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  • Overview
  • Features
  • Customer Reviews
  • 4.8/5
    (824)
$349.00
4.8/5
(824)

Welcome to Ocean Way Studios — the world’s first dynamic room modeling plug‑in.

Developed by Universal Audio and Allen Sides, the Ocean Way Studios plug-in for UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces rewrites the book on what’s possible with acoustic space emulation.

By combining elements of room, microphone, and source modeling, Ocean Way Studios moves far beyond standard impulse response players and reverbs — giving you an authentic replication of one of the world’s most famous recording studios.

Record live or mix through Ocean Way Recording’s legendary Studio A and Studio B

Use “best of the best” vintage microphones from Allen Sides’ world-renowned collection

Choose among Allen Sides’ favorite room positions with 8 source types, for stunningly accurate sound dispersion behaviors

Position, blend, and process three mic pairs (Near / Mid / Far) in real time

Retain mic bleed, proximity, and other naturally occurring behaviors for realism far beyond other reverb/ambience plug-ins

Re-mic loops and soft synths to bring them to life

Take a Listen

Take a Listen
Learn how to Add Ambience to Close-Miked Drums
Learn how to Add Ambience to Close-Miked Drums

Learn how to Add Ambience to Close-Miked Drums

Grammy-winning engineer Vance Powell (Jack White, The Dead Weather) and the Ocean Way Studios and the Neve 33609 Compressor plug‑ins.

The Legendary Rooms of Ocean Way

The Legendary Rooms of Ocean Way

From the opening of Bill Putnam’s United Recording in 1957, to the annexing of neighboring Western Studio in 1961, to their reinvention as Ocean Way Recording under Allen Sides — the famed “Studio A” and “Studio B” at Ocean Way Studios have shaped the sound of countless classic records. From Ray Charles and the Beach Boys, to the Rolling Stones, and Radiohead, music creators have sought out the sound of these beautifully balanced rooms for more than five decades.

Dynamic Room Modeling

Dynamic Room Modeling

Ocean Way Studios reinvents ambience processing with UA’s proprietary Dynamic Room Modeling technology, an exclusive combination of signal processing and advanced measurement techniques. Whereas standard convolution reverbs only provide a sonic snapshot, Dynamic Room Modeling offers the full spectrum of a studio’s ambience possibilities. Specifically, Dynamic Room Modeling provides the unique dispersion properties of various sources, as recorded through various vintage microphones that can be positioned in each room — in real time — via a simple click-and-drag interface. This technology gives the Ocean Way Studios plug-in a shocking level of sonic realism.

An Unrivaled Microphone Collection Under Your Control

An Unrivaled Microphone Collection Under Your Control

With virtual access to $250,000 of hand-picked, vintage microphones, Ocean Way’s microphone setups and Distance controls are the centerpiece of the plug-in. The setups capture the ideal microphone selections and placements for each room and source type.

Up to three vintage microphones pairs (Near, Mid, Far) are available in each setup, allowing for creative sonic blending. Click-and-drag the microphones to position them in the room, then EQ and filter their sound as desired — complete with mic bleed and proximity effects.

Transform Tones With Reverb and Re-Mic Modes

Transform Tones With Reverb and Re-Mic Modes

Ocean Way Studios offers two modes of operation: Reverb mode, using send/return paths to mix wet and dry signals; or Re-Mic mode, to fully immerse the original source audio within Ocean Way’s rooms. Re-Mic mode is by nature “fully wet,” and can be used to entirely replace your original room and microphone sounds with the fabled sound of Ocean Way.

Watch The Reviews

      5-Minute UAD Tips
      5-Minute UAD Tips

      5-Minute UAD Tips

      Ocean Way Studios plug-in

      Key Features

      Breakthrough acoustic emulations of Ocean Way Recording’s legendary Studio A and Studio B
      Dynamic Room Modeling combines room, microphone, and source models for unprecedented realism
      Incorporates sonic profiles of vintage microphones from Allen Side’s world-renowned collection
      Includes mic bleed and mic proximity effects for stunning accuracy
      Choose from eight instrument / vocal source types with unique dispersion patterns
      Position and blend between three vintage mic pairs (Near / Mid / Far) in real time
      Use in “Reverb” mode, mixing wet and dry signal; or “Re-Mic” mode, replacing your original room and mic sounds altogether
      Preset mic selections, placements and creative direction by Ocean Way’s Allen Sides
      Requires UAD-2 DSP Accelerator Card or Apollo Interface, available from authorized dealers worldwide

      Customer Reviews

      Ocean Way Studios

      Overall Rating

      4.8/5
      (824)

      J. Mengis

      April 8, 2022

      Essential for remote drum sessions

      My name is Joe Mengis and I playe drums for the band Eels. When the band is not on the road, I do a lot of session drumming and have a home studio for remote sessions. I have built an isolation room that sounds fantastic with the x8p. Ocean Way has been essential for delivering drum set and percussion tracks that need an added great sounding room. When I have delivered tracks with and without Ocean Way, my clients have chosen to use the tracks with Ocean Way every single time.

      E. Anthony

      April 7, 2022

      STRING MACHINE

      I send my string tracks that I perform for film scores to this plug-in and it makes the ensemble sound incredible. 10/10 recommend for people with limited space in their studio room.

      M. Schroer

      March 21, 2022

      For Strings

      At the moment I use Ocean way studios mainly for strings and they sound incredible, but I will try other instruments later.

      B. Bachhuber

      March 19, 2022

      OW Studios are so far away and yet so close

      It´s such a pleasure adding those famous ambince sounds to the mix. Love it!

      P. Cavanaugh

      February 25, 2022

      Unbelievable!

      Incredible plugin! Everything sounds great with Ocean Way! Once you figure it out, it's easy!

      B. Stephens

      February 17, 2022

      Ocean Way brings that something

      Have only used it on drums so far, love what it brings. Makes my snare happy and my kick thick. UAD is quality you can hear.

      h. kim

      February 16, 2022

      최고의 사운드를 안겨준다

      다른 회사에서는 감히 넘볼 수 없는 강력한 플러그인이다.

      E. Blake

      January 24, 2022

      It’s a dream

      It gets me in a creative place where I know anything is possible.Beautiful backing vocals behind me sung be me.If you want to truly create then I’d recommend Ocean Ways.I already have top flight mics too Cheers

      .

      January 24, 2022

      Great for rock

      Very usefull on drums and guitars gives a nice subtle ambience pleased I got it for 80 at Xmas . I would recommend, even though it's old it's very good still

      J. Loureiro

      January 17, 2022

      Sound like the Pros environment

      The Room the i was waiting for a long time to put drums sound like the Pros. not everyone can record in great studios with great rooms , and now with this plugin, mixing drums, strings even keys, like if they were recorded in a good environment its like be in another level...

      n. binns

      January 15, 2022

      Impressive

      Impressive space. Really lovely bit of kit.

      G. Merino

      January 15, 2022

      Great room! But..

      Increíble useful plugin. You can create amazing spaces in your mixes. I use a lot on drums, but you can put anything on it.
      Unfortunately, the GUI is not up to the sound, is tinny, old and low resolution.
      UAD please update your graphics and make them resizable, we’re in 2022!

      R. Cremasco

      January 14, 2022

      I’m a believer

      I really thought this plugin was a waste of time. Tried a few times and never loved it. Last time I tried it on an aux and spent proper time and attention. I fell in love. This is not a reverb plugin but a room plugin. I love tracking with it now and use it on every mix.

      B. Hamann

      January 11, 2022

      Amazing!

      I especially love what it does on keys, synhs or strings. Recommendation!

      .

      January 11, 2022

      My new short reverb!

      It's rare to hear a room emulation with a short punchy sound which also sounds authentic, but this plugin delivers exactly just that. Fantastic!

      T. Taivalaho

      January 7, 2022

      Ocean Way 2 go

      Naturally best in high class! Easy to use in bus reverb. Thanks again!

      R. Little

      January 6, 2022

      Wow

      I've used a lot of plugins, but never one quite like this. In remic mode, the quality of the mic emulations alone is worth the price of admission. The ambience of the room is superb and can be dialed in a number of different ways. Really special.

      M. De Carolis

      January 6, 2022

      infinite potential

      If you want to discover the best UAD Plugin the Ocean Way Studios is the best.
      It had an infinite potential, you can do what no one else can give you.
      You can create the sound of the ocean way studios simply with a plugin. if you don't believe it, you just have to try.

      A. Link

      January 5, 2022

      Don't know of anything that comes close

      I haven't bothered using my UAD plugins in a while because I have so many good native alternatives and I didn't feel like bringing my Apollo Twin with me when I was traveling. But recently I put OWS on a plucked instrument performance and I just could NOT find a way to get any combination of plugins to perform as well as this one. I am using the re-mic mode on a very close mic setting with a bit of the other mics blended in. I tried using various EQ, compression, then Liquidsonics 7th Heaven which I do love but it just would not sound as natural. I think the scary thing about this plugin is that in remic mode it does SO much to your sound and in some cases if it doesn't work you can't really be too surprised - it completely transforms the sound - but when it does work it does it much more naturally than a combination of lots of plugins and EQ. You might be surprised how much it changes the sound in remic mode and think “dang isn’t that adding some phase issues or some harshness? what is this thing doing!?” but as soon as you start trying to emulate the effect with other plugins you get an even more artifact-heavy result. What I love especially about remic mode is that it compresses the sound in a very natural way unlike any compressor I have ever used, and most importantly it adds the depth to the sound of the room in a way that even 7th Heaven can't do. 7th Heaven would be my first choice if I just wanted my sound to stay exactly as is but add a bit of room ambience around it, but for anything where I'm not 100% sold on the balance of the recording OWS is worth a shot.

      One thing I realized that is crazy is that while there are probably some things going into this plugin that are not IR based, in the end the actual plugin seems to be mostly an IR generator. Clearly IR's are more useful than anyone ever knew - but you obviously can't just expect to take them from an actual room and get the right result - the magic here is in the IR that UA has generated for the attack on remic mode. So they must have spent a ton of time researching how to build EXTREMELY realistic and useful IRs for this remic mode. I love other reverbs for what they do but nothing comes close to this. I know it was a lot of work but this is the #1 thing UA has done in my experience.

      Also people on forums and elsewhere will say you can do the same thing in Altiverb. Well yes Altiverb is an IR player and has some incredible rooms, some of which probably sound better than OWS on many things, but the issue is Altiverb hasn’t tackled the completely artificial programming of these early reflection remic impulses that are generated on the fly as you move the mic around. I mean this is just so much more useful than Altiverb because I can frankly use any algorithmic or decent reverb to get a really good tail and dispersion of sound. The thing that is nearly impossible to do is replace these early reflections as if you actually recorded the sound there. Whatever UA did to measure them isn’t something other companies have seemed to tackle at all.

      J. Manning

      January 3, 2022

      Very Nice

      Place your instrument in a room. Sounds great.