Drums with and without UAD Studer 800

Have always liked UA studer on drums.

Due to its oversampling, though ua ampex wasn’t recommended on group busses: really just for 2 bus ?

If you buy uadx version: studer runs native.

I track a lot of my sessions with the UAD Studer destructively in the Console with my Apollo. The presets in the "Ultralinear" folder are great, I'm usually running one of those at 15 IPS over everything. It's extremely subtle, but it all adds up nicely in the end when it's over everything. I almost always add it as the first thing in the chain, which is back asswards of how you would do it in real life (usually you would handle your compression and EQ before it hit the tape), but I've tried it both ways and prefer it first. It's fun that you have options like that!

Yeah I use to use the ATR-102 on the master, but I’ve gone away from it lately as I feel like it’s a little redundant. I usually would just not even touch any controls, just open the 102, then adjust gain staging and turn off noise. Then adjust hi and lo to taste. But I found more often than not, when I’d toggle the bypass blind, I seemed to like the bypassed version the majority of time.

I think it's a real good plugin.

I like what the Studer did. Seemed to take the "edge" off the highs in a good way, soften the attack a bit, make the drums a tad fatter. I like it with the Studer. 

How did those two versions compare in the full mix? Which did you prefer. I imagine "No Studer" might be a little more noticeable/prominent?

I posted this on the "other site" about 10 years ago.

"So, I have read most of the Studer a800 threads on GS, and I'm curious about what settings you guys like to use, specifically with the bias and HF-record EQ.

I ran some tests with Slate VTM, Satin, TB Ferox, Ferric TDS and UAD Studer.

It was interesting to find how loud the odd-order harmonics were on the UAD Studer. On every tape type. This contributes to part of why I didn't like this plugin so much at first. Even though it is internally aligned at -12 dbfs, you can't get too close to 0VU on electric guitar/bass etc(not drums, I know better) or you'll get lots of nasty grit happening. This is not true with any of the other plugins.

So were all on the same page, I'm letting you know that I started on the default plugin setting, which is 456 tape at 15 IPS.

So - I put a sine wave through the UAD Studer to see what the secondary controls did to the harmonics that I don't like.

Interestingly, if you drop the bias voltage to 8.31 volts, you'll find that the harmonics take quite a dip. The sound is cleaner. You can now push the meter into the red a little and get some compression and the harmonics are more subtle.

This same thing happens at 11.87 volts. Only now, you have a much rounder sound with a hefty dose of compression. A bit much for me most of the time, but it's an option.

Just so you can try this yourself, here are my settings:

Start with default preset - 456 @ 15IPS.

Change HF record EQ to 1.30
Change Bias to 8.31V
Output = +0.10

This gives us the same volume as the default preset @ 1khz, and 10khz.

For the hotter setting, try

Change HF record EQ to 2.23
Change Bias to 11.87V
Output = +0.79

I still find it a bit strange how soon this plugin gets gritty, but this seems to be an option that helps. What settings have you tried?"

Nice post! I'm going to go in and check that out. Here's a question. You think putting this on each individual channel is the same as putting it just on the drumbus? I usually use Magma Tubes to give me a little extra thump and top end...and I'm not sure one way is better than the other. It would be nice if the single instance sufficed.

Commit! Another great idea that I hardly ever use. That could really work in my process, though, because I always start with drums first. So, it would be like trying to add it on at the end when I'm running out of processing power. Start with just tape, get it where it's sounding better - then start mixing. I've also never really used Heat - it does a very similar thing, though.

Sometimes, I have a hard time adding stuff to a workflow if it feels like it's just "different" and not obviously "better." But I think using it similar to how I did above made those drums objectively better. So - start there and process them after.

Yea! I think that works really well.  It is sort of putting the cart before the horse in a way, as it's more logical to get faders going up on everything before changing any sounds.  But with drums especially it seems to be something that can be added pretty early and help get them a little closer to the finish line.  Lately I've been starting with my 2bus chain on from the get go so I don't even really know what the raw tracks sound like, per se.  Seems to get a nice result, though. Mentally it's a little weird, though. I don't have Heat but I have heard good things. Same with Phoenix II.

Mixbus comp for sure is better that way(I think). I meant more of the other parts of the chain for flavoring/eq.  LTL RGB with pentode and royal blue, prometheus pultec EQ saturation(maybe) and RND 542's with silk red.  Makes quite a bit of change to the sound from the get go, but seems to work out pretty well lately.