Get the Rich Tube Compression that Changed Recording
Often cited among the crowning achievements of audio pioneer and UA founder Bill Putnam Sr., the 175B and 176 compressors are prized for their rich tube gain reduction character and sonic flexibility. Now you can get the same legendary sounds as the rare hardware with the only authentic plug‑in emulation of the original UA 175B and 176 compressors.
Add a Legendary Limiter to your Studio
Introduced in the early 1960s — and used on thousands of seminal records — the UA 175B and 176 were the first compressors purpose-built for studio recording and mixing music, giving engineers groundbreaking fast attack time and independently variable Attack and Release controls.
Experience Deep Tube Sonics
Based on a pair of UA's 1960s golden units, the UA 175B and 176 Tube Compressor Collection gives you all the ultra-musical harmonics and colorful saturation of these original units — down to their magical feedback compression circuit — giving you softer compression at lower input levels and harder, nearly brickwall limiting at higher levels.
Get the Rich Sound of an All‑Around Champ
Perfect for vocals, drums, guitars, and more, the UA 175B and 176 plug‑ins give you all the character and juice of the originals — indistinguishable from the target hardware in blind listening tests. You can even turn off the compression and use the 175B/176 plug-ins as a "tone box," lending rich tube textures galore.
What They Say
The UA 175B & 176 Tube Compressor Collection will thicken and warm up harsh vocals, and just like the hardware, the plug-in versions overdrive in a very pleasing way.
Peter Mokran
Christina Aguilera, The Flaming Lips
Once you load a preset in the UA 175B & 176 Tube Compressor Collection, you're instantly rewarded with a smooth sonic richness — the signature sound of these rare hardware units.
Steve Levine
Culture Club, Beach Boys, Ziggy Marley
The 175B and 176 compressors sit in a magical place in between the LA-2A and 1176, creating something unique while revealing new layers of sonic opportunity.
Bought a bunch of new plugins from UAD using them in existing and future projects. Love them just held off until I could get a good price. Currently use waves izotopes and fabfilter and a mix of others.
YM
yoann m.
Verified Buyer
I recommend this product
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
4 months ago
warm and just a lilllll bit gritty
This comp got sooo much character. A treasure.
JP
Jack P.
Verified Buyer
I recommend this product
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
8 months ago
idk why i never tried this one out before
vari-mu compression is cool as hell, this also works as a tube overdrive box. There is a little finagling to get the levels to compress properly at times, but this thing provides so much mojo. It's become a go-to for bass & drums especially.
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Frequently Asked Questions
No. These plug-ins run natively on your computer. No UA hardware is required.
We provide three activations per license. We support activation on your computer or on an iLok USB key.
For every UAD plug-in that supports native and Apollo/UAD-2 versions, you get a license for both upon purchase, or the option to get it through an upgrade.
Native plug-ins are supported on macOS and Windows systems. See our Native UAD System Requirements article for full system requirements. An iLok account is required for managing your native plug-in licenses. We support iLok USB keys for portability, but one is not required.