And, as I was in the midst of a large mixing project I figured I’d have a great chance to run it through it’s paces in a real-world situation.

When the opportunity came along to check it out, I was thrilled.

Apparently, it sounded substantially better than before, and I found myself compelled. However, as I poked around the UAD site and read some comments there, I found myself surprised at how significant this upgrade seemed to be in the minds of other users. In fact, I can admit I was initially a little disappointed as I had been looking forward to hearing a new version of the 1081 EQ! I was very surprised that they chose the 88R, given its relatively pristine character and less familiar sound. Given that UA’s last re-modeled plug-in was the Neve 1073, I assumed that the next batch of revamps would be something more along these lines-either the 1081 or the 31102. Today, such modeled tools are ubiquitous to say the least, and there are so many choices available that it boggles the mind. The Neve 88RS console was touted above earlier models for its transparency, and at that time, most plug-ins were already very transparent, simply by nature of being digital Back then, I was more interested in tools that would model the inherently non-transparent sound (read: nonlinearities, distortions, etc) of the analog world. The Neve 88RS console, on which the plugin is based. When the original version (now labelled “legacy”) of this channel strip was released 8 years ago, my response was one of interest, but I didn’t feel that it was a tool that I HAD to have. All in all a compelling MKII version for UAD-2 users to add to their arsenals. On top of that, the behaviors of the channel output fader and its associated transformer have been modeled as well. This allows it to be used in conjunction with the UAD Apollo interface’s preamp section. This new version adds a more sophisticated modeling of the analog guts of the original, as well as adding a detailed model of the preamp which incorporates UA’s “Unison” technology. In recent years however, Universal Audio has adopted the practice of improving upon old plug-in code, creating even more accurate models of its early plug-in models.įollowing in the footsteps of updates to the 1176, Pultec EQ’s, Fairchild, and Neve 1073 is the new Neve 88RS MkII. Universal Audio’s emulation of the Neve 88RS channel strip was originally released in 2007, and has become a well loved tool in the UAD-2 toolkit.

Uaudio neve 1073 preamp plug in free