Developed by Brainworx, the two new UAD plugins bring boutique tube and solid-state saturation to Apollo interfaces and UAD-2 hardware.
Universal Audio has added two Brainworx-developed boutique saturation plug-ins to the UAD platform – the Black Box Analog Design HG-2 and elysia karacter Stereo Saturator, both available now for Apollo interfaces and UAD hardware.
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The HG-2 has a solid reputation in hardware form among mix and mastering engineers, known for adding richness and a sense of finish to a mix. The UAD version captures that tube saturation character and adds a handful of plugin-only controls: a Pentode/Triode blend for dialling in the flavour of warmth or grit, a parallel saturation path that can target lows, full spectrum or top end, and an Air control for opening up the top end beyond what the hardware offers. Density, Calibration voicing and Gain staging controls round out the extended feature set.
The elysia karacter Stereo Saturator covers different ground, modelling the Discrete Class A circuitry of elysia’s boutique hardware. Three modes – Saturation, FET Shred and Turbo Boost – take it from subtle colouring through to heavy harmonic distortion, and Mid/Side mode gives stereo tracks more width and dimension. Both mono and stereo sources are covered, making it useful across individual tracks, buses, stems or a full mix.
Both plugins run in real time on Apollo DSP for near-zero latency monitoring and are available now.
