For more than three decades, the Ampex ATR-102 two-channel tape recorder has imparted the final cohesive sound to countless recordings with its distinctive low-end punch and ability to provide unique saturation and color. Take a tour of the legacy of Ampex and the sound qualities that make their ATR-102 Tape Recorder so desirable for producers and mastering engineers alike. 

The UA 4-710d Tone-Blending Mic Preamp includes four 710 tone-blending tube and solid-state mic preamps, 1176-style compression, plus high quality A/D conversion. In this article we'll demonstrate the tonal variety the 4-710d can bring specifically to recording your acoustic drum tracks.

We get occasional calls here at Universal Audio from people wanting to know what era some Universal Audio, UREI or Teletronix piece they bought on the vintage market dates from. So in this post, we're offering a complete revision history of two of our most popular reissues, the 1176LN Classic Limiting Amplifier and the Teletronix® LA-2A Classic Leveling Amplifier.

The SSL legacy is a staggering one: among the literally thousands of hit albums produced on its distinctive silver frame are landmark rock titles like Rush’s 1981 Moving Pictures, created on an SSL 4000 B — reportedly the first SSL to find its way to North America — by Terry Brown and Paul Northfield at Quebec’s Le Studio...

In the recording world, engineers often use the term “channel strip” to refer to products that have the input structure of a high-end mixer: a preamp, an equalizer, and a dynamics processor. The LA-610 MkII Classic Tube Recording Channel fits this description, providing the most affordable way to get the high-quality sound of Universal Audio.

There has always been a bit of controversy over reverb—particularly artificial reverb. Some purists still avoid it like the plague, while others embrace it as yet another creative tool in the audio engineer's palette. But let's backtrack to a time before digital devices, plates, and even chambers to the beginning of the controversy early in the history of audio recording...

The Manley brand has been synonymous with no-compromise, outboard recording equipment since its beginnings in the late ‘80s in the old Vacuum Tube Logic of America building. In 1993, Manley Laboratories Inc. became a separate entity apart from VTL and took up residence in its own, new factory located in Chino, CA—just 35 miles east of Los Angeles.

In theaters now, Black Dynamite spoofs the Blaxploitation films of the ’70s, with an amazing soundtrack that’s just been released on Wax Poetics Records. Dripping with vintage analog funk, the score has brought immediate attention to producer/composer Adrian Younge, who amazingly, also edited the film. In creating the score, Younge played almost every instrument, recorded everything to tape, and used as much vintage gear as he could get his hands on.

The original UREI LA-3A was designed by Brad Plunkett in the late 1960s and was still in production when I started working for him as a design engineer in 1977. The LA-3A was positioned as a smaller, lower-cost solid-state version of the LA-2A, and was designed around the same T4 optical attenuator. Brad is one of the best analog designers I've known, and so it was pretty cool to be involved in re-creating his product at UA. Here's some of the story about developing the UA clone of his LA-3A.