Opinions? What is BEST UAD Reverb Plug?

[James Steele]

Just wanted to ask the brain trust something. I really like my Waves Abbey Road Plate plug-in, but MAN OH MAN does it hit the CPU HARD on my 12-core MacPro5,1. I'm probably going to be having to drive this cheesegrater for a while on Mojave. So much as I'm hesitant to spend more bucks on plugs for my UAD-2 Duo, I'm wondering if it might behoove me to try and find a Reverb plug for my UAD-2 Duo that can be my "go to" Reverb. If it uses a LOT of DSP on my card... don't care. Again I love the quality of the Abbey Road Plate, but until I can go M1 Mac, I'm thinking of just devoting my UAD to a killer "main reverb."

I am a fan of hard rock/metal of the 80s period, so I'm thinking something like the Lexicon emulation might be what I want. Would love opinions/recommendations as to whether UA has a plug or plugs that could serve as the "go to" so I can avoid loading up Abbey Road.

Thanks in advance!

[HCMarkus]

The UA Plate is good, so if you are looking to replace the Abbey Road plate, it should be a candidate. I've used it a lot over the years.

[James Steele]

The UA Plate is good, so if you are looking to replace the Abbey Road plate, it should be a candidate. I've used it a lot over the years.

I currently own the EMT 250 and the EMT 140. Do you mean "Pure Plate?" Given my love for the 80s style production, I'm wondering if their Lexicon 224 or 480L would be something worth having. It's pricey though. I think we have similar Macs? Do you have Abbey Road Plate and if so, do you get a big CPU hit on it?

[James Steele]

Well duh... just remembered I can demo any of the UA plug-ins and see for myself I guess. I have a hunch the 480L would be nice, but big ouch on the price! $349????

[tremo]

My favorite UAD reverb is the AKG BX 20 spring. I was hooked by this promo video and bought it when it was first released.

https://youtu.be/66ZB3i1B-0c

It's hardly a "transparent" reverb, but man, it can be magical on guitars.

And you can usually save as much as 50% off UA list price if you wait for the right sale. They'll sometimes drop a $50 voucher in your account too.

[James Steele]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I could only had a budget for ONE of these right now, so I got the Lexicon 480L for 40% off. $209 instead of $349. I have a UAD-2 Duo and one instance of the 480L takes 60% of one the processors, so I imagine it’s doing some heavy duty calculations. Two instances per project is all I can get, but that’s fine. I want to use it for heavy lifting.

[Phil O]

James, just a reminder that you don't need to do all tweaking in the reverb plug-in itself. I have at times used aux tracks to route sends to a single instance of reverb. For example, you could use an Aux(A) and an Aux(B) with two different delays used as pre-delays for a single reverb. Sends from your tracks then go to the auxes of your choice for pre-delay and those auxes are routed to the single reverb instance. You can do the same for EQ, compression, etc. Not the same as multiple instances of reverb, but can help when resources are tight.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

[James Steele]

James, just a reminder that you don't need to do all tweaking in the reverb plug-in itself. I have at times used aux tracks to route sends to a single instance of reverb. For example, you could use an Aux(A) and an Aux(B) with two different delays used as pre-delays for a single reverb. Sends from your tracks then go to the auxes of your choice for pre-delay and those auxes are routed to the single reverb instance. You can do the same for EQ, compression, etc. Not the same as multiple instances of reverb, but can help when resources are tight.

Your friendly neighborhood Phil

Thanks. Yeah I knew that. I was just trying to find UA alternative to Abbey Plate that is so CPU intensive.

[rp88.2]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I could only had a budget for ONE of these right now, so I got the Lexicon 480L for 40% off. $209 instead of $349. I have a UAD-2 Duo and one instance of the 480L takes 60% of one the processors, so I imagine it’s doing some heavy duty calculations. Two instances per project is all I can get, but that’s fine. I want to use it for heavy lifting.

Hi James -- I am sure you're aware that UAD runs specials on a regular basis. Recently, they started a $99 plugin of the week. I recently got the Studer tape plugin for $99 (I 'seem to be' a collector of tape saturation plugins ). One of the Lexicon reverbs was on the $99 sale a couple weeks ago. If you're on their email list you should get those regularly.

Rich

[James Steele]

Thanks for all the suggestions. I could only had a budget for ONE of these right now, so I got the Lexicon 480L for 40% off. $209 instead of $349. I have a UAD-2 Duo and one instance of the 480L takes 60% of one the processors, so I imagine it’s doing some heavy duty calculations. Two instances per project is all I can get, but that’s fine. I want to use it for heavy lifting.

Hi James -- I am sure you're aware that UAD runs specials on a regular basis. Recently, they started a $99 plugin of the week. I recently got the Studer tape plugin for $99 (I 'seem to be' a collector of tape saturation plugins ). One of the Lexicon reverbs was on the $99 sale a couple weeks ago. If you're on their email list you should get those regularly.

Rich

Yep. I'm aware of it. Unfortunately the special they ran on the other Lex reverb was only recently, not when I was looking for one. Oh well.