Universal Audio are having a huge sale.
i have just bought a ua apollo quod. perfect timing for me

i don't have any outboard eq/compressors/reverb,etc.

i have a few nice preamps, valve and solid-state and good mics.
i have eq's on my yamaha mixing desk.

For now I would like to use software plugins for eq etc, cheaper, and far bigger range than I could afford for the hardware equivalent.

This thread is for anyone who has UAD 2 plugins and can recommend from their range what I could benefit from and which are def worth buying.

thank you

What do you need? colorful eq, transparent eq, smooth compressor, punchy compressor???

hi there,
well at the moment i don't have any, just the ones that come with logic.
i guess i'm just looking for some recommendations.
i record mostly guitar cabs, vocals, drums, synths

1176 collection. I also just got the Harrison EQ, the EMT 140, and the precision buss compressor. Demo the ones that interest you - best way to decide.

1176 collection takes a good amount of cpu.. and sonically not that much better from the stock uad 1176.. the Emt 140 is a must, the oxford eq is a favorite along with the 1081.. the 160 shines on transient material and the fatso is pretty good on a lot of things.

I have 8 channels of great hardware compression and 16 channels of outstanding hardware EQ.

Yet I still find myself using the Fatso fairly often. The Tape Echo is also great.

If I didn't have a Bricasti, I would use the EMT 140.

I like the CS-1 and the Dimension-D

The Neve EQ's are good if you don't have any of the real thing....I like the new 1176 bundle.

Sometimes I find the Multiband to be a bit of a lifesaver on truly problematic sounds...

Sorry man. They make a lot of good plug ins.

I would check out their tape plugins - they are the ones I use the most

Their older plugs are still very useful and are a lot cheaper than their newer stuff. I use the Cambridge and Pultec Pro all the time. The 140 and 224 are great verbs. If you have the cash the tape plugs are great. It depends on what you have in Logic that you find useful. Fill in those gaps with UAD plugs.
L.

Their tape plugs, Shadow Hills comp, Massive Passive, 88rs, 33609, new 1176 collection EMT 140/250, Lex224 are all fantastic. The Harrison eq took me a while to warm up to it but it gets a lot of love now. In truth I very rarely use the old 1081 plug but every once in a while it's just the ticket on snare or guitars. I STILL think they have the very best Fairchild emulation (yes I know the harmonics are not part of the plug but the attack/release constants IMO still have the most musicality of any one of the emus available, I really want to try Slate's take on the Fairchild I'm sure that it will bring something cool to the table). This platform has a lot to offer.
Hope this helps

I use the following plugins on every mix -
Studer A800
Ampex ATR 102 ( mix into it on 2 buss )
Manley Massive Passive
1175 LImiter Collection ( especially the AE model )
EMT 250 EMT 140
and either roland space echo or EP 34 echo

I also use the cambridge a lot and now the sonnox eq on uad

The great thing about uad is you can demo any plugin for 14 days after you get a card.

I have 2 quad cards in my system.

Forgot about the EP-34
Big +1 on that

thank you! keep 'em coming

would it make any sense buying all 50 odd of them? there is a promotion when you register, 50 odd of them for $4000.
or would a lot of them just gather synthetic dust?

its a lot of money to spend without receiving any other cards tho i think.

any opinions most welcome

very helpful thank you.

so far i am def getting the following in the current sale:

Massive Passive EQ
Fairchild 670 just $79 from $150

I'm tempted by the following:

Trident® A-Range Classic Console EQ Plug-In only $99 now, usually $249
Fatso

and which is their BEST male vocal Reverb?

Any other recommendations?

They only have 55 plugins.

how can a newbie distinguish from the old and new uad plugins?

thank you for your input.
how can a newbie distinguish from the old and new uad plugins?
do they still update the old ones to sound relevant?
ie, some old waves plugins i have sound dated and synthetic, due to not being updated by the developer.

may i ask what an 'echo' is used for in the mix?

i am thinking of getting the moog.
is it useful for someone who records mostly rock?
i do use a lot of synths in some songs. i have the nord lead and ms2000.

would you recommend either of the channel strips?

I'd recommend demoing them if you still have time to see if they work for you.

I have an MS2000B and use the Studer plugin to fatten it up. In fact the two plugins I use the most are studer (I use it instead of limiting most of the time as I don't hard limit much and this gives me soft tape saturation instead). The other one I use a lot is the Pultec Pro. It took me a while to get used to it as it's laid out differently from other EQs. I can get a really expensive sound on a song using the Pultec.

I use Ampex on the master buss most of the time.

Tape echo can be used instead of a reverb to add character and groove to a track. Or for FX. I use the RE201 a lot. I don't use the reverbs much, I prefer other plugins.

I own about 2/3 of the plugins? I find them so useful if I'd known I was going to buy so many I prolly should have started with a bundle. But then again I didn't buy anything I don't want or use so I don't know of I'd be better off.

thank you so much.
may i ask why you would use a limiter in a track?

I'm quite good at recording/mic placement/getting it sounding right without any editing. so just source-mic-preamp.
but mixing is something i'm still learning

Rather than generally asking about the "best" plugs you should cover bread and butter first. I would recomend you the classic comp bundle + 2-3 decent eqs. They would be the cambridge, pultec and maybe the trident. If you got money left i would recomend you the emt bundle or the dreamverb on the cheap. You cant really go wrong with these.

Great advice!

Yep, the EP-34 is one of my favorites - particularly when you automate it.

It's probably 1 in 15 channels I need to do this on, and sometimes on the master buss, it depends on the channel.

The conventional wisdom I've come across says do channel > compressor > limiter. The problem with this is on sharp peaks or transients a compressor can over compensate, and right after the sharp transient/peak it distorts the signal much more. Also for a very dynamic signal you need more compression to keep the hot bits under control, raising the threshold and compressing more of the material. You can of course control the signal this way and its valid but it results in the very flat and in my opinion boring sound.

Instead of this the way I compress really dynamic signals is signal/channel > fader > limiter > compressor:
1. Ride the volume fader after recording a channel (or ideally while you're recording if you're fast enough!) to flatten the signal a bit
2. Add a soft peak limiter to catch the highest peaks. I'm talking only several hot peaks per minute. Any more than that you would control with the fader.
3. Compress the rest by 1-2 dB if required (I don't personally use much more than this, or find that I need to after doing the above, and I usually only do half the time because I want punchier drums, or to control dynamics.

The alternative is I guess, having source material that varies by say 10 dB and trying to control that with a compressor right off the bat. You can do it but it requires a lot of compression and really distorts the sound to sound FLAT (imho). This seems to be popular though, listening to 90% of pop music right now!! (man i'm probably sounding old

Anyway, as for the Studer tape, I like to use this instead of a limiter to catch the peaks because it soft limits as the "tape" saturates. I was about to buy a Studer or similar 8+ track when I discovered UAD, and to be honest, I'm anal about stuff so I would have spent a fortune on tapes only using them a few times at 15 ips, so Studer is a much more practical solution for me right now .

So I'll use the Studer at normal levels as a soft limiter to just catch a few hot peaks, then compression AFTER the studer if using it as a limiter (i.e. signal > studer/limiter > compressor, and if using it as a compressor I'll push the signal harder into the tape by 2-3 dB and use it as signal > studer .. in which case I don't really use any other limiter. Come to think of it it's pretty rare I use a peak limiter at all.

I should say there are a lot of techniques out there and I have to give all credit to Paul Stavrou (Mixing with Your Mind - great book) for this technique, and I'm a composer who's learning the engineering so I'm sure there's far more experienced engineers who could add a lot to what I know.

I can say that the above technique has changed me from struggling to control some sources, to easily and fully controlling them with only a few dB of compression, and sounding like they're not being controlled - or rather effortlessly controlled. Thanks Stav!

So yes, again, my most used plugins are Pultec Pro and Studer A800. I can't live without them. I think the EQ people use seems to be pretty personal though, depending probably on "how" each of us like to EQ.

I should also say, I think it's better to record so you don't need to do anything during mixing wherever possible. I remember reading Simon Osborne (Sting's Engineer) saying (paraphrased) "get a great musician, a great mic, and a great space, and hit record - DONE!"

I'm learning too! Here's to learning. May we never know everything because what a boring place that would be.

Well one way might be to look for the cheaper plugs that are more highly discounted. New plugs are not usually discounted for a few months. Stuff released in the last 12 months are discounted less.
L.