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UAD Sound City Studios Plug-In
Get the authentic sound of the world's most famous rock & roll studio.
- Place your drums, guitars, vocals, and more inside Sound City Studios' famous Studio A
- Transform your sources with a collection of vintage hit-making mics
- Sculpt perfect guitar tones with expertly placed cabinet and mic setups
- Get the authentic tone of an iconic '70s custom British console, including 3-band EQ and inline compression, based on the legendary Sound City Studios' desk
- Smash your tracks with Sound City Studios' collection of analog outboard gear including "secret weapon" Dolby A-style effects**, 1176 limiting, and more
- Put your sources in Sound City Studios' lush-sounding reverb chamber
Get the Authentic Sound of the World's most Famous Rock & Roll Studio
What They Say
Jeff Balding
Taylor Swift, The Eagles, Florida Georgia Line
Joey Waronker
Atoms for Peace, Beck, Other Lives
Frequently Asked Questions
UAD Sound City Studios is worth it if you want to place your tracks inside one of the most famous rock and roll rooms ever built, without owning the studio, the console, or the mic collection. The plug-in captures Studio A along with its custom British console, outboard gear, and reverb chamber, so one plug-in covers room sound, analog character, and ambience at once. For a home or bedroom setup, that combination gets your drums, vocals, and guitars into a finished, professional-sounding space quickly.
UAD Sound City Studios is different because it models one specific, historic recording space rather than a generic room or an algorithmic reverb. It was voiced using original multitrack recordings cut in Studio A, and it captures the room, mics, console, and outboard gear together as a single signal path. You also get proven source setups and the ability to move mics around the room in realtime, which goes well beyond a fixed reverb preset.
Dynamic Room Modeling in UAD Sound City Studios lets you reposition a collection of classic condenser and ribbon microphones around Studio A in realtime. Instead of one fixed capture, you can move the mics to find room sounds beyond the original chart-topping positions. This gives you control over how close, roomy, or reflective a source sounds while staying inside the same authentic space.
You can get UAD Sound City Studios two ways: buy the individual plug-in to own it permanently, or access it through a UAD Spark subscription alongside the rest of the UAD native plug-in library. Buying it outright makes sense if this is the specific sound you want and you prefer a one-time purchase. UAD Spark makes sense if you want it together with many other UAD native plug-ins, and you can start with a free trial to hear it in your own mixes first.
UAD Sound City Studios includes the full Studio A signal chain in one plug-in: the room itself, a collection of classic condenser, dynamic, and ribbon mics, and the studio's custom British console with a 3-band EQ and bus compression. It also gives you the studio's outboard gear, including 1176 limiting and a vintage noise-reduction unit that the studio's engineers repurposed as a secret-weapon multiband EQ and limiter. The famous reverb chamber is built in as well, so you can add the studio's natural ambience to any source.
UAD Sound City Studios is built to sound like the real Studio A because it was voiced using original multitrack recordings cut in the room, with setup guidance from the engineers who worked there every day. The team captured the space with its natural character intact, warts and all, rather than smoothing it into a generic room. The result places your sources in the same room where decades of hit records were made.
Yes, UAD Sound City Studios adds analog console character through an emulation of the studio's custom British console, which colored everything that ran through Studio A from the early '70s onward. You get the console's 3-band EQ and bus compression on any source, so you can shape tone and glue a mix with the same desk sound. It works on individual tracks or across a bus, the way the original console was used.
No, UAD Sound City Studios does not require an Apollo audio interface or any UAD hardware. It runs natively on your Mac or Windows computer using your CPU, so you can use it whether or not you own a UA interface. That makes it available to anyone with a compatible computer and a supported DAW.
UAD Sound City Studios is compatible with both macOS and Windows, including Apple Silicon Macs, and it runs as a native plug-in inside any major DAW. Because it processes on your computer's CPU, there is no interface or accelerator to add. Check the current native UAD system requirements to confirm your operating system and DAW version are supported.
You need a free iLok account to manage your UAD Sound City Studios license, but you do not need an iLok USB key. Each license includes three activations, so you can authorize the plug-in directly on your computer, or use an iLok USB key if you want to move it between machines. The USB key is optional and adds portability if you work on more than one system.
You use UAD Sound City Studios by choosing your source, such as vocals, drums, guitar, ensembles, or piano, and starting from a proven room and mic setup for that source. From there you adjust the mic positions and dial in the console, compression, and reverb chamber to taste. It works well as a room and character treatment on individual tracks, giving drums, synths, and vocals a finished, roomy sound.
Yes, UAD Sound City Studios lets you re-mic guitars using a selection of expertly placed cabinets and room mics from Studio A. You can reshape a direct or dry guitar tone by choosing different cabinet and mic combinations, then set it in the room for natural ambience. This gives you flexible guitar tones without setting up cabinets and mics physically.
UAD native plug-ins like UAD Sound City Studios deliver the same sound quality as the DSP-powered versions, and you do not need an Apollo to run them. The native format processes on your computer's CPU, so the modeling and detail are identical, just running on different hardware. You get UA's plug-in quality whether you own a UA interface or work entirely in the box.
UAD Sound City Studios gives you the sound of a professional room without needing access to one, which matters most for home and bedroom setups. Booking a historic studio is costly and often impractical, while the plug-in puts that room, its console, and its ambience in your session at any hour. You get the character of a famous space applied to sources you already recorded, on your own schedule.
UAD Sound City Studios is a plug-in that recreates Sound City Studios, a legendary recording studio in Van Nuys, California known for its Studio A room, custom British console, and reverb chamber. Sound City Studios is the room behind era-defining records across rock and alternative music, and that history is central to its reputation. The plug-in captures the room and its full signal chain so you can produce in that space from your own setup.
UAD Sound City Studios is more than a reverb plug-in, though it does include the studio's famous reverb chamber. Rather than only adding tail and decay, it models the whole room, the mics, the console, and the outboard gear, so it shapes tone and space at the same time. If you want a natural, open chamber sound plus the character of a full studio signal chain, it covers both in one plug-in.