FATSO™ Jr. / Sr. Tape Sim. & Compressor
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Get the rich sound of magnetic tape, class A transformers, and tube circuits.
Able to warmly burnish frequencies and transients, or crush them with thick saturation, the FATSO Jr./Sr. Tape Sim. & Compressor plug-in for UAD-2 hardware and Apollo interfaces exhaustively emulates the iconic, industry standard Empirical Labs hardware.
Used by legendary engineers Ed Cherney, Al Schmitt, and Brendan O'Brien, the FATSO can also increase the apparent volume of your source material. The FATSO plug-in is officially endorsed and scrutinized for accuracy by its designer, Dave Derr.Inject your tracks and mixes with the warm, musical qualities of magnetic tape, tubes, and class A transformers
Lightly color, or destroy, drums, vocals, and more with tube and tape saturation
Harness “plug-in only” Tranny Saturation, Sidechain Filtering, and Stereo/Mono controls
Dial-in a wealth of analog textures with Warmth and Spank controls
Powered Plug-In Overview
FATSO Jr./Sr. Tape Sim. & Compressor plug-in
Go From Tame — to Trashed
The FATSO plug-in offers a wide palette of possibilities for adding fat analog character and cohesiveness to your DAW tracks. It’s also a creative tool, able to add varying degrees of saturation — from subtle to severe — on any source. The FATSO's Input control lets you dial in shades of harmonic generation and distortion, while the Tranny and Warmth features provide varying amounts of of tape and tube tone.
Plug-In Only Features
The FATSO plug-in’s versatility is greatly expanded with the addition of Dave Derr's custom mods. The FATSO Sr. offers a “Tranny” saturation control, Sidechain Filtering and deeper compression parameters including Threshold, Attack and Release. These special FATSO Sr. mods are only available with the UAD Powered Plug-In version of this essential studio tool.
“The Fatso is our secret weapon for warming up abrasive soft synths.”
– The Glitch Mob
“The FATSO is a 'must own' UAD plug-in. I love it on the kick and bass tracks. It's also amazing in the master buss chain.”
– Ivan Barias (Musiq Soulchild, Jill Scott, Estelle)
“The UAD FATSO really brings back the bottom-end warmth to a vocal that's lost its way.”
– Dean Coleman
“When you need something to really punch but still have warmth, the UAD FATSO is my weapon of choice.”
– Richard Devine
“The UAD FATSO is my favorite tool for warming up guitars and bringing out harmonic content.”
– Billy Bush (Garbage)Customer Reviews
E. Peterson
April 27, 2023
So fat so long distressor
My go to compressor for most things. Fat and squishy plus a little delay is heavenly goodness. Just wow.
Read MoreB. Dial
April 14, 2023
Great sound
Only negative I have for this plug in is that the GUI needs an update,IE make the plug in resizable! The Jr model is extremely small....
Read MoreC. Lee
March 5, 2023
Very Fat & Fairly Faithful
The FATSO does a lot more than it gets credit for, and although it doesn’t sound quite like tape, it softens, glues, and fattens tracks nicely. When comparing the plugin to my...
Read MoreD. Myrick
March 1, 2023
Authentic!
I started using the Fatso sometime around 2002, no remorse switching over to this plugin in its place
Read MoreR. Vargas
January 24, 2023
Magic
Been lusting after this for YEARS but never thought I could justify the purchase because of other saturation plug-ins I’ve accumulated. Finally circled back to this years later and it...
Read More -
Key Features
Recreates the warm, musical qualities of magnetic recording tape, tubes, and class A transformers
Licensed and endorsed by Empirical Labs, created by Universal Audio
Clipping, Warmth, Tranny, and Compression Select allow for a wide variety of analog tonal shaping possibilities
Additional UAD plug-in exclusive, FATSO Sr., provides original concept developed by Empirical Labs’ Dave Derr
FATSO Sr. features include Tranny Saturation, Sidechain Filtering plus Threshold, Attack, and Release
Stereo or Mono operation with independent Left/Right controls
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Customer Reviews
FATSO™ Jr./Sr. Tape Sim. & Compressor
E. Peterson
So fat so long distressor
My go to compressor for most things. Fat and squishy plus a little delay is heavenly goodness. Just wow.
B. Dial
Great sound
Only negative I have for this plug in is that the GUI needs an update,IE make the plug in resizable! The Jr model is extremely small.
C. Lee
Very Fat & Fairly Faithful
The FATSO does a lot more than it gets credit for, and although it doesn’t sound quite like tape, it softens, glues, and fattens tracks nicely.
When comparing the plugin to my hardware, I found them to behave very similarly with the exception of the plugin’s transformer emulation. In this regard, the plugin is a bit heavier handed, and the transformer-induced harmonics sound somewhat over exaggerated.
Still, it does the thing, and I wouldn’t hesitate to use the UAD FATSO on a mix.
This plugin is due for a UI update.D. Myrick
Authentic!
I started using the Fatso sometime around 2002, no remorse switching over to this plugin in its place
W. Boogaard
Easy in use
Works great with drums
R. Vargas
Magic
Been lusting after this for YEARS but never thought I could justify the purchase because of other saturation plug-ins I’ve accumulated. Finally circled back to this years later and it still makes me grin.
Tag it. Bag it.M. Avery
Classic sound
Classic saturation sound, fantastic on overheads for high end transient control and great as a parallel drum smash bus as well!
C. Aguila
Difference Maker
My go to for bass period !!!!!
B. Sand
Awful
Outdated plug-in that UA knows is not compatible with modern screen resolutions. Their guidance after paying for an expensive plug-in is that all users should change their screen resolution because they can’t be bothered to update the gui or make a plug-in resizable. The new plugins like distressor don’t have the problem because they are built for modern resolutions. Avoid buying older UA plugins. When you contact customer service, Greg will not help.
W. Jackmore
So warm!!
give your cold edm beats life with this
B. Busch
Great, but agree needs a refresh!
I've had a hardware FATSO since about a year after it came out and bought the UAD plug as soon as that came out. The hardware FATSO is sweeter and more squishy or compliant, while the plugin is a bit stiffer and a little smaller sounding. The plug does a decent job getting close, the "Sr" features are great, but it's old and needs a refresh version. I agree with some others that the UAD Distressor is much closer sounding to the hardware, and they could do the same for the FATSO + mix control, more DSP efficient, etc. That said, I still use the plug all the time, it's very good in its own right, and it does have a lot of the fun, vibe and problem solving that the real thing does. It could just be better, knowing how good stuff is sounding all this time after the UAD FATSO first came out.
F. San Filippo
Is it a compressor? A tape sim? Half-bird/half-lobster?
I don't know what it is, but I dig it.
A. Schwartz
Has A Special “Something”
I used to have a hardware fatso jr. I listened to acoustic guitar tracks I’d done with it, & bought the UAD version. Sounds great. Warm, fat, sweet compression that I haven’t gotten from anything else.
G. Fricke
G. Fricke
A must in the signal chain. It really improves vocals.
T. Basso
Great plugin
Congratulations for the excellent work
F. Maraschin
The best
Perfect plugin, sound amazing but needs a graphic update in order to enlarge the window
M. Hui
Great Plugin
Really adds a warmth.
A. Smith
Great on drums
Mainly bought this to add fatness to my drums, would recommend!
I. Kravchenko
Excellent!
I didn't realize I needed it. I use it whenever I want to fatten up any source or bus. I use it both to add saturation, and also as a compressor. Love it.
F. Guerrero Miranda
Fatso Excellent
A great complement to give a great color to the tracks.
