UAD Essentials Edition Reviews

The range and quality of these plug ins for a pretty decent price has left me feeling a little spoilt actually - and means I need to work a bit harder to get the best of them! The 3 FET compressors (fast attack and fast release) give slightly different results but seem to be great fun to play with to get a good 70s sound (if you like that sort of thing, which I do). Also 3 LA-2A compressors are for different purposes but seem pretty true to the original analogue equipment.

The 3 delay and modulation (Brigade and Studio D chorus, and the Galaxy tape echo) are great emulations of the original kit and again are great fun and quite easy to use (which is invaluable for a home studio person like me). The Pultec EQs I understand are very true to the original hardware but I am not really best placed to comment on those.

On to the instruments sections and these have truly blown me away - the B3 organ is great to reproduce those 60s sounds, and the Fender Rhodes style along with the rotary Leslie style speaker that can be used independently is a superb tool that I am having terrific fun with. There's also a Mini Moog and a couple of other synths that are programmable so you really do have a wealth of stuff to play with here. Throw in the tow tape and saturation emulations and you genuinely have enough to make a song with if you have a DAW with some programmable drums. Excellent value for c£110 after discounts. If you buy in dollars (which you can only do if you are in a $ region - I…