Neve® 88RSTM Channel Strip Collection
Customer Reviews
Neve 88RS Channel Strip Collection
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M. Penn
5 Stars!! The Best Channel Strip Period So Far!!
Universal Audio Deserves the Price for this Update and with Preamp.. You wouldn't be able to get this sound probably under a $1000 with the functionality. So $299-$149 is worth it and what i will do with yours and my mix..
Definitely Buying this shortly!!!
Thanks UA Please release the SSL Channel Strip NEXT !!
Thanks ;-)
a. morgan
Pricing:)
I have the legacy version but when I go to buy the new one it charges me full price... any ideas?
Kindly, Anton.
A. Smith
This is the truth!!!!
This plugin is superior!! The sound quality and new layout is perfect!! I've only used this on vocals so my opinion may be a bit shallow, but what this does and how easy it does it!!! PERFECT. I was initially disappointed with the price because I have the legacy version, but after hearing the two, the price is justified, and I didn't loose my other plugin! UAD Keep the plugins coming!!
M. Ballenger
Costly in $$$ and DSP
5 stars for sound quality, -3 stars for upgrade pricing and DSP usage. $150 is a steep upgrade considering I paid $300 for this channel strip originally. I might be able to stomach it by waiting for coupons and sales throughout the year, BUT considering I can run a max of 16 instances on an OCTO card makes this too costly on my UAD hardware as well. There should be a way of saving unison resources for those of us running PCI-E or thunderbolt satellite rigs without the Apollo pres. It's getting harder to justify the cost (both upgrade and additional hardware to be able to run enough instances to be useful) when other options are becoming more attractive all the time.
M. Mekonen
my thoughts exactly
i read almost all the bad or low star reviews, all of which say plug-in sounds great! but price suck...plug-in sounds great! price suck....etc.
Look, the review page is for how the plug-in sounds and fits into ur work flow. Does it sound like garbage, does it sound like neve gold... get it, got it Good. keep'em coming UA, awesome work. O yeah the neve 88 sounds great....Lol. No really it does. on Hip Hop VOX...A+
C. Frazier
I'm really sad about this.
all these plug ins are great, but you can only use them 1or 2 times. feels like I wasted money buying this hardware.
T. Hoogland
The best channel strip
After getting over multiple plugin instances and separate processes, I decided to try find a good overall channel strip to help simplify workflow. I was certain after tirelessly trying the API Vision, SSL, 88RS legacy and all the other big player channel strips (or things that combine to make one) the past couple of months that the API would be it and then this came along. In terms of overall quality, both sonically and features, this plugin kind of leaves everything I tried for dust. The bottom end doesn't loosen up when making excessive boosts, the mid range isn't harsh and the top end makes you feel like you're boosting off tape. The option to select line amp and mic is also something I dig quite a lot. Only bad thing is it's DSP heavy.
H. Petersson
A bit of balance
I am throwing in a five star rating here to balance things up a bit.
Some people think it's unfair of UA to charge halt the list price for an update. I think it's unfair to give this excellent plugin one star because of that.
If you bought the original version and thought it was worth the money then be happy with that purchase. The new version is a new plugin all together, rebuilt from ground up which I'm sure took a lot of effort. It's not a minor update. If you don't think it's worth the upgrade price (which is perfectly understandable) then you don't need to pay it. It's not as if your current version will stop functioning. Take one star off the review for high pricing, but to give it one star is just as unfair.
H. Petersson
A bit of balance
I am throwing in a five star rating here to balance things up a bit.
Some people think it's unfair of UA to charge halt the list price for an update. I think it's unfair to give this excellent plugin one star because of that.
If you bought the original version and thought it was worth the money then be happy with that purchase. The new version is a new plugin all together, rebuilt from ground up which I'm sure took a lot of effort. It's not a minor update. If you don't think it's worth the upgrade price (which is perfectly understandable) then you don't need to pay it. It's not as if your current version will stop functioning. Take one star off the review for high pricing, but to give it one star is just as unfair.
H. Petersson
Excellent plugin but high DSP usage
This is an excellent plugin. One of UAs best work to date. The input stage is clean, accurate and warm. Great sounding filters and EQ. Perfectly usable compressor and gate. All in all it sounds fantastic, and there is very little that can match it in terms of quality.
The only thing that takes away one star is the DSP consumption which is a bit too high to make this really usable as a mixing plugin unless you have at least two octos. It is twice the API Vision strip.
It would not have been a problem is DSP was cheaper, but this is beyond the budget of many users.
If there was a way to bypass the input stage to save some DSP it would make it a little bit more usable.
N. Wilkes
A stunning facelift - pure Neve goodness
Don't believe the hype on this one - grab it and hear it for yourself.
Of all thew Mk II versions released so far this one for me is the winner, and the 88RS now sounds like the board it is modelled from. I like the GUI redesign (signal flow is now more intuitive) and the tweaks done under the hood have really made this strip into something special and very usable on a lot of things - it sounds equally fantastic on Bass, Piano, Vocals & Guitars. My only gripe is the lack of an input meter (and you should be aware the output meter is post VCA but Pre-output dial). The compressor no longer seems to snatch at the audio in that SSL manner, and the EQ is so musical it's a joy.
An excellent upgrade & highly recommended to all Neve lovers
c. may
Simply ... Wow!!
I have never written a UAD review. AND The last thing I needed to do was buy another UAD plug – meaning, I have most of them. And considering I have the original and almost never used it, why again? Well, this plug beat nearly every plug-in in shoot-outs I staged with previous mixes – meaning, where I might have placed 2-3 plugs in concert, the 88RS – hands down – took the prize. This emulation is the very manifestation of the reason I invested in this platform in the beginning. This plug is the most amazing thing I have ever worked with. Kudos to the entire team behind it. The UAD 88RS is amazing! And if you are staiil standing in the wings
j. york
New 88r is too expensive and too dsp heavy...
The "legacy" neve 88rs plugin is my go to , most useful, plug in. I could mix an entire record with just that one plugin since it does it all- eq, comp, gate, gain. In fact, all of my mixes are based off this - then sometimes I add a specific comp- either an 1176 or a LA2A here and there for specific favor- maybe a pultec EQ if I need that flavor, but the foundation on track after track is the 88r. Now we've got this new version. It's supposed to be "better" - but the great thing about the "legacy" is that it uses little dsp yet sounds good. This new one uses 40%! You can't load that on every track in your mix - you're going to have to use it only here and there, and to my mind that's not what a bread and butter eq/ comp is for! Not buying!
I. Kiyashko
THE go-to plugin from now on
I tried every UAD channel strip, but this is by far the best. The sound you get from this resembles real analog so much more! I have been trying to get a decent plugin chain for my U47 voice recordings, previously stopped at using the Summit compressor. BUT when I put this one on - I was amazed. Neve has one of the best software compressors ever and an amazingly fat, but transparent & musical EQ. As far as ITB mixing goes, I think that for now this is as close as emulating analog goes. This will be used on every channel from now on. Hands down, it kills any other console channel strips with ease. Oh, and try doing some filtering / correction with Oxford EQ after this and you will be impressed ;-))
J. Schmelzer
Blown Away!
I demoed this new channel strip for a few hours and realized it was a definite buy! The sound of the filters sold me. Super clean and unobtrusive. I love being able to use it with unision tech as a mic pre as well. It's amazing when you think about everything you get with this plug: Preamp, EQ, Compressor, and Gate/Expander. You could literally mix a record with this plugin and it would sound awesome! If you're new to Apollo I'd recommend this or the API vision for sheer flexibility and usefulness. I do prefer this to the API though. I even used it on my mix buss and loved the result!
C. BORCA
Great plug in / bad business
Hi there Uad team,
Just wanted to drop my comment about the fact that i have baught this plug in a few years back and i think it is not normal that you are not offering an upgrade friendly price for people in my case. You consider i should buy it a second time in total ! this is just unfair.
I hope you will take this remark into account. Just have a look at others quality actors like Native Instrument and many many others in computer software business....
J. Roger
Does Everything Better
After spending a couple days with this I've basically decided this plug-in does everything better than every other one of my plug-ins. I also own and regularly use most of UA's other plugins.
It's a lot better than the old 88RS too. Huge release. Definitely buying.
A. Salganik
is good but original is better
this is definitely sounds warmer due to complicated distortion characteristics
but I think original sounds better
T. Newsom
Excellent Channel Strip but costly for legacy users
The Neve 88RS has been an excellent Channel Strip but has also taken more time effectively using the Gate/ Expander controls which can be confusing when setting the two threshold levels. Not enough video examples are available from UA. The overall sound is classic neve analog but for us legacy users (over three years) the price of update should be no more than $50.00. Coupons that are issued to regular customers should not have a quick expiration date since building up studio equipment requires setting priorites each month which seldom work for the coupons.
S. Kemper
Awesome and worth the money because ...
I can understand those people who like me already bought the legacy version of the plugin .. but! ... this has nothing to do with the legacy version of it! You have to understand that the legacy 88rs plugin was developed YEARS AGO and the DSP-Tech, research on emulating analog hardware, etc was not in the reach of where it is today! Just take a look at the DSP-Consumption Facts and you'll see the difference. There must and IS a huge difference if one version just takes about 5% DSP load and the new one almost 40% ... And at the time the legacy version was developed there wasn't even something like unison available!
THUMBS UP UAD! This is awesome! Thank you so much!