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  • Overview
  • Customer Reviews
  • 4.8/5
    (1127)
Try it Free
$349.00

It's not a record until it's mastered on an Ampex tape machine.

The Ampex ATR-102 UAD plug-in and LUNA Extension provides the final “analog glue” for your music, turning your recordings into records.

The only emulation that’s fully authenticated by the Ampex Corporation, and trusted by producers and engineers the world over, the Ampex ATR-102 puts the colorful saturation, warmth, and harmonics of this industry-standard tape machine at your command.

Included Versions

UAD Native
Runs on your Mac or PC without UA hardware.

Apollo Realtime & UAD‑2
Runs accelerated on Apollo interfaces and UAD‑2 hardware.

UAD Native plug-ins run on both macOS 10.15 Catalina or newer and Windows 10 and 11. Go to our UA Support page for system requirements.

  • New! With Auto-Gain, make adjustments to Repro/Record levels while maintaining perfect gain staging
  • New! Enjoy enhanced Retina GUI with interactive tape reels and controls true to the original hardware*
  • Mix and master your music with the most popular professional 2-track tape machine ever made
  • Get classic Ampex tape saturation, selectable tape types, and color to "glue" your mix together
  • Experience the entire ATR-102 circuit, including its transformers, amplifiers, Repro, Sync, and Input paths
  • Use the LUNA Extension version of ATR-102 to produce with rich, analog tape sound right in LUNA’s mixer

Want to Try It?

Use this plug-in free for 14 days and find out if it's right for you.

Try it free
New Features for Modern Workflows

New Features for Modern Workflows

Getting perfect gain staging on the Ampex ATR-102 requires meticulous calibration of the repro and record levels, a delicate art that demands precision. With Auto-Gain, you can make adjustments to either the Repro or Record levels while maintaining perfect gain staging. And with its Retina-enhanced GUI, the ATR-102 is that beautifully vibey plug-in that you’ll want to leave on all the time.*

Turn Your Recordings into Records

Turn Your Recordings into Records

The Ampex ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder plug-in and LUNA Extension provides the final “analog glue” for your music. Fully authenticated by the Ampex Corporation, now you can get the same unique dynamics, frequency response, and saturation characteristics of the original mastering hardware, virtually indistinguishable from its analog ancestor.

Take a Deep Dive into Tape Tone

Take a Deep Dive into Tape Tone

Discover vast reel-to-reel textures using three classic tape heads (¼”, ½”, and 1”) tape speeds and emphasis EQs, famous tape formulas (GP9, 456, 900, 250), and more. You can even fine-tune the machine’s calibration to open up some headroom, or get grittier tape compression and saturation.

Find Your Sound Fast

Find Your Sound Fast

Ignite your inspiration with presets from longtime ATR‑102 users Chuck Ainlay (Chris Botti, Mark Knopfler) Richard Dodd (Wilco, Robert Plant), Buddy Miller (Martina McBride, Emmylou Harris), Mike Poole (Keith Urban, Dolly Parton) and more. Use these presets as a starting point and season to taste on your mixes — you'll marvel at the cohesive, rich sound that can only come from an Ampex tape machine.

Transform Your Mixes in LUNA

Transform Your Mixes in LUNA

Use the Ampex ATR‑102 LUNA Extension to transform LUNA’s mixer into an analog tape wonderland. Without having to manage separate plug-in windows, this gives you rich album‑ready Ampex tape textures with all the authentic dynamics, frequency response, and saturation of the original machine.

*Enhanced Retina graphics available for Mac only.

Customer Reviews

Ampex® ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder

Overall Rating

4.8/5
(1127)

R. Hyde

February 15, 2025

Shockingly good

Unlike a lot of the other reviewers, I have zero experience with actual analog equipment. And because of that, I was very skeptical of this plugin.

Holy crap though, it makes everything sound better. And I do mean everything.

Trust the presets until you understand what various things do in this. Or play around, I don’t know, I’m not your dad.

R. Burns

February 15, 2025

The default settings are just right!

There's nothing that quite gives a mix the 'evenness' like this ATR-102 does. UAD smashed it out the park here. It's the polish that every one of my mixes get, regardless of genre. Once you hear it, you won't want your mix to be without it.

Also, there's also not many plugins that I can leave in a default setting, but I vary rarely change them on this plugin.

The UAD Studer A800 is great for multitracks, and a single instance of this Ampex ATR-102 is perfect for the mix bus!

F. Malagié

February 12, 2025

Efficient Plugin

Unfortunatly this is a double usage with the one from LUNA Bundle.

R. Vosbury

February 10, 2025

Mojo

Excellent plugin. Might b a little daunting for new producers.

E. Gonzales Vega

February 1, 2025

Miy buen plugin

Suena muy bien

R. Rushing

January 31, 2025

Absolute favorite

This thing is fantastic. If you get deep into the innards of this plugin, you can really dial up an authentic tape sound. Not just subtly, either. Those rich, fat lows and mids. Those silky, creamy highs. One of my top 5 plugins ever.

D. Greed

January 30, 2025

Saturation and Nuance

As the title suggests, this plug-in adds those elements along with an entirely new layer of sound. This is especially true if you're like me and are used to working with less-than-ideal or overly fancy processing plug-ins and equipment. I did some research and learning beforehand, so I wasn’t going in blind. When you apply focus, you can create a truly beautiful sound. Cheers and have at it.

S. Cirillo

January 29, 2025

Best Tape Emulation.

What I expect from the emulation of a classic is that it does well at least those things that define personality. This is possibly the tape emulation that satisfies me the most in that sense, the response is very realistic, beyond the artifacts and defects of the tape, which I don't usually use, the tonal response, and the way it smooths the transients, makes me feel like I'm really working on tape. I use it mostly on tracks that I want to smooth, not to much on the mix bus.

J. Rojas

January 20, 2025

Ampex ATR-102 The best taste of tape. Tasty

Ampex ATR-102 of all the tape emulations I tried, by far the best, warm bass, a unique spark in the high frequencies, present and crunchy mids, it's simply a marvel of polish for the master, what more can I say, it's an Ampex and it's made by UA. Hey guys, would you like to share a copy of Luna Pro Bundle with me? Love you.

J. Kane

January 9, 2025

Very impressed

Having worked in the analog domain for many years I was extremely curious about the tape machine plugins. I’ve even worked with this particular machine and similar ones like it many years ago. I wasn’t disappointed, like many of the UA plugins, the quality in sound, that small analog texture that adds to the mix is amazing. Does it add that low level hiss that many of us long for? It can take a dead mix and breathe life into it. I still use analog gear for recording but have immersed myself into the world of UA for mixing primarily and I’m blown away by the amount of high quality plugins they offer. Game changer products for sure.

c. macfarlane

January 5, 2025

A holy grail !!!

Quite simply the best plugin coded by man,woman, child, for its intended purpose. After compression busses, even a rough mix sounds just about there. Incredible plug in

W. Phillips

January 1, 2025

Wow

And wow.

M. Sucur

December 27, 2024

Rich and warm Ampex ATR-102

Hi,
you really nailed it.
Ampex ATR-102 really has a rich and warm analog sound.
Keep up the good work !

Marko Sucur

B. Iorga

December 26, 2024

Something good

I don't know how the original tape recorder sounded or the difference between this plugin and the real tape recorder, but definitely using this marvel my tracks sounds just the way I want and I don't need anything else.

D. Betances

December 25, 2024

Should’ve bought it a long time ago!!!

As my title says, I “should’ve bought it a long time ago!!!”!!! It really sounds great, the tape vibe seems very genuine and it provides enough settings/options to get many different tones out of it.

M. M

December 22, 2024

mix

makes your mixes shine

A. Talun

December 20, 2024

Late to the game

I didn't think that it would make such a difference. It doesn't work on all material, but when it works - man. I read someone writing that it gives this professional polish and that's true. It won't fix your mix, but it would make it sound more like finished record. It sounds great bot on master and on busses. Highly recommended.

D. Kirschbaum

December 18, 2024

Ampex ATR-102 Mastering Tape Recorder

This is a really cool plugin, I will add it to the master bus to glue the mix before mastering using different presets depending on the style of the track or song. I recommend this plugin to anyone who wants to achieve a professional sound.

D. Fernandes

December 6, 2024

A must on my mix bus

This plugin is great! It adds that final 5% that my mixes needs to take it to the next level
Highly recommended

M. Kulev

December 5, 2024

Ampex ATR-102

The best Ampex ATR-102 emulation to give the ultimate analog "glue" that will turn your work to perfection.