by S. Hyland . 5 out of 5 stars

To my mind, there are two things that resolve the 'in the box / outside of the box' argument. The first one is production and mixing experience i.e. really knowing and understanding what you are doing, and the second is getting the Studer on every first insert (or every first insert of your most prominent elements if you are having to budget your DSP accordingly).

When the Studer's start working their magic, your mixes will have so much more sonic appeal, that you will soon put in the hours required to gain the experience, so it's the best starting point you'll ever define.

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by D. Decker . 5 out of 5 stars

This plug is my final be/all end/all analog saturation. I use the McDSP AC1, Kramer Tape, DUY Tape, and they sound decent, but... UAD Knocked it out of the park!! I have been listening to the demos of the Studer and now I finally own it. Every track seems to have a glue put into it and sounds warmer and fatter than before. Great job UA!!!

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by W. Rice . 4 out of 5 stars

This is a studio basic. The effect is subtle but essential for providing the familiar warmth of tracking to tape on a quality machine. I recommend it, especially in conjunction with the Ampex 102.

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by T. Ferguson . 5 out of 5 stars

If you buy one plugin in your life, buy the UAD Ampex ATR-102. If you buy two plugins in your life, buy this one as well. I've popped this on every track in all my recent mixes, and in 90% of cases, I've simply ditched all EQ and compression. The gorgeous way it warms the mix while adding detail and separation to your tracks has to be heard to be believed. In short, it improves your mix while saving you work.

Sure, it's a bit of a resource hog, but complaining about it reminds me of the Louis CK routine where everyone bitches about awesome, mind-blowing things that didn't exist five minutes ago. Get the plugin.

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by M. Rey . 5 out of 5 stars

What can I say? I just love this plug in so much. This one is worth the price of admission alone. How else can you buy a pristine 24 track machine with no repairs or maintenance for $2000? This gets a lot of use in overdubbing when I'm trying to match the MCI tape machine I use for tracking & everything just melts together like you remember it. I really like the ability to easily change tape & calibrations, it's just unheard of in real life to do so fast & creates real tone shaping possibilities. I see on the forums posts saying "do you ever use this thing anymore?" I just don't get it. My answer is YES YES YES! I'll be using this one proudly till my days in audio are done. Thank you UA for making such invaluable tools!

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by A. Ricard Chatelain . 5 out of 5 stars

Love it so much i have quit my job so i can use it all day long.

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by B. Jester . 5 out of 5 stars

After using a DAW for the last 12 years and not getting to use tape, I've forgot how it just glues it all together. I always loved the sound of Bass, Kick, Overheads, and Acoustic Guitars on tape. The Studer A800 was one of my favorite machines to print to as well, UA hit a homer with this plugin. There aren't many plugins that take me back to times in my tracking or mixing but this one did. That Fat Warm Vibe was present after doing a mix with this plugin! The best part about it is you can totally use different formulas for different instruments! Kick on 456 +6 and Acoustic on GP9 +3 Bass on 900 +7.5 that is a great amount of flexibility that the analog world can't give. UA is a great company that moves to get better and better. WELL DONE

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by A. Oberholz . 3 out of 5 stars

As an EX owner of the Telefunken-M-15-A I can say this product is not bad by any means.

I was mixing a whole song with it and it was fascinating how it can round of transients and saves you from using extra compression in the mix.

The user manual lacks description in how to use the hidden EQ,Bias etc. controls traditionally right.
There is a Generation that never had the chance to work with such a Tape-Machine.
For this reason it would be great to get more context-information how these hidden knobs affected the output.

At this point I don't care if it sounds like a real tape machine.
At least it emulates well the Tape-Kompression and alone that is great!!

I measured the plug in - watching out for inharmonic-distortions...nothing bad to see.
Other UAD plugs still suffer from inharmonic-distortions - missing dithering in the signal-path?

I give it only 3/5 points because I think it is too expensive for a plug-in.
For some more money you can get a decent 1/4" real HW tape recorder and you will have lot of fun with it.

The price point in my opinion is 250$.
350$ will make this wonderful plug in for a lot off younger-folks unreachable-

I skipped Massive-Passive and Fatso because of the high price.
It looks like that I will skip this one as well even if I like it.

Development: 5 POINTS
Price-Tag: 1 POINT

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by G. Montagni . 1 out of 5 stars

I bought a couple of the most expensive plug ins like this and for no reason the authorization fail multiple times, even by opening 3 support ticket and 2 call from germany directly to the us support center.....still no solution.....great plug ins but no real good technical support.....

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by R. Comitz . 5 out of 5 stars

this plug really makes it easy to warm up a mix. great saturation as well. very pleased + worth every penny

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by R. Kempny . 5 out of 5 stars

Together with Ampex ATR-102 its "killer" stuff for your digital studio. I wanted to buy real tape recorder for my studio, but size and electric consumption were main reasons why i wasnt sure to buy it. Ive read somewhere on net, that Universal Audio has very good tape plugins. Basically Studer and Ampex are the main reason why i have purchased UAD2 Satellite Duo. Im absolutely very satisfied with all products. Studer for recording and Ampex for mastering. Combination of these product definitely improved my production.

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by R. Mc Hard . 5 out of 5 stars

I am now beginning to feel the way i used to about making music thanks to Universal Audio.
They look after their customers like no other company and are my to go to plug inns everytime
Thanks
Balloonmanrecords.com

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by J. Conlon . 4 out of 5 stars

A very nice plug in for sure...what a luxury recording with this!..but don''t over do it though...can muddy a mix if you recorded with it and them buss it on the master too, that's what I found with the music I had recorded, you might not find the same results though......probably best to used the Studer for that...had to try though!..very excellent product..so much fun!

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by S. Cox . 5 out of 5 stars

I've been using this plug-in for a few weeks now and I've been really impressed with its sound and versatility, especially in its ability to control the fundamental texture (harmonic content) of a track. This to me is what sets it apart from any other mixing tool I've used. Being able to change tape formulas, tape speeds, and saturation characteristics gives me endless possibilities for getting the texture of a track to sit just right before I even touch a compressor or EQ.

Another characteristic of this plug-in is its ability to soften the sharp edges of a track's transients, making multiple sources you put this on seem to naturally blend together and not "fight". The ease and consistency at which it achieves this makes this invaluable.

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by A. Souza . 3 out of 5 stars

This is a great plugin, but if you have a uad-2 duo like me forget!! This plugin use many dsp resources of you card. I suggest you buy Ampex 102, great plugin no use dap like A800. Expend my money for nothing. But great plugin if you have system to use.

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by V. Van Den Abbeele . 5 out of 5 stars

Hi there,
Since my recent buy of Studer A800, plus a strategic change in my way of mixing. As you can listen from my artist page (www.indabamusic.com/people/Mimidhof). My two latest Remix Submission were done using Studer A800 on every track.

I'm owner of a simple DSP Duo core.. so I hesitate because of the price of the plugin and also because of using it in every track would fast let me without any DSP resource.
But I'm very glad of the result over all on the Drum track and the bass sound they are easyer to fit in my mixes. And I just begin to use it.

For my setup with little DSP ressources, for this plugin I took the decision to use it as an offline process, when I begin a new mix I process all my track with Studer A800.

Mimidhof

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by J. Fowler . 5 out of 5 stars

Throwing this on first in the chain has saved so much tweaking... it just sounds right and fat out of the gate. Be cautious with the presets if using on your master bus, noise / hiss controls are hidden under the additional controls.

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by Y. Kawahara . 5 out of 5 stars

Studer A800 Multichannel Tape Recorder Plug-In is good sounds on all CH.

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by K. Margolis . 5 out of 5 stars

It's like have my favorite Analog Tape Machine!

It adds the warmth, the magic, the Je ne sais quoi that will make any mix that much better. It's so real that you get the wow and flutter on your meters.

My, my, what will they think of next.

I use it on vocals, drums, bass, piano, strings and it transforms my tracks with warmth, depth and dimension.

One of the best Plug In's and a must have for any and all.

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by A. Ryabchenkov . 5 out of 5 stars

Great Plugin. I like the warm sound. It glues the tracks together

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