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
J. Steffen
February 15, 2024
Sounds amazing!
I bought this to use with drums to create a drum room sound. I used as a send return effect and used a send on the overheads. Worked like a charm. If you want a really big rock drum room...
Read MoreK. YILDIRIM
February 2, 2024
Inspiring
Thanks to everyone who has been involved and contributed to this work to bring a space that you cannot even imagine being in, to your fingertips, to...
Read MoreJ. Visser
February 1, 2024
Great sound, heavy on resources
This plugin sounds amazing. It does however take up a lot of CPU. I have a pretty decent computer, but in a new project I can not load more than three instances of the plugin without my...
Read MoreJ. Visser
February 1, 2024
Great sound, heavy on resources
This plugin sounds amazing. It does however take up a lot of CPU. I have a pretty decent computer, but in a new project I can not load more than three instances of the plugin without my...
Read MoreD. Lawrence
January 31, 2024
Final verdict
This is the absolute BEST sounding convolution reverb ever made. Every time I use it the track sounds significantly better. Also my computer is a 2013-2014 Mac book. I can run about 4 of...
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
J. Steffen
Sounds amazing!
I bought this to use with drums to create a drum room sound. I used as a send return effect and used a send on the overheads. Worked like a charm. If you want a really big rock drum room sound, look no further. It sounds absolutely amazing. You can kinda that big John Bonham room sound with it which is excellent. Of course you can get much more a lot a tame room sound just by tweaking it. Small, huge, and everything in between. I had a chorus for song that was like 6 tracks of yelling. Very heavy rock track and I wanted that chorus section to really sound like a group of people in a large room. Again this did the job phenomenally. I can say I highly recommend this plugin. Don’t hesitate.
O. Altit
Makes the Signature Bundle a no-brainer at the sale price
R. Sheaves
An excellent room reverb but can be a CPU hog and requires internet connection
This is a set of great impulse responses at its core, so credit to the engineers for that; they are truly fantastic and the re-mic mode is pretty slick. Instant, cohesive space to glue stuff together.
However, I personally don't find the eye-candy, the dynamics or the EQ sections very useful and the chamber reverb is a CPU slayer. I wish there were a lite version that omitted all the bloat and just gave us the incredible room impulses. I have a modern PC with a fast CPU and loads of RAM, and this plugin on just 2 channels uses over 40% of the CPU; enabling the chamber effect on each of them requires a buffer size of at least 1024 samples!
Oh, and it requires an internet connection to load. Boo.K. YILDIRIM
Inspiring
Thanks to everyone who has been involved and contributed to this work to bring a space that you cannot even imagine being in, to your fingertips, to your monitor. The product is incredible. The CPU utilization is not as extraordinary as some forums say.
J. Visser
Great sound, heavy on resources
This plugin sounds amazing. It does however take up a lot of CPU. I have a pretty decent computer, but in a new project I can not load more than three instances of the plugin without my computer running into trouble. So probably need to print the track on the go, only use a few of these, or have a bulky machine ready.
J. Visser
Great sound, heavy on resources
This plugin sounds amazing. It does however take up a lot of CPU. I have a pretty decent computer, but in a new project I can not load more than three instances of the plugin without my computer running into trouble. So probably need to print the track on the go, only use a few of these, or have a bulky machine ready.
D. Lawrence
Final verdict
This is the absolute BEST sounding convolution reverb ever made. Every time I use it the track sounds significantly better. Also my computer is a 2013-2014 Mac book. I can run about 4 of these in a session with a moderate amount of other plugins. How old are computers that can only run one instance? If you are not happy with the effect of this plugin on your CPU, see it as a chance to improve your mixing skills. This plugin has been teaching me how to get great mixes with fewer plugins. It has also been teaching me how to commit and bounce tracks with cpu heavy plugins. Innovation comes at a cost and I refuse to let my old computer hinder it.
G. Chipman
Damn.
Just damn.
s. muraki
Please fire the sales manager, UA is abandoning its own credibility.
Their branding has collapsed and they have lost credibility with professional users. we have told support the same thing many times since spark was sold, but they probably don't take it seriously.
We have invested a lot in our business.
If sales are sluggish now and management is suspicious, it is probably because UA has not taken the voices of many professional users seriously.
In particular, the fact that they have not improved the checkboxing of unnecessary plug-ins in the installer and the low-pass filter for oversampling fixed at 25 kHz continues to undermine confidence in the company and the product.
It has continued to cause the company to sell other companies' products, which are inherently inferior in quality themselves.
If you cannot fire your marketing manager, you have no future. If you are going to sell, please do it to Apple, not AVID.
Good bye.S. Studio
The Best
The Best Big Sound ⭐️
c. maskell
Adds depth and substance
Very realistic.
V. Ruzicic
Perfection!
So much fun with these on room mics…elevating sound
P. Hartley
Just the best room reverb plugin every created
UAD Sound City Studios is without a doubt the best Room reverb plugin every created. I have used it on Drums, pianos, guitars, vocals, Strings, brass and synthesisers over the past few weeks and the dimension it adds is second to none. in both Remic and Reverb mode it is so useful and has such a wonderful tone. Truly a Game Changer
R. Porrello
Great Home Studio tool.
Is great to have the ability to run home recordings through a professionally treated studio simulation.
M. Cabbage
REAL AND GOOD
REAL AND GOOD
r. meallet
flexibility
The flexibility I was waiting for a reverb, and the re-creation of a mythik place for music. AMAZING TOOL
D. Olsen
This Plug-in is MASSIVE
I've only just begun to dip my toes in with this plug but the possibilities seem endless. My favourite section so far is actually the EQ. Be warned it is not subtle but the curves are amazing. The compressor section is nice as well. The room itself is the best and most realistic emulation I have ever heard. Try just putting this on your 2 buss to give your entire mix some depth.
C. D
CPU hog, no DSP, sounds ok
2 instances and my computer crawls to its knees. Sound can work on some stuffs but couldn't find a use for the vocal mode. Reverb mode should be available in DSP. Improve CPU usage, create a DSP version and it'll be 3 out of 5
J. Jegu
Sound City
Must have plugin !!! Very impressed !
n. else
UAD Sound City Studios
Another plugin I always admired. I'm pretty green in terms of music production but as a long-time musician and fan I'm familiar with the history of Sound City Studios. Nother excellent product from UAD
