Capitol Chambers
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A startling recreation of the world's finest echo chambers.
Located below the iconic Capitol Tower in Los Angeles, Capitol Studios is arguably the most recognized studio in the world — and much of its legend can be traced to its hallowed, subterranean echo chambers. From Ray Charles to Frank Sinatra, Beck to Muse, these underground spaces continue to provide gorgeous hi-fi ambience that is simply unmatched.
Now, after years of R&D and close collaboration with Capitol Studios — including unprecedented access to four legendary echo chambers 30-feet beneath the studio — Universal Audio proudly presents the Capitol Chambers plug-in, a startling end-to-end recreation of the most popular echo chambers ever created, exclusively for UAD hardware and UA Audio Interfaces.Now You Can:
Record and mix with the world's only authentic plug-in emulation of Capitol Studios' prized underground echo chambers
Add the unmistakably dense, natural reverberation to vocals or drums — far beyond plate, digital, or simple convolution reverb
Create new sounds by repositioning Capitol Chambers' microphones using UA's Dynamic Room Modeling
Audition current and historical chamber configurations, plus new setups curated by Capitol's Steve Genewick
Harness the chamber's entire signal chain including amplifiers, speakers, custom preamps, and mics
Quickly pull up presets from legendary Grammy-winning engineers Al Schmitt (Ray Charles, Steely Dan), Darrell Thorp (Beck, Radiohead), Frank Filipetti (Madonna, Paul McCartney) and more
Take a Listen
Classic Echo Chambers Designed by Les Paul
Prized for their natural sound and dense ambience, acoustic echo chambers became a creative tool for pioneering, forward-thinking engineers by the mid 1940s — most notably UA founder Bill Putnam Sr. and the great Les Paul, the genius behind the Capitol chambers designs. Built from reinforced concrete and tuned using sloped ceilings and a trapezoidal shape, Paul's designs deliver a smooth, balanced decay and a completely natural room tone that can't be achieved in any other way.
Capturing Iconic Echo
In creating this amazing plug-in, UA sourced historic technical diagrams from the early '60s to precisely recreate microphone/speaker setups inside of Capitol's most coveted chambers, including the vintage omnidirectional Altec 21D mics and custom speaker/horn configurations, in their original hit-making positions. Current "modern" configurations dating from the late '80s were also captured, using the omnidirectional Shure SM80s, while new and creative mic/speaker combos were devised by Capitol's resident chamber expert, Steve Genewick.
Unprecedented Ambience Control
Capitol Chambers' Position slider gives you next-level control over spatial and time response, allowing you to reposition the chamber mics — no assistant engineer required. From the maximum distance stock positions, to direct speaker-to-microphone effects and proximity characteristics, the Capitol Chambers plug-in can subtly thicken vocals or drums, or soak strings with the most natural, complex sounding reverb ever recorded.
Powered by UA's Dynamic Room Modeling
Harnessing the same technology as the award-winning Ocean Way Studios plug-in, Capitol Chambers uses UA’s proprietary Dynamic Room Modeling technology, an exclusive combination of physical modeling and advanced measurement techniques. Whereas standard convolution reverbs only provide a sonic snapshot, Dynamic Room Modeling gives the Capitol Chambers plug-in nearly infinite ambient possibilities.
Deeper Still
Beyond a vintage recreation, the Capitol Chambers plug-in offers creative features for modern DAW workflows like Pre Delay, Dry/Wet mix, and Decay controls. A sweepable 80 to 750 Hz filter lets you minimize muddy bass going into the chamber, while Bass, Treble, and proportional Q Mid band lets you perfectly season the chamber's lush ambience. In addition, the Width control allows you to narrow the chamber's stereo field, for easily pinpointing a vocal or instrument in the mix. Finally, Decay lets you quickly shorten Capitol Chambers' natural reverb time, offering more scenarios to harness the most famous echo chambers ever made.
An All-Star Collection of Artist Presets
The Capitol Chamber's plug-in features carefully crafted presets from a stunning roster of Grammy-winning engineers and producers. From recording industry icon Al Schmitt (Ray Charles, Steely Dan) to Mark Linett (The Beach Boys, Los Lobos) and Frank Filipetti (Madonna, Paul McCartney), Darrell Thorp (Beck, Radiohead), and more, you can experiment using the same settings that professionals who know every nook and cranny of Capitol's famous chambers use every day.
Capitol and the Capitol logos are trademarks of Capitol Records, LLC, registered in the United States, European Union, and other jurisdictions, and are used under license.
"A Rose" by Jamie Lidell
Written and recorded exclusively to showcase the UAD Capitol Chambers Reverb plug‑in.
“I’ve been using the chambers at Capitol Studios for nearly 25 years, now I finally get to take them with me when I work outside of Capitol.”
– Steve Genewick (Ray Charles, Queen, Frank Sinatra Jr.)
“While tracking at Capitol Studios, I always capture the chambers. Now I can have same sound at my fingertips anytime. This is my new use‑on‑everything reverb. ”
– Darrell Thorp (Beck, Radiohead, Charlotte Gainsbourg)
“Some of the best echo chambers in the world are now just a click away. The interface is simple and self explanatory — the sounds are extraordinary.”
– Mark Needham (The Killers, Neon Trees, P!nk)
“With the Capitol Chambers plug-in, UA has created a truly flexible, physical space. Let that sink in for a second…”
– John Paterno (Robbie Williams, Badly Drawn Boy, Bonnie Raitt)
“The UAD Capitol Chambers plug-in is amazing. It has so much depth, character, and authenticity. It sounds just like you're there.”
– Chris Dugan (Green Day, Iggy Pop, U2)
“The UAD Capitol Chambers plug-in is meticulously crafted, complete with various mics and mic placements. It’s a remarkable piece of the past — accurate and powerfully versatile.”
– Richard Chycki (Rush, Aerosmith, Dream Theater)Customer Reviews
K. Socasau
April 30, 2022
Stunning Chamber reverbs
For me the best Chamber reverb plugin, sounds spectacular on a lot of sources, gives a lot of natural ambiance and it's 3 dimensional sounding, really simple to use and great features....
Read MoreJ. Poijärvi
April 11, 2022
Capitol Chambers
Great plugin/reverb tool for lead and backing vocals especially. Took a while to learn tricks but it definitely was worth it. Soft, natural sound. Just...
Read MoreJ. Vierra
April 6, 2022
The real deal!
It took me a little while to get the hang of this plugin, but once I did it has become indispensable and lives in every mix. Amazing sound!...
Read MoreD. Parra
March 2, 2022
Unique sound!
Very unique sound!! Love how it can blend a wide range of elements. Beautiful character.
Read MoreB. Xenophontos
February 13, 2022
Classic Chamber sound!
Unique yet useful chamber reverb, just what some of my mixes needed!
Read More -
Key Features
Exclusive echo chamber emulation licensed and endorsed by Capitol Studios
The world's best-sounding and most in-demand echo chambers, designed by Les Paul
Gorgeously natural, uniquely dense chamber ambience, for reverb buses or individual sources
Choose from Capitol’s most popular chambers (2,4,6,7) with varying mic/speaker configurations representing modern to historical setups
Captures amplifier, speaker, custom preamp, and microphone chain for unprecedented realism
Fine tune ideal placement with continuously adjustable microphone positioning using UA's Dynamic Room Modeling
Other features include adjustable Decay, Pre Delay, sweepable cut filter, three-band EQ, Dry/Wet mix, and Width
Artist presets from Grammy-winning engineers Al Schmitt (Ray Charles, Steely Dan), Darrell Thorp (Beck, Radiohead), Frank Filipetti (Madonna, Paul McCartney), and more
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Customer Reviews
Capitol Chambers
K. Socasau
Stunning Chamber reverbs
For me the best Chamber reverb plugin, sounds spectacular on a lot of sources, gives a lot of natural ambiance and it's 3 dimensional sounding, really simple to use and great features.
J. Poijärvi
Capitol Chambers
Great plugin/reverb tool for lead and backing vocals especially. Took a while to learn tricks but it definitely was worth it. Soft, natural sound. Just what I was looking for.
J. Vierra
The real deal!
It took me a little while to get the hang of this plugin, but once I did it has become indispensable and lives in every mix. Amazing sound!
D. Bojan
Natural
Simply magical.
D. Parra
Unique sound!
Very unique sound!! Love how it can blend a wide range of elements. Beautiful character.
B. Xenophontos
Classic Chamber sound!
Unique yet useful chamber reverb, just what some of my mixes needed!
P. Towler
Be inspired WHILE you record...
Very heavy on DSP so I'd suggest trying the 14 day trial first, but this thing sounds absolutely gorgeous.
N. Demchenko
awesomeness!
Nobly ages any sound, I use it in every project
M. Jarzebski
My Brand New World
It is a blend of flavours. Sweet and sour! Dark and bright! It can be anything I want a verb to be. It is the part of my template in Luna and Logic. Capitol Chambers takes me back to the future and back again.
L. Gomez
THE Reverb!
Just listen to the demo, this Reverb gives you everything, from a lovely lush to a color that sounds like an amazing record, a fantastic plugin, nothing like it in the market!
G. Aksoy
Natural
Awesome natural sounding reverb, I loved it.
J. Loureiro
Pure Magic
That is the Reverb that we all want this is just magic...
j. Rempel
A Must-have plug-in.
So Easy to make reverb sound good!
A. Paulick-Thiel
Amazing Depth
As much as I love various other UAD reverbs for their distinct characters and textures to create a proper "studio" sound, this one adds a tremendous amount of natural-sounding depth that allows the entire mix to breathe. It's quite remarkable! Also great to bring synthetic sounds and synths to life alongside microphone recordings, especially using closer settings. Capitol Chambers is a powerful tool and a joy to work with!
T. Wehrmann
Just amazing sound
i was searching for a reverb for a ballad style electric guitar. It was by far the best plug-in for that purpose, compared to other plugin manufacturers.
B. Stanisic
retro vibe...
great one...
G. Jamsek
Just beautiful!
It’s a great sounding natural reverb! You can also go a bit over the top with it and it still doesn’t sound invasive. Good setting choices. Was on my wishlist for a long time…
Unfortunately very CPU hungry. The original price is a bit “juicy” but with all the holiday discounts and coupons it became more affordable so I bought it. Great buy!R. CLEMENTE
Just amazing
This is is the best reverb I ever tried on my electric guitars
Really easy to use and sweet to my earsJ. Sundström
Capitol chambers
Wonderful. Only thing that i have to do is figure out how settings chould be for my satellit firewire unit. It says audio overload in a very small project
G. Axon
Very warm natural space!
Great plug-in!
