Apollo x8 coming, some questions for users......

I like a lot of the UA reverbs; especially Ocean Way, Capital Chambers, and their Lexicon 224. I am actually planning to ultimately ditch my apollo interface (twin) and just keep my satellite. I don’t really use the unison features that much.

Big UA user and fan here.

I was using their amp sims and enjoying them for a while until I got OX, which is the best of both worlds for me.

Reverb-wise I like their capitol chambers one and the AKG plate for vibe. I track witch Lexicon as a general verb, but often use Logic’s Chromaverb for mixing.

Standout plugs overall for me are ATR and Studer. Honorable mention to Oxide.

I use the tape delays everywhere for vibey delay.

Standout comps are SHMC, API 2500, DBX160. Honorable mention to Dynamite.

I also love the Vari-Mu, and usually it’s the tube stuff that doesn’t wow me as much, but I find this emulation quite nice. Not the same as the real thing, but very useful. Honorable mention to 33609 and Fatso.

EQs are all very good, and I use them, but I prefer outboard generally for that.

Oh yeah, other cool plugs I have are the galaxy tape echo and the Ampex ATR 102 tape

If you go the UAD interface route, you're going to buy plugins eventually, so it's smarter to buy early into one of the larger bundles and get them at a reduced price per plugin. You'll pay a large amount up front, but save on time not having the goods and likely spending more to buy the same things you want in the end.

It's also smarter to wait for the biggest sales (November/December 12 days of UAD Holiday season) (June or July midyear sale) when they offer extra plugins thrown into the larger bundles. I think if you buy the 10 plugin bundle they throw in three or four extra, which is really a savings and can set you up nicely. Buying single plugins really doesn't make sense with UAD.

I think the plugin recommendations really depend on what sort of sound you try to give your recordings. Some people try to add as much vintage sounding color as possible, while others are going for clear and clean. My personal take is UAD does the vintage vibe thing better than other developers. Maybe it's the GUIs working on me, but I think if you know classic gear then this is the company to lean on.

That means the Analog Classics Bundle is really the most UAD thing to get: Fairchild 670, Pultec EQ Collection, LA2A Collection, 1176 Collection, and a UA 610 B. Great color and covers much ground.
Next are the reverbs, which compete with the top verbs in the market. EMT 140 and 250 are excellent and reliable. I'm still learning the Capitol Chambers, but my biggest issue is I always seem to like every setting and don't know where to stop. I have never tried the Lexicon, but I'm guessing they'll work for anyone. If you grabbed the free Arturia Plate recently, it's not as nice to me as UAD, but also not so bad as to say the UAD version is a must, only because the price on this stuff is so high.

If you want clean and quick vibe the SSL E strip can be used with about everything and if your funds are limited might be the easiest goto. Taking that even further the AMS Neve DFC strip is newer to UAD and less talked about, but it's the exact same code AMS uses with their post-production hardware, it's lighter on DSP than a lot of UAD stuff, and it sounds great. So, those two I'd say are great for economy.

The tape stuff is really nice. I don't have Studer, but wish I did. AMPEX and Oxide are really great in mixing and I use both on every project. If I had Studer I might not need Oxide, but Oxide is helpful. My mixbus is always starting with AMPEX, Vari-Mu, Pultec, and Fairchild for color.

I bought the CL 1B and still haven't felt a grove with it. It sounds good, but I sometimes still reach for the LA2A legacy stuff just because it's easier to dial in. UAD really has a lot of great compressors, so it just depends on what sort of one you prefer.

If I did it all over again, I'd likely think about a FabFilter bundle and then just get some UAD reverbs and the 1176 and/or Distressor for more extreme sounds. But I do love using the Unison plugins for tracking...an opinion that's not usually shared on this board. I use VoxBox, API, 610 and Neve 1073 quite a bit. The Helios less so. They do each sound different to me and it's neat technology for someone who hasn't invested in a lot of nicer outboard preamps. Guys who have lots of preamps usually don't care and I get that.

^^^^^ This ^^^^^

Yeah, Rul tech. Man, there’s just so many native options these days that are just as good as UAD. Makes me want to consider selling everything and start over with just a handful and pocket the difference.

Capitol Chambers is extremely good and has a quite unique sound.
1176 and LA2A are very good.
Fairchild(s) are best in class imo.

My go to reverb is the Liquid Sonics 7th Heaven, next in line, the Soundtoys Little Plate, after that, the Relab XL480, these are in my template on Bus 1,2,3. Not to mention the very good Logic reverbs and the Waves reverbs I almost never use. I have UAD's EMT-140, but rarely use it these days.. The Soundtoys Little Plate was free or $29, I forget, and works better in a mix on my tracks than the UAD EMT-140 because it's a little bit less dense. The UAD plate can be very thick, which is lovely on solo acoustic stringed instruments, but not a first choice for many other things.

UAD's compressors are as good as any, but I haven't found any plug-in compressor that I truly like yet. The MJUC could easily fill in for the UAD versions though, and strangely enough, the Waves CLA 1176 does a better job of taming acoustic guitar strums than UAD's. It's obvious when you put them both on the same channel and compare.

The Ocean Way plug is unique. I've heard some tracks that made me think they were done in a real studio when they were really Ocean Way. I haven't been able to achieve that effect though. I think it's partly because you have to get deep not the re-mic thing to get it right.

So, although I did my album mostly on an Apollo, I could easily live without UAD's plugs now, although to me, the ATR-102 by itself is almost worth getting the whole package for.

Then there's the DSP usage aspect. To do what you want when mixing, hassle free, you typically could use a satellite.

I like my X6 a lot. The console format is excellent, it's reliable, sound quality is very good, but I wouldn't mind a bump up to the next level if only I could afford to.

I think you'll be happy Wiz. I'm reevaluating my needs lately too, and can do what I need with an Apollo.. for now.

I actually prefer the UAD 1176 over 90% of the HW I’ve used. I prefer the way it breaks up when pushed...the attack and release. And I can use 50 of them. I love to use every IAD plug I can to take the strain off my computer. Less freezing.

I think I recently priced out that if I bought a larger bundle today I'd get 24 plugins at $44 each.

You can argue about Rule Tech or Pulsar or something being as good But if you are in a huge mix and then need to overdub yet something else... That's where the DSP is likely going to help you over the computer. It's nice to have the tools there for you

Wasn’t being critical, In away that’s what we all do when we buy UA, as we need their dongle/cpu to run their plugs?

The hybrid system works well with the host and native cpu, but eventually most of us get new computers anyway and they’ll always be more powerful than our last one?