UAD Sound City Studios Plug‑In
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Get the authentic sound of the world's most famous rock & roll studio.
Produce music in one of the most famous recording studios in history — including the room, mics, iconic console, and outboard gear — as heard on classic records from Nirvana, Metallica, Fleetwood Mac, Tom Petty, Rage Against the Machine, and more.*
Add the vibe and character of this legendary space to your drums, guitars, vocals, synths and more — right in your own bedroom or home studio.Included Version
UAD Native
Runs on your Mac or PC without UA hardware.UAD Native plug-ins run on both macOS 10.15 Catalina or newer and Windows 10 and 11. Go to our UA Support page for system requirements.
- 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
TAKE A LISTEN
Immerse Yourself in a Historic Room
Sound City Studios' famous Studio A is the birthplace of hundreds of hit records. Voiced with original multitrack recordings cut at Sound City Studios, we expertly captured the distinct "warts and all" character — with historical setup guidance from engineers who used it everyday — so you can easily put your productions in the same space where magic was made.
Easily Find Your Sweet Spot
Simply choose your source — vocals, drums, guitar, ensembles, or piano — and get proven room and mic setups, from the big reflective sound used on Nirvana's Nevermind to Tom Petty's intimate "wood" corner.* You can even re-mic your guitars with a selection of perfectly placed cabinets and room mics.
Reposition Vintage Mics with Dynamic Room Modeling
Go far beyond historic setups and customize your space by moving a stunning collection of classic condenser and ribbon mics from AKG, Neumann, and RCA — in realtime for authentic room sounds beyond the original chart-topping positions.**
Explore a Legendary Custom British Console
The centerpiece of Studio A since the early '70s, Sound City Studios' custom-made console artfully colored everything that ran through it. Now you can get the same satisfying analog character and tone with perfect emulations of a vintage British 3-band EQ and bus compressor on all your sources.
Crush, Gate, or Add "Air" with Secret Weapon Compression
Along with the legendary limiting of the iconic Rev E 1176 compressor, Sound City Studios gives you the first-ever emulation of the Dolby A301** noise reduction system — a multiband EQ/limiter used and abused by Sound City Studios' engineers — so you can get the same glossy-to-hyped background vocals and explosive drum sounds heard on decades of hit records.
Add Chart-Topping Ambience with Iconic Reverb Chamber
Put the finishing touch on your tracks with the same natural, open-sounding reverb used by Queens of the Stone Age, Phoebe Bridgers, Death Cab for Cutie, and more. Plus, you can season your ambient space using perfectly placed pairs of dynamic, small-diaphragm condenser, and ribbon mics.*
*Use of artist names does not constitute official endorsement of Sound City Studios software.
**All trademarks are property of their respective owners and used only to represent the effects modeled as part of Sound City Studio software.
Disclaimer: The famous Sound City Studios is located in Van Nuys, California where it was originally founded. Sound City Studios has no affiliation with Sound City Amplification, LLC. For information on Sound City Amplification products visit their website at soundcityamp.com.
UAD Sound City Studios Tour
Learn how to add classic drum ambience, re‑amp guitar tones, and craft unique airy background vocals using the UAD Sound City Studios plug-in.
“The UAD Sound City Studios plug‑in sounds amazing, letting you put your performances into one of the greatest sounding studios of all time!”
– Butch Vig (Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Foo Fighters)
“The UAD Sound City Studios plug‑in sounds just the way I remember that room – and heck, I even own one of Sound City’s original AKG C24 microphones from the good old days.”
– Sylvia Massy (Tool, Johnny Cash, System of a Down)
“There’s an explosive magic to Sound City's live room that‘s electrified so many seminal records. UA not only captured the sound of that room, but has gone to great lengths to model the outboard gear that’s integral to those recordings.”
– Billy Bush (Garbage, Dolly Parton, Paul McCartney)
“The UAD Sound City Studios plug‑in can put any sound into the legendary studio's live room. The ability to change the mics and their positions is fantastic, you can really dial the room sound.”
– Richard Rainey (U2, Paul McCartney, Van Morrison)
“I’m doing percussion overdubs in hotel rooms on tour, and Sound City Studios makes everything sound finished. It’s nuts.”
– Joey Waronker (Atoms for Peace, Beck, Other Lives)
“Some of my favorite albums were recorded at Sound City, so it’s amazing to have such a faithful reproduction at my fingertips.”
– Jeff Balding (Taylor Swift, The Eagles, Florida Georgia Line)
“The Sound City Studios plug‑in adds life and vibe to dry drum tracks with its great mic configurations. And the console section sounds fantastic!”
– Mark Needham (The Killers, Neon Trees, P!nk)
“The UAD Sound City Studios plug‑in is more than just a room emulation – it’s a toolkit that can take your tracks to a whole new level of sonic Nirvana!”
– Adam Whittaker (The Damned, The Saw Doctors, Evergreen)
“UAD Sound City Studios is the perfect acoustic "space" plug-in, and its compression, reverb chamber, and EQ sections make it all-encompassing for re-amping.”
– Joe Chiccarelli (The Strokes, U2, Jason Mraz, Morrissey)Customer Reviews
C. Bustilos
July 24, 2024
Great sounding plug-in, I love it!!!
It was the missing link on my productions. The use of FX was helping to achieve the depth needed but still was something missing. I tried this studio room emulation and instantly change...
Read MoreG. Rydquist
July 13, 2024
Sounds great, but why no DSP version?
I love the sound and would like to use it on multiple tracks, but opening more than one instance on even a relatively simple mix causes my i9 CPU to stutter and crackle -- why isn't there a...
Read MoreR. Sheridan
July 10, 2024
Good for solo strings and horn ensembles!
It brought a very nice pristine sound to my dry solo string librarie and also works on dry horns. For the moment I've been doing a lot of tweaking with the stereo width to avoid phase...
Read MoreP. Beullens
July 10, 2024
Great sound, flexible, good looks, and easy to use!
Excellent tool, very versatile and so much fun to use. Adds depth and atmosphere with ease, if that is what you are after. Can go from very subtle to pronounced reshaping of sound - it is a...
Read Morep. De Angelis
July 10, 2024
The Sound City plug in is truly fantastic.
Without a doubt the sound city plug in is truly fantastic. the work done by the UA team for this plugin goes beyond. You are sound geniuses guys. Thank you for what you have done....
Read MoreG. Kutscher
July 5, 2024
Great sounding addition
Sounds great on the drums and I’m just scratching the surface of its usefulness. And at a great price.
Read More -
Key Benefits
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
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Customer Reviews
UAD Sound City Studios Plug-In
C. Bustilos
Great sounding plug-in, I love it!!!
It was the missing link on my productions. The use of FX was helping to achieve the depth needed but still was something missing. I tried this studio room emulation and instantly change the character of my song! The depth I was trying to achieve was finally present! it sounds great, every single set has a distinct character and the combinations are endless. You can adjust the settings to achieve your room sound from tight, small, big and bigger. However, the only limitation is that it consume a lot of processing power, I got a good processor (i9 with 14 processors and 28 threads & 64GB if RAM) and five instances make my PC running to the maximum. It will be great to have a DSP version to use it with a satellite unit. Hopefully UNIVERSAL AUDIO will read our reviews and work on making this possible!
G. Rydquist
Sounds great, but why no DSP version?
I love the sound and would like to use it on multiple tracks, but opening more than one instance on even a relatively simple mix causes my i9 CPU to stutter and crackle -- why isn't there a DSP version?
R. Sheridan
Good for solo strings and horn ensembles!
It brought a very nice pristine sound to my dry solo string librarie and also works on dry horns. For the moment I've been doing a lot of tweaking with the stereo width to avoid phase issues and using mid-side EQ to cut a lot from the sides. I'm sure there are better ways to deal with this problem but for the moment my solution to ear fatigue is a tighter stereo width which take away a little bit of the plugins magic. It also takes a big amount of CPU so four stars is more than fair because it delivers a good sound overall.
P. Beullens
Great sound, flexible, good looks, and easy to use!
Excellent tool, very versatile and so much fun to use. Adds depth and atmosphere with ease, if that is what you are after. Can go from very subtle to pronounced reshaping of sound - it is a musical instrument all by itself. So nice for experimenting and easy to find good solutions. Perfect complement to a Capitol Chambers or Hitsville reverb chamber. And it looks amazing too. Will find its way on many mixes ...
p. De Angelis
The Sound City plug in is truly fantastic.
Without a doubt the sound city plug in is truly fantastic. the work done by the UA team for this plugin goes beyond. You are sound geniuses guys. Thank you for what you have done.
G. Kutscher
Great sounding addition
Sounds great on the drums and I’m just scratching the surface of its usefulness. And at a great price.
W. Krol
Great sounding for all.
This is the best sounding space plugin. Natural with many uses. I love him on all the instruments, only the main vocal requires a lot of twerking.
J. Eggers
Gobsmacking cool for drums
I bought UAD Sound City Studios to hopefully bring some life to the drums on an album mix project. Boy howdy! I am working exclusively with the API Vision Console extension and that gorgeous piece of kit coupled with Sound City is just wonderful. Add to that having the ability to reconfigure drum room setup as mix is playing- I tweak and listen til I go that's IT!
Even with well-recorded drums I add a bit of Sound City on my parallel bus. Musical magic.B. Montonatti
Highly recommended!
I recently had the pleasure of using the UAD Sound City Studios Plug-In, and I must say, it has exceeded my expectations in every way. As a music producer, capturing the authentic sound and vibe of legendary recording studios is paramount, and this plug-in does just that.
The UAD Sound City Studios Plug-In is a remarkable tool that faithfully captures the unique acoustics and vintage gear of the legendary Sound City Studios. Its authentic sound quality, versatility across various music genres, and user-friendly interface make it an invaluable asset for any music producer or engineer. With this plug-in, achieving a polished, professional sound has never been easier. Highly recommended!B. Montonatti
Highly recommended!
I recently had the pleasure of using the UAD Sound City Studios Plug-In, and I must say, it has exceeded my expectations in every way. As a music producer, capturing the authentic sound and vibe of legendary recording studios is paramount, and this plug-in does just that.
The UAD Sound City Studios Plug-In is a remarkable tool that faithfully captures the unique acoustics and vintage gear of the legendary Sound City Studios. Its authentic sound quality, versatility across various music genres, and user-friendly interface make it an invaluable asset for any music producer or engineer. With this plug-in, achieving a polished, professional sound has never been easier. Highly recommended!B. Lee
This is a GREAT Plugin
I use this plugin to achieve pure "room reverb". I find I don't need any other reverb plugin. I use it on vocals, and drums. It's awesome.
D. Armijo
Diversity:
Sound City Studios give you the tools to add diversity and dimension without to much hassle.
N. PUDDU
Incredible plugin
The UAD Sound City Studios plugin is insane, it adds dimensions to all the tracks.
J. Segundo
THIS IS THE BEST PLUGIN UAD HAS EVER MADE
Gamechanger plugin. Really transforms sounds in the most positive and organic way. A joy to use. Incredible interfase. All around winner!
T. Boćkowski
Sound City Studios Sounds Amazing
Hi , for me Sound City Studios sounds amazing , for me better like Ocean Way Studio
Thanks so much .L. Brown
A+
A+
D. Bassal
Heavy...
A very heavy sounding addition, most intrusive. Not suitable for many applications - would love to have access to the mix button control, even in the non reverb mode. If one needs anything clear and punchy, it's a no-go!
S. Downie
Amazing reverb and mix plugin - one of the best !
what a fab plugin, for reverb, for space and for mixing with. the UA developers alongside the sound city studio have done an amazing job at preserving this sound of this studio and making it available to all, before the studio itself disappears . I'm now using this plugin in my Dolby Atmos mixes, but with this plugin had more mutiple outputs so that I can apply the reverb to the Dolby Atmos mix, rather than stereo.
L. Hill
More than amazing
Of all the simulations, capitol studios and the like, this to me is the best. Maybe it's the newness, but I've been using with horns, vocals, and guitars with great effect. Highly recommended.
L. Julien
Nice!
I would rate it above Capital Chambers but it’s a cpu hog for sure. One of my favorites is turning out to be EW Spaces.
