Emerging from the golden age of recording technology, Universal Audio is a true legend in their field. More importantly, they've spent the past decades devoted to making professional-grade preamps, processors, and other essential gear accessible to everyone from big-name producers to dedicated project studio engineers. Whether it's their latest digital interface or their most classic analog hardware, Sweetwater proudly stands by everything UA makes.
If you're looking for the most classic analog recording gear in production today, Universal Audio is an ideal place to start. Their lineage dates back to the late '50s/early '60s, when Bill Putnam Sr. founded the company, and it includes technologies developed by UREI, and before them, Teletronix. If you want an LA-2A or an 1176LN, then it doesn't get more authentic than the models you'll get from Universal Audio. What's more, UA developed (and continues to develop) breakthrough analog processors any engineer will love.
When Bill's sons, Bill Putnam Jr. and James Putnam, took over Universal Audio in 1999, the company took a leap into the next century. By the mid-2000s, their DSP-accelerated UAD Powered Plug-In platform found a home with a whole new generation of home/project studio engineers. By the virtue of its accessibility, performance, and catalog of outstanding plug-ins, the UAD platform emerged from a number of similar attempts by other popular music gear manufacturers that had failed to catch on.
One of the biggest factors of the UAD platform's success is the amazing range of the UAD Powered Plug-In. Modeled to a degree of accuracy that's been described as almost too good by the original manufacturers, UAD Powered Plug-Ins emulate classic gear made by Fairchild, AKG, Lexicon, Neve, Manley, API, Studer, and many more. Combined with the UAD platform's amazingly low latency and cross-platform compatibility, it's no wonder it became so popular.
In its second generation, UAD-2, Universal Audio expanded their original PCIe DSP coprocessor line with the Satellite series. By connecting via USB and FireWire, these next-gen SHARC-chip-based DSP processors made the UAD platform accessible to engineers running laptops or modern computers without PCIe slots.
Thunderbolt connectivity opened up even greater possibilities for UAD systems, which led, logically, to the introduction of the Apollo line — powerful audio interfaces equipped with onboard UAD-2 processing. This combination meant that for the first time, engineers running on a project studio budget could get plug-in processing with low enough latency it could be used as they record.
One additional Universal Audio innovation has introduced a deeper level of authenticity to their Apollo interfaces, and it's been a huge hit among the staff and the customers at Sweetwater: Unison Preamp Technology. Unison circuitry works hand in hand with the top preamp and guitar/bass amplifier UAD Powered Plug-Ins. Each of these plug-ins reconfigures aspects such as the impedance of the physical input circuitry, providing an unrivaled level of realism you can't get with just a plug-in alone.
Universal Audio took their digital emulation know-how to new heights with the introduction of the LUNA Recording System. Designed to give Apollo and Arrow users a unified ecosystem within which to work, LUNA streamlines your workflow by providing a native environment to record, edit, and mix tracks. LUNA taps into UAD DSP power for Accelerated Realtime Monitoring, as well as analog-style tracking and overdubbing. And the included Oxide extension injects your tracks with tape-like warmth and punch. Additional extensions — including incredible renditions of the Minimoog and a Studer A800 — are available separately.
