UA Universe - This Month at Universal Audio
Hi, welcome to the new "UA Universe" column in the WebZine. This is a monthly roundup of Universal Audio News including comments from reviews, forums, emails, and calls we receive from both our loyal UA users and people new to UA. You will also still find our Employee Feature here so you can get to know the folks at UA a little better. If you don't have time to keep on top of the media overload, this column is the fast track to what's being said on the street.
- This Month in UA Universe
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Rey Rivera, UA's First Employee
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“Before I went back to school, I was an automobile mechanic specializing in electronic engine controls. At the time what I really wanted to do was design electronic engine controls”.
We here at UA are glad he took the path to audio.
It seems having the distinction of being the first employee has its hardships as well as its glories. Rey is the wearer of many a hat; Software Engineer, Project Leader, System Administrator, IT man, Tester, and most recently TDM coder. Rey plays as hard as he works. He enjoys surfing, (he was strapping his board to the roof of his surf-mobile at 2 in the afternoon as I tried to grab him for this interview) soccer, weightlifting and babe-watching.
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Rey conducting market research
at the Gibson booth, NAMM 2002 |
Rey is pulling it off though (with the help of the rest of the team, of course), and they still have the amazing character and incredible headroom of the Powered Plugs. The 1176 and LA-2A have just been released for TDM and they sound just like the UAD-1 versions, which in turn are dead ringers for the actual hardware pieces. Kudos, Rey! They sound awesome!
-- Interview with Rey by Will Shanks
Drop the Bomb!
We have received a number of letters and phone calls from other companies and customers thanking and congratulating us on clarifying the market confusion with compressor plug-ins. With the launch of our "Drop the Bomb" Compressor Rebate Program and the UA TDM Compressors we now provide the definitive sounding digital emulations of our analog products across most plug-in platforms. These plugs were designed, modeled, and developed exclusively by UA from scratch and the trademarks for LA-2A and 1176LN are solely owned by UA and no other company.
...Unsolicited feedback on the new TDM Compressors
- "Downloaded the demos yesterday and replaced the Bombfactory versions on a current mix, and there is a noticeable difference. The 1176 is just miles better, none of the darkness I heard in the BF version, sounded clear as bell on a lead female vocal. The LA2A was warmer/fuller than the BF (and a little trickier for me to get right for some reason) but was right on with the sound of the real deal. Check out these demos, they are killer. Best part about the company is there is no attitude, extremely helpful and cool people at UA."
from the Digidesign forum
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- MIX
"The 6176 is a true original with deep retro roots in an updated and modern form and capable of a huge, impressive sound."
Barry Rudolph, MIX, June 2003
Read the Whole Review
- Tape Op
" The bottom line is that the 6176 has a lot of character with neither section being timid about its sound - if this is what you desire, it's a great tool."
Larry Crane, Tape Op, June 2003
- Resolution Magazine (UK)
"Overall this is a terrific unit and is priced very reasonably when comparing it to other UA products ...a very nice compressor teamed with a truly wonderful mic preamp."
George Shilling - June 2003
- Audio Media Magazine (UK/US)
"...the real strength of the 6176 is simply that it delivers that sound we all know from a lifetime of listening to records...the cost of this unit is justified by the results it delivers."
Dave Martin - June 2003
Read the Whole Review
Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader (free)
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A Few unsolicited quotes from the Chris Milne Forum
- "After all, it's the greatest sounding, most flexible EQ Plugin I ever laid hands on (and I tested almost every Plugin)"
- "Cambridge -is- cool. It's like a little audio laser, isn't it? You can pick out -exactly- the notes you want to zap. Very impressed."
- "I'm happy as Pig in Slop :) I've been slapping the Cambridge on everything I can in my mixes. Been re-doing a lot of my tracks using the 1176SE and Cambridge and on my Vocal tracks Cambridge, LA2A and Realverb Pro. OH BABY, i'm in heaven! I never dreamed I could get my Digital recordings to sound so Analog. I'm REALLY, REALLY HAPPY :)"
- "I have been using the Cambridge EQ in place of Waves Renaissance EQ and my ears are very happy. It's so good that I just purchased it."
- "...3% DSP @ 24/44. In fact, the more you load up, the less DSP usage there is. Six Cambridge EQ's totals 15% DSP, or about 2.5% per plug. UA has a bonafide blue ribbon plug, in the Cambridge EQ."
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...And More Unsolicited quotes From The Mackie UAD-1 Forum
- "I'm just loving 3.1! Everything loaded nicely. Songs sound a bit tighter. Love the lower DSP usage of LA2A, 1176SE is a real Winner, this plug is gonna be all over my trax and Cambridge is Locked and Loaded, ready for action. My new Combination for basic tracking is gonna be 1176SE and Cambridge . Thanks UA/Mackie it was worth the wait."
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UAD-1 In The Press
- MIX Magazine
- "The main plug-ins we used were the Universal Audio UAD-1 emulations of the LA-2A and the 1176 and the Pultec."
Blair Jackson on the 5.1 re-master of "Pet Sounds"
- "The main plug-ins we used were the Universal Audio UAD-1 emulations of the LA-2A and the 1176 and the Pultec."
- Digital Pro Sound
- "This is a great package, and a relative bargain at a $600 street price ($999 list). If you need to upgrade your DAW processing capabilities to a professional level, you can't go wrong with this card."
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