UAD-2 Satellite

[matto]

Haha big can of worms...

I would get these two no matter what

Lexicon 224; every studio needs a great algorithmic reverb and this is about as good as you'll find. Brilliant unit. I like the EMT Plate as well but it's much less money and not quite as versatile

SSL G Bus compressor; one of those magical units, my main 2 bus compressor, on most things I do


For the 3rd one, some possibilities are:

- Ampex or Studer Tape recorder Plug in; expensive and thus you'll get a lot bang for your custom buck. However I wouldn't expect to be using these on everything you do.

- Another EQ since there is only the basic (although fantastic) Pultec in the bundle. You could go with a bells and whistle unit such as the Sonnox or Massive Passive...I don't think you could go wrong with those...
That said, I would steer you more toward a simpler 'musical' unit such as the Neve 1073 which is a superb character unit I use a LOT. The Harrison is also excellent, combining vintage sonics with a more versatile sweepable design. Helios, Trident and of course Pultec Pro are great too but they are less money and can be picked up for even less later during a sale

- Roland Space Echo; great unit although maybe not as essential as another EQ...however it has held its value we'll and is usually among the least discounted items during their sales.

No matter what you eventually get, I agree it makes a lot of sense to test drive a lot of the plug-ins before making a decision since they can all be activated for individual demo periods.

matto

[ckbarlow]

Haha big can of worms...

I would get these two no matter what

Lexicon 224; every studio needs a great algorithmic reverb and this is about as good as you'll find. Brilliant unit. I like the EMT Plate as well but it's much less money and not quite as versatile

SSL G Bus compressor; one of those magical units, my main 2 bus compressor, on most things I do


For the 3rd one, some possibilities are:

- Ampex or Studer Tape recorder Plug in...
- Another EQ ...
- Roland Space Echo...

matto

FANTASTIC. Exactly the kind of narrow-down I needed, and exactly aligned with what I was thinking.

[ckbarlow]

After getting the unit, but before you buy the extra plugins you get on the Custom coupon, I would used the 14 day demo on a bunch of these and figure out what they do, and whether or not you feel it makes enough of a change in your sound to use it immediately. ...

Most excellent suggestion, as Matto seconded.

[ckbarlow]

I think the Shadow Hills Mastering Compressor sounds attractive, the Sonnox eq if you need a precision eq, the spl transient designer, ... The emt 250 reverb which includes Delay, Phasing, Chorus, Echo, and Space, the emt 140 is better known for vocals, though the 250 is the more versatile imo, especially for instruments.
....

Thanks!

[andygabrys]

another thought:

there's no doubt that the UAD-2 G buss compressor works well.

but for $99 you can also buy Cytomic "the glue" which is another very well done model of the G buss compressor, with a couple extra features (shorter attack time, side chain, and also a high pass filter on the internal sidechain). They have a demo - you could A/B against the UAD one.

https://cytomic.com/glue

[andygabrys]

Yep. Lots of things to respond to there...

The Apollo - oh, yeah. Can you imagine how awesomely perfect that would be for Out of Context (the band I'm in where I do live sampling of the 10 other band members (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12TmWT_FzkU))? Do the live sampling through those outstanding compressors? Ee, yi yi....

But we only rehearse once a month and perform out once or twice a year at most. At home, where I need at most two simultaneous ins, the Apollo is just waaaay overkill, otherwise I'd go that route. Although... I guess since I have *occasional* use for that many channels, maybe I could justify it.... LOL....

BTW, since getting this MBPro (2.6GHz Core i7, 8GB RAM, 240GB flash drive) I haven't powered up my old G5 desktop. Other than to transfer some project files. My sample lib is on a FW 800 external drive. The laptop is so fast that there've been processes that I thought it failed on. Nope. It's just that fast. Incredible.

fast forward 2 years, and now we have the Apollo Twin which seems to be the answer to this......