Apollo
Native
sale
Capitol Chambers
Get the sound of the world's finest echo chambers.
- Record and mix with the only authentic emulation of Capitol Studios' prized underground echo chambers
- Add dense, natural reverberation to vocals and drums far beyond plate, digital, or simple convolution reverb
- Create new sounds by repositioning Capitol Chambers' microphones using UA's Dynamic Room Modeling
- Audition current and historical chamber configurations, plus all new setups
- Harness the chamber's entire signal chain including amplifiers, speakers, custom preamps, and mics
- Quickly pull up presets from legendary Grammy-winning engineers of Ray Charles, Radiohead, Steely Dan, Madonna, and more
Get the Sound of the World's Finest Echo Chambers
What They Say
Chris Dugan
Green Day, Iggy Pop, U2
Mark Needham
The Killers, Neon Trees, P!nk
Steve Genewick
Ray Charles, Queen, Frank Sinatra Jr.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The UAD Capitol Chambers plug-in is worth it if you want dense, natural reverb that sounds like a real room rather than an algorithm, because it's an end-to-end emulation of the underground echo chambers beneath the Capitol Tower’s parking lot in Los Angeles. UA built it over years of R&D in close collaboration with Capitol Studios, modeling the whole signal chain: the amplifiers, speakers, custom preamps, and microphones. If you want to hear it on your own tracks first, a 14-day demo is available.
Capitol Chambers is different from other reverb plug-ins because it recreates a specific, physical set of echo chambers, including the gear used to feed and capture them, instead of generating reverb from an algorithm or a single impulse response. UA sourced technical diagrams from the early '60s to place the speakers and mics exactly where they sat on classic records. You can then move those mics yourself, which a static snapshot of a room can't do.
Dynamic Room Modeling is UA's proprietary technology that combines physical modeling with advanced acoustic measurement, and it's what lets Capitol Chambers respond like a real space when you change the setup. Standard convolution reverb captures one fixed moment in a room. Dynamic Room Modeling lets you reposition microphones and change configurations while the chamber keeps behaving naturally, giving you a nearly endless range of ambient sounds. It's the same technology behind UA's Ocean Way Studios plug-in.
Choose Capitol Chambers if you want the lush, hi-fi echo chamber sound of Capitol Studios for vocals, drums, strings, and full mixes. Hitsville Reverb Chambers recreates the echo chambers at Motown's original Hitsville studio, which suits a punchier, vintage soul character. Ocean Way Studios is a full studio room emulator built for placing sources in a tracking room, rather than a send-style chamber reverb.
Capitol Chambers includes both historical and current chamber configurations, plus new setups that never existed in the real rooms. The vintage configurations use omnidirectional mics and custom speaker and horn arrangements reconstructed from early-'60s diagrams, while the modern configurations use the omnidirectional condenser mics installed in the chambers today. Every mic starts in its original hit-making position, so you get the classic sound the moment you load the plug-in.
Capitol Chambers gives vocals a warm, three-dimensional space that sits behind the singer without washing out the words. A subtle blend adds depth you only really notice when you mute it, while a heavier send delivers the big, smooth chamber tail heard on classic crooner and soul records. Pre-delay helps keep the vocal up front while the chamber blooms behind it.
An echo chamber like the one modeled in Capitol Chambers produces denser, more complex reflections than a plate or a basic convolution reverb, because the sound travels through a real room shaped by real speakers and microphones. Plates have a bright, smooth character that's great on snares and vocals, and digital reverbs offer flexible, sculpted tails. Capitol Chambers is the pick when you want reverb that sounds like physical air and space.
The Position slider in Capitol Chambers moves the chamber microphones, which changes both the spatial character and the time response of the reverb. At the maximum-distance stock positions you get the classic, spacious chamber sound. Move the mics closer and you get tighter, more direct speaker-to-mic effects with proximity character, great for subtly thickening a vocal or drum bus.
No. Capitol Chambers runs natively on your Mac or Windows computer, so you don't need any UA hardware. If you own an Apollo audio interface or a UAD Accelerator, you can also run it on that hardware's onboard DSP. An iLok account is required to manage your license, but an iLok USB key is optional.
Capitol Chambers works on both macOS and Windows as a UAD native plug-in, and it runs in all major DAWs that support standard plug-in formats, including LUNA on Mac and Windows. Each license includes three activations, which you can place on your computers or on an iLok USB key. Check UA's system requirements page for current OS versions.
Yes. When you buy Capitol Chambers, you get a license for both the UAD native version and the Apollo/UAD-2 version. That means you can run it on your laptop anywhere and switch to DSP acceleration when you're working with an Apollo interface or UAD Accelerator, without buying it twice.
Capitol Chambers works on drums as a send effect on the kit or a drum bus, adding natural room depth that makes close-miked drums sound like they were recorded in a great space. Close mic positions add body and thickness without a long tail, while the stock positions give snares and toms a big, classic chamber bloom. The sweepable low filter keeps kick and toms from muddying up the chamber.
Yes. On an Apollo audio interface, Capitol Chambers runs on the onboard DSP, so you can put it in your Console monitor mix and hear chamber reverb in your headphones in realtime while you record. Singers often perform better when they hear a flattering space around their voice, and you can choose whether to print the reverb or keep it for monitoring only.
Capitol Chambers includes a sweepable 80 to 750 Hz filter that cuts low end before it enters the chamber, which is the fastest way to keep the reverb clean. From there, Bass, Treble, and a proportional Q Mid band let you shape the chamber's tone, and the Decay control shortens the tail if it's crowding the mix. Pre-delay adds separation between the dry sound and the reverb.
The presets in Capitol Chambers come from Grammy-winning engineers and producers with decades of experience working in the real Capitol chambers. Their records span artists from Ray Charles and Steely Dan to Madonna, Beck, and Radiohead. The presets give you a proven starting point for vocals, drums, and instruments that you can tweak from there.
Yes. DSP-accelerated plug-ins like Capitol Chambers are still worth using because running them on an Apollo takes CPU-heavy processing off your computer and lets you track through it with near-zero latency. Detailed room modeling is exactly the kind of processing that benefits most. Because Capitol Chambers also runs natively, you get the same sound whether or not you're connected to UA hardware.
Yes. Capitol Chambers is included in UAD Spark Studio, UA's subscription that bundles a large library of UAD native plug-ins with LUNA. It's a good fit if you want Capitol Chambers alongside a full collection of classic compressors, EQs, and effects. You can also buy Capitol Chambers on its own if you'd rather own a perpetual license.
The best reverb plug-in for vocals depends on the sound you want, but Capitol Chambers is a strong choice for natural, expensive-sounding space because it models real echo chambers used on decades of hit vocals. Chamber reverb wraps a voice in dense, smooth reflections without the metallic edge some reverbs add. Pre-delay, a low filter, and adjustable mic positions let you dial in anything from a subtle halo to a big, classic tail.