delivers the distinctive organic lushness inherent to plate reverbs. Meticulously modeled after three uniquely different EMT 140s installed at The Plant Studios in Sausalito, California, this plug-in captures the iconic warmth and beauty associated with plate reverbs, infusing your sources with an unmistakable sonic character.
With the EMT 140 plug-in, UAD Spark users gain access to three distinct EMT plate reverbs—Plates A and B model the original EMT electronics system, preserving the intentional lack of tuning over time, while Plate C, the most full-frequency plate, incorporates the modern Martech electronics, recently fully serviced for enhanced fidelity. Beyond faithfully emulating the classic hardware, this plug-in introduces new controls for added flexibility, including “plug-in only” features such as Balance, Width, and Modulation. These controls enable users to shape the reverb in novel ways previously unavailable with the hardware, allowing for precise adjustments like isolating a mono snare reverb with the Balance control, expanding the soundstage with Width, or introducing subtle shimmer or intense reverb trails to a lead vocal using the Modulation feature. By incorporating these controls into the original EMT circuit, the EMT 140 plug-in provides a wealth of plate reverb textures suitable for a wide range of sources.
When in doubt, RTFM
Mix Insight: My first instinct is usually to set a long reverb time and let tracks swim in the sweet-sounding tails of the EMT 140, but the rich timbre of these plates do something equally useful when scaled back, even when used as an “ambience” of sorts with the shortest possible reverb time.
Note: In these examples, Version A is with no effect, Version B is with a medium decay length, and Version C is with a longer decay and more reverb applied.
7. Neve 1073
The Neve 1073 Channel Amplifier is arguably the most revered preamp and EQ circuit ever crafted, embodying the iconic “Neve sound” with unparalleled clarity, sheen, and bite since its introduction in 1970. Available within a UAD Spark subscription is the Neve 1073 Preamp & EQ UADx plug-in, offering the world’s only authentic and licensed emulation of this legendary audio history piece. It faithfully replicates the original hardware’s dual-stage “Red Knob” preamp, renowned three-band EQ, and post-fader output amplifier, incorporating all 10 distinct clipping points from the vintage 1970s era hardware for trademark clarity, grit, and harmonically rich class-A saturation.
The Neve 1073 Preamp and EQ Plugin for UAD Spark. This thing gets NASTY.
For the first time, users can experience an end-to-end Neve 1073 circuit emulation with obsessive detail, capturing the essence of the original hardware design. It’s a treat being able to use multiple instances across channels, transforming the DAW into a classic Neve console. The Neve 1073 plug-in meticulously models the vintage “golden unit” channel module from an original Neve 8014 console, ensuring authenticity in every aspect, including the detailed representation of the transformer stage, dual-transistor preamp, three-band active EQ, low cut filter, and post-fader output amplifier, capturing the non-linear behaviors and clipping possibilities across ten different circuit areas
Mix Insight: The preamp offers pure filth when driven hard. Take a DI electric guitar and completely transform it into a violent beast with liberal amounts of preamp gain and additive EQ.
Note: In these examples, Version A is with no effect, Version B is with mild saturation, and Version C is…absolutely disgusting.
8. Galaxy Tape Echo
For anyone interested in a less conventional-sounding time-based effect. I can’t strongly recommend enough the Galaxy Tape Echo, which is a gorgeous emulation of the iconic RE-201 Space Echo from 1973, a revolutionary tape delay/spring reverb system that left an indelible mark on music, gracing the works of Pink Floyd, David Bowie, and pioneering dub artists like King Tubby, Scientist, and Lee “Scratch” Perry. This exhaustive emulation expertly captures the complex device’s physical behavior, including its warm analog echo effects, distortion, musical wow and flutter, sci-fi pitch shifting, and real-time tweakability.
This plug-in offers a wide range of sonic possibilities, allowing users to add subtle tape delay or unleash colorful chaos on drums, vocals, guitars, and synths. Harnessing distortion, wow and flutter, and pitch-shifting capabilities, the Galaxy Tape Echo brings organic time-based effects to any audio source. The ambient shimmer of spring reverb can be applied creatively, while wild self-oscillation opens the door to imaginative sci-fi textures. Plug-in-only features like Tempo Sync, Effects Pan, and Tape Select provide modern workflow enhancements.
An Original RE-201, available as the Galaxy Space Echo for UAD Spark. Note: The plugin doesn’t smell as dank as the hardware.
Universal Audio has meticulously captured every quirk and characteristic of the original hardware, enabling users to drive the input for added character on vocals or widen a drum bus with analog richness. Whether seeking rockabilly slapback or hazy trails of swirling delay, the Galaxy Tape Echo serves as an unpredictable source of inspiration when working within any genre, offering a faithful reproduction of the original device’s controls and introducing new features for contemporary workflows. With its ability to capture the eccentricities of the original while enhancing functionality, the Galaxy Tape Echo stands as a tool of infinite creativity.
Mix Insight: Turn the Wet Solo mode on, and then ride the feedback level (as I did in some of the upcoming sound clips) to achieve that ‘just about to self-destruct’ feedback howl that is distinctive to the original RE-201.
Note: In these examples, Version A is with no effect, Version B is with a lot of warbly and saturated feedback, and Version C is an all-out howling feedback effect.
9. Pultec Passive EQ Collection
Now available for UAD Spark, The Pultec Passive EQ Plug-In Collection offers astonishingly accurate recreations of the classic EQs coveted by audio professionals worldwide. These plug-ins faithfully replicate Pulse Techniques’ original passive EQs, capturing the unmistakable character of the hardware units, which were originally hand-crafted by Ollie Summerland and Gene Shenk in 1951. The meticulously modeled amplifier sections onboard ensure that the Pultec EQ Collection “breathes” like the original hardware, allowing users to dial in extreme levels of EQ boost while maintaining natural and musical tones.
Comprising the three most popular studio EQs, users can employ the Pultec collection to enhance individual tracks or buses, achieving breathtaking clarity for difficult-to-isolate instruments and vocals without affecting neighboring frequencies. Whether shaping the signature low-end effect of the EQP-1A, enhancing the vibrancy of guitars and vocals with the MEQ-5 Mid-Range Equalizer, or transparently filtering via the never-before-available HLF-3C, these plug-ins provide an authentic vintage tone to tracks. Just as with the original hardware, the Pultec plug-ins offer the ability to ingeniously boost and cut the same frequency simultaneously, creating a tightening effect on bass guitar and kick drums. With the inclusion of modeled transformer and tube-based amplifier sections, this collection delivers the legendary Pultec depth and clarity, allowing users to achieve character-rich and musical results with each application.
Many of the greatest things in life are from New Jersey. Like the original Pultec Equalizers. And Me.
Mix Insight: Beef up your choruses (or any part of the song that needs emphasis) by automating the Pultec EQP-1A to add more lows and highs (hence creating a sort of smiley-faced curve) during the meaningful moments. You can also have any of these beautiful plugins running in parallel, and bring up or down the level of your returns to suit what the song needs.
Note: In these examples, Version A is with no effect, Version B is with a gentle boost at 100Hz and 5kHz, and Version C is with a more pronounced boost at 100Hz and 10kHz.
10. Manley Massive Passive
Achieve mixes and masters glistening with the enchanting clarity of sweet tube tones using the UAD Manley Massive Passive EQ Collection plug-ins. Meticulously emulating Manley’s flagship boutique tube EQs, these plug-ins, officially licensed and endorsed by Manley Labs, faithfully capture the behavior of the original hardware. Renowned for its natural, organic curves, the Massive Passive EQ excels at both radical tonal shaping and delicate nuances, making it a versatile tool for vocal shading, subtle mastering enhancements, or impactful track shaping.
With the Manley Massive Passive EQ plug-ins, UAD Spark subscribers can expertly shape tracks and masters with the ultra-boutique tube EQ, dialing in punch, air, sizzle, and clarity without introducing harshness. The plug-ins allow for the addition of weight and heft to an entire mix without muddying the sound, and they harness the complex interaction of multiple bands and tube amp distortion to create organic, musical textures. The two-channel, four-band design of the Massive Passive EQ, drawing strengths from various EQ types, delivers sweet curves with unparalleled clarity and headroom, faithfully emulated in the plug-ins for an authentic sonic experience.
Whether using the Standard version with continuous bandwidth adjustment or the Mastering version with 16 easily recallable selections, the Manley Massive Passive EQ plug-ins provide a powerful means to add presence, sizzle, and weight to individual instruments or entire mixes. This plug-in offers the opportunity to experience finished, professional productions with the same natural and organic sound as the revered hardware counterpart.
A special edition of the Massive Passive hardware, which was released in 2020 in celebration of LGBT Pride Month
Mix and Master Insight: It’s important to consider where in your signal chain you place an EQ, especially one with as much vibe as the Massive Passive. If you do a lot of boosting with the Massive Passive, consider how that will affect the program material if there’s a compressor placed directly after. I generally use the Manley as a ‘final touch-up” EQ, making subtle changes (perhaps adding a couple of dB in the silky 16K shelf, or enhancing the kick with a bit of thump at 68 Hz) just before final limiting duties.
SUMMARY OF UAD SPARK PLUGINS
UAD has ensured that a new wave of audio engineers will have access to their stellar plugins thanks to UAD Spark. New products are being released regularly, and I can’t strongly enough recommend the sound quality, versatility, and usability of their tools. For Compressors, Equalizers, Reverbs and beyond, anyone interested in mixing should take a serious look at the UAD Spark lineup.
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