Less Is More with the UAD Century Tube Channel Strip
The Univeral Audio UAD Century Tube Channel Strip’s warm analog sound, simple controls, and logical left-to-right signal flow arrangement have already won over many producers and singer/songwriters here at Sweetwater. The plug-in is a case study in efficiency, with each module — a tube mic preamp, a 3-band EQ, and an optical compressor — featuring only what is truly needed to get excellent results quickly. Firstly, the tube mic preamp packs a wide range of tones that can lend presence to a vocal or dialogue, or add gnarly grit to a guitar or bass in seconds. Next, the 3-band EQ is just as quick at adding body to bass, making a vocal more coherent, or sculpting fret noise and other details of an acoustic guitar. Finally, the opto leveler might be the fastest of all, as it can tame transients or add vibe with just one knob! Taken as a whole, the UAD Century Tube Channel Strip is perfect for imparting vintage-style polish to your tracks as effortlessly as possible.
Note: Do you own Apollo hardware? By purchasing this plug-in, you will receive two licenses: one license allows you to run the plug-in via your computer’s CPU and the other allows you to run it via your Apollo hardware. Please contact your Sweetwater Sales Engineer if you have any questions.
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Tube Preamp
All that warm analog tone starts with the UAD Century Tube Channel Strip's tube mic pre. Choose from Low/High Gain settings, with Low catered to condenser mics and High ideal for dynamics and ribbons (as well as adding some awesome fuzz to a DI bass guitar). Set your Level, and move on with your life. There are also controls for Mic/Line, Polarity, a -20dB Pad, and an 18dB per octave LPF with an 80 Hz cutoff.
Equalizer
Following suit, the UAD Century Tube Channel Strip’s 3-band EQ makes musical EQ moves quick and easy. High, Mid, and Low bands each have a range of -12dB to +12dB, with the Mid band offering semi-parametric EQ by having a Frequency knob that allows you to set the center of the curve anywhere from 300–7.2kHz. The Low band is fixed at 110Hz, while the High is fixed at 10kHz.
Opto Leveler
After you’ve set and sculpted your tone, the Opto Leveler is next in line. With just one knob: it couldn’t be simpler to tame vocal transients, add some hair to a bass or synth, or perk up a piano.
Unison technology
The Century Tube Channel Strip is quick and easy enough to operate, but it approaches light speed for UA Apollo audio interface users. They can utilize UA’s revolutionary Unison technology to control their UA Apollo audio interface’s mic preamp gain staging and physical input impedance directly from the UAD Century Tube Channel Strip plug-in’s interface and vice versa.
Universal Audio UAD Century Tube Channel Strip Plug-in Features:
- Easy to dial and musically flattering vintage-style tube channel strip designed for UA Audio Interface tracking
- Console-inspired vintage-style tube mic preamp with a musical analog sound
- Simple 3-band EQ with sweepable midrange and simple low and high shelf controls
- Fast yet transparently responsive single-knob optical leveler
- Unison technology lets you control your UA Apollo audio interface’s mic preamp gain staging and physical input impedance directly from the plug-in
- Includes a native license that will run with any interface and a UAD-2 license that takes advantage of Universal Audio DSP-accelerated hardware
