UAD Spark offers native UADx plug-ins for a monthly subscription. It’s early days and Universal Audio have said more is to come, but compared to other offers the selection feels somewhat meagre. In this article we offer our suggestions to plug-ins we’d like to see in Spark as the collection grows. There may be licencing restrictions that limit what UA can include in the plan, but watch this space.
Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor
The only authentic Distressor plug-in endorsed by Empirical Labs’ founder Dave Derr, the UAD Empirical Labs EL8 Distressor is available exclusively for UAD hardware and Apollo interfaces. An exhaustive end-to-end emulation of Derr’s iconic hardware, the UAD EL8 Distressor is the only faithful emulation of this true “desert island” compressor.
The Distressor is a genuinely flexible unit, capable of subtle and benign level control but it is infamous for its Nuke setting. Add in the two flavours of distortion on top of the, not inconsiderable, colour of the unit even without these distortion options engaged, with the ability to high pass or boost the midrange of the detector to tame harshness and you have the brutality of a good 1176 with the features to exploit it. There’s a reason they are popular.
Manley Massive Passive
A favourite of editor Julian Rodgers. Officially licensed and endorsed by Manley Labs, the Manley Massive Passive EQ plug-in expertly captures the behaviour of the original hardware, from the unusual filter curves, to the multiple band interdependencies, right down to the tube amplifier distortion, and all-important transformer/inductor hysteresis.
Check out Julian’s overview video.
Capitol Chambers
This plugin recreates the legendary reverb chambers beneath the Capitol Studios building in Hollywood. Chambers are unusual spaces in that they are extremely live but are also relatively small spaces. We’re probably all accustomed to equating long reverb with large spaces but these chambers sound so distinctive and so rich that when they really work with a source they are borderline magical. They aren’t particularly flexible but then again neither is the real thing. This is a plugin that only a well known company like UAD could make because Capitol wouldn’t open their chambers up to just anyone. We don’t know how difficult it was to get them to open them up to UAD but we can safely assume that a small indie developer wouldn’t have even got close.
Pultec Passive EQ Plug-In Collection
Regarded by some as the ultimate recreation of the classic Pultec EQs, this is a great collection of EQs to have. The collection includes the EQP-1A, the MEQ-5 Mid-Range, and the HLF-3C.
Writing about the Pultec collection, Julian Rodgers says;
“I’ve always found it interesting that while there are many “classic” compressors, there are very few classic outboard equalisers. I’m sure this must be because EQ has traditionally been built in to consoles whereas dynamics processing has traditionally been outboard. There are several classic EQ designs from companies such as Neve, API, SSL and Harrison - all mixer manufacturers, but the Pultec equalisers are a notable exception in that they have always existed as outboard equipment. Unlike the classic console EQs of the last 40 years the Pultec design has been around since 1951 and has always been a high end, desirable unit. It is unconventional by today’s standards but that is because it predates today’s standards!”
Avalon VT-737 Tube Channel Strip
Avalon’s most popular product, this high end channel strip is rightly regarded by many as a classic but is possibly misunderstood by some. It’s a very polished sounding tube preamp with an optical compressor and a very capable EQ section. Frequently associated with Hiphop and R&B production it’s a classic front end for such styles. Paired with a nice Neumann or possibly a Sony C800G it’s a vocal front end with some bling to it.
We Like:
The 32KHz setting for the high shelf in the EQ section gives the famous Air band of the Maag Eq a run for its money.
The x4 attack switch in the compressor section, not available in the hardware version makes a comparatively slow optical compressor very grabby indeed. Put some drums through it and you might be surprised.
What Would You Like To See?
So there’s five UAD plug-ins we would like to see in the Spark bundle, but there’s a lot to choose from.
Let us know in the comments which plug-in you would like to see added to UAD Spark.
Here’s one thing to consider, given the size of the UAD2 catalogue of plug-ins, Universal Audio could string this out for a very long time by adding one new plug-in a month!