Distortion Essentials Bundle
Customer Reviews
Distortion Essentials Bundle
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G. Hadfield
Fantastically satisifying character
A little puzzled by some of the negative reviews. I have found these three distortion plugins to be fantatsic at giving really satisfying character.
While they can all totally blitz a sound, they also have a less tiring and more satsifyinglt natural chaos about their sound than pretty much all other stomp box emulations I've tried.
Why four stars instead of five..? Two resaons. They are quite pricey given their limited scope of use. Though I'm sure that the last 20% of the sound quality took up 80% of the effort - where other developers might have stopped. And I bought it anyway - so how can I argue it was too much! Second (bigger) reason: no mix knob! I know it's not on the originals but it's really annoying not having mix on an insert
UAD User
Amazing
I have used many distortion plugins, but none come close to these. This is insane!
A. Glass
Compares to the hardware but...
This is a great little collection from UA. The TS808 is beautiful however a little intense. I find that it almost muddies the tone a bit when slapped on pre-amp. You definitely need to tweak the settings alot and scale them down to get usable overdrive. However - when you do - you get AMAZING tone. This is way better than all of the other non-DSP ones I've tried. This SOUNDS analog, it sounds real - however intense it may be.
M. Herrmannstorfer
Versatile Collection of Stomp boxes
There's everything from slightly Crunchy to heavily distorted. Especially nice when used as unison plugins in combination with the clean sound of Softube Vintage Amp Room in "Brown" mode!
M. Petrillo
Mind Blowing!
These pedal plugins are exceptional and worth every penny, especially the Raw or The Tube Screamer into the Engl Classic amp or the Friedman Dirty Shirley amp plug gives the screaming metal tone of a hardware TS 808 into a Marshall-style master volume amp. I'll never mic another amp in the studio!
A. Weiss
Authenticity..!
This plugin is by far the most authentic digital substitute to the real thing!
I doubt even an experienced guitarist could hear the difference.
UAD User
Finally happy with DI guitar recording!!
As a songwriter I've always been searching for ways to simplify the process of capturing an idea and shaping a song. I've never been happy with DI guitar until discovering these plugins. All 3 of these sound fantastic, and I'm getting better sounding distortion on these than mic'ing my amp. Plus, it's so convenient to be able to quickly dial in a tone in Console 2.0 and not have to deal with setting up my amp. I still prefer the sound of my own Tube Screamer in my Fender DeVille, but it's nice to be able to record guitars at anytime of the day and actually end up with useable tracks without having to re-amp/mess with the amp later.
S. McNulty
Virtual Stomp Boxes
I've been using these on the demo for a few days, now.
There is no way that I can't buy them.
The Big Muff is such a dirty little beast.
I love it.
E. Shapiro
Sounds decent
I ran these all through the ENGL on a clean setting. The virtual Rat sounds better than my newer Rat II. The filter taper and sound are a little smoother. Probably means I should just solder a better transistor in mine. I have a 90's Russian Big Muff and the Bermuda behaves a lot like it. Rolling off the guitar volume works the same on both. The Bermuda is a little darker but my actual pedal has always been too bright. I've never been a fan of tube screamers so I don't have much of a critical opinion about this one. This model sounds decent. Still not a fan of tube screamers.
T. Ottesen
Fun and useful pedals
Just the fact that the Unison tech works on the HI-Z input as well makes me put a plugin-pedal in front of the guitar, even though it may be turned off for clean sounds.
I can´t really comment on the authenticity of the Bermuda and Tubescreamer as I´ve never owned them, but I really enjoy the sound of them, the Tubescreamer does pretty much everything I need with the Vintage Amp Room.
I can however comment on the RAW pedal. I owned a RAT some 15 years ago, and I could never get a sound out of it that I could use for anything. When I slapped the RAW into the recording chain, I was immediately taken back to the rehearsal room. It sounds just like I remember it, and I can´t get any sounds out of this that I can use. Great emulation!
R. Virili
Great pedals simulations
Taking into the fact that until now I have not found a tube amp simulator that sounds much like a real amplifer, and I mean that is not tinted harsh and digital sound; these three plugins of famous pedals sound very well and are realistic, but as I said you have to have a clean guitar sound base, which has to be very good and realistic, and yet I have not found it among the many guitar simulators on the market. And I do not speak of highly distorted sounds that could be good enough, but of a clean, round, full sound and tube guitar.
It's hard I know.
Another thing is the price that is too high at least for one of the non-professional musicians like me who like much but the sounds of Universal Audio.
E. Ramazanoiglu
Killing tone
I pretty much exclusively use pedals on drums, vocals and synths and these have just rocked my world. My reamps and DIs are now sitting redundant as I pound beats and textures with the RAW especially. I've always loved the RAT and this just gets me there straight away. Couldn't be happier!!
S. BELFIORE
To J Rutter
I don't have a random setup at all. I have a Apollo quad and a satilitte octo. All through thunderbolt into a Mac Pro. I work on very big projects. It's very common for my sessions to have 80 tracks or more. I have other plugin bundles from other companies that I use from time to time to lighten the load. I always find the UA plugs far superior. I really can't get over the sound of the stomp boxes. I have a 5 of the top amp in my studio, and I really don't think I will be using them much longer. I already sold one stack. Buy a satilitte you won't regret it.
K. Hegyi
Waste of money!
It really is just a waste of money if you ask me. They don't sound nothing like the real thing and it just really plasticy.
No Character.
Boring sound.
Expensive.
Take up a lot of CPU for nothing...
1/10
S. BELFIORE
UAD is all I use !!!
These sound awesome. I never thought I would say I wouldn't use my amps any longer, but its starting to look that way. Stop complaining about DSP power. If you want the best sound, you have to pay a little for it. Thats why I know have 12 DSP processors. The new upgrades RULE !!!
J. Kulmesch
GREAT UPDATE
My secret wishes came true! Thx UA for this great update. Of course there are voices that don`t feel the same, but with my system, everything is just wonderful. Keep up the good work and thx for V8! Greetz from Austria
G. Sharp
I like the new console a lot
I have to say, that in spite of the few negative reviews submitted early on, and maybe because I did not use the previous console very much before the new one arrived, having only recently acquired an Apollo Twin, I find the console V8 intuitive and a powerful asset in my setup and love these old faithful emulations of the distortion essentials plugins.. Yes I could always do with more plug in power, but I can still do a great deal with what I have and enjoy saving sessions for future use in an environment that looks attractive and functions at least for me, very well. I like also for instance, the fact that I can easy click decide what will go to track and what will just enhance the experience in the cans on the way in.
A. Goyne
Raw/Rat across the input for everything sounds great
I am not in a pristine sound environment, just to put that out, but I was messing around and found the raw insert with distortion down and sweeping the filter took out audible room noise. Also works nice on drums, giving it a little hairy distortion. I have not used it on guitar except with the mic and distortion down. Kind of a cool lo fi vibe that has a lot of versatility plus it was free!
R. Pottorf
The next best thing to being there!
Love these pedal. Having used stomp boxes most of my career, I was a bit skeptical when I demoed them. After about a minute, I knew they were the real deal. THey sound exceptional on my Tele and a great arsenal in my plugin list.
J. Johansson
Great, but expensive.
As most other UAD products; Just great. But paying about the same price (on a sale) as a physical tube screamer costs, for three digital simulations... feels kind of strange. However, the products are great. The TS Overdrive pedal also works amazingly well with bass guitars, just turn down the distortion to 0 and you will have a hell of a nice boost!