Universal Audio today announce the launch of UAD Software v8.6, an update which brings three new plug-ins to the platform. Perhaps the most significant is the first product to come from UA and Fender’s strategic partnership announced last month — the Fender ’55 Tweed Deluxe amplifier plug-in ($199). Not only is this the first product to spring from this new partnership, but it’s also the first guitar amp plug-in that has been entirely developed by UA.
Featuring an assortment of meticulously-placed microphone combinations, as well as three different classic speaker types (stock 1955 Jensen P12R, Celestion 25-watt Greenback, and JBL D120F), the Fender ’55 Tweed Deluxe plug-in includes Universal Audio’s Unison technology; Apollo users’ guitar pickups will see the exact impedance load as if plugging into a vintage 1955 Fender Deluxe — a feature found only on Apollo audio interfaces.
UA have also announced the Softube-developed Chandler Limited Curve Bender Mastering EQ plug-in ($299), an emulation of this ultra-boutique, inductor-based EQ. Based on the vintage EMI TG12345 desk from Abbey Road Studios, the same one used to record Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and The Beatles' Abbey Road, Chandler Limited’s Curve Bender Mastering EQ takes the warm, legendary sonics of the vintage EMI unit, and expands it into a powerful mastering EQ.
Endorsed by Chandler Limited founder Wade Goeke, Softube emulated the Chandler Limited’s Curve Bender circuits end-to-end, including its filter inductors, germanium transistors, transformers, and circuit nonlinearities. This allows the Curve Bender plug-in to retain the hardware’s rich harmonics and vintage tone.
Finally for UAD v8.6, British plug-in developers Sonnox have made available the Sonnox Oxford Limiter v2 plug-in ($249). Sonnox claim it transparently increases the volume, density, and presence of your tracks without losing transients or dynamics. Featuring the latest generation of Oxford Limiter's inter-sample peak (ISP) detection — introduced for the first time on the UAD platform — this powerful plug-in would be worth checking out if you’re an engineer looking for an uncoloured, accurate limiter as a 'final stage' for masters.
