There are eight instrument and voice sources, designated Drums 1, Drums 2, Strings, Horns, Piano, Vocal Group, Vocal Solo, Guitar, Cabinet M, Cabinet V and Cabinet O, the last being available only for Studio B. The choice affects how reflections are generated in different directions and subsequently picked up by the room mics. In addition to the choice of mics, which can be selected independently for the Near, Mid and Far locations, you can also choose from a selection of different source types. The Mix button is locked out in this mode, as it is intended to be used 100 percent wet as an insert effect. If your original recording is reasonably dry, this mode allows you, in effect, to place your sound source within the Ocean Way room.
In Re-Mic mode, by contrast, the entire signal is processed, and the dry sound replaced by the modelled direct sound component. In Reverb mode, the plug-in is used via an aux send/return path to add room ambience to a dry sound, just as a conventional reverb might, and the direct path component of the modelling is removed, to avoid potential phase problems that might otherwise arise when the dry sound and emulated direct sound are layered.
There are two modes of operation: Reverb and Re-Mic. Real-life artifacts, such as mic bleed and microphone proximity effect, are included in the modelling process. There's also the option to time-align the mics, should that be required, and the output can be further processed using the plug-in's EQ and high-cut/low-cut filters. Separate presets are available for the two operational modes, which I'll get to in just a moment. Allen Sides' presets are based on his tried and tested configurations for each type of sound source, and up to three microphone pairs, entitled Near, Mid and Far, are available, with faders to blend in their individual contributions. The plug-in's graphical user interface shows a plan view of the studio and gives access to a selection of Ocean Way's microphone setups. Plan BĪs well as the high- and low-pass filters on each microphone group, Ocean Way Studio also features master EQ. Not all instruments radiate sound in the same way, so UA have attempted to capture the 'firing' patterns of drum kits, guitar cabinets, pianos and so forth. Not only have UA modelled the microphones and rooms, a process which apparently involved developing new measurement techniques, but their algorithms also take into account the dispersal patterns of the sound sources themselves in relation to the room and microphones. If you need to be able to move things around in the virtual room, modelling provides a more flexible option. UA's dynamic room modelling methodology took over three years of detailed research to optimise, which isn't surprising when you consider what it involves! Although impulse responses are used as part of the process, to reproduce the direct sound path from source to microphone, the room reflections themselves are entirely modelled, as convolution techniques can only capture snapshots of one set of source and mic positions. If you disagree with his choices, there's the option to change them, but his presets provide a valuable starting point in achieving a classic sound. Not only does Sides own Ocean Way, but he is also a hugely experienced engineer and producer who knows all about where best to place instruments in the Ocean Way rooms, what mics to use and where to put them. The plug-in models both the sound of LA's revered Ocean Way's rooms and of the studio's unparalleled collection of vintage microphones, in a format that allows them to be applied retrospectively to existing recordings, or live in real time if you're using one of UA's Apollo interfaces.Īs if that weren't enough, you actually get a fair amount of engineering skill thrown in as well, because the plug-in was developed in conjunction with Allen Sides. In developing the Ocean Way Studio room-modelling plug-in for the UAD platform, Universal Audio have tackled both of these differences.
Universal Audio's latest plug-in is an audacious attempt to bridge the gap between the project studio and professional recording environments.Īpart from the skill of the musicians, producers and engineers, the main differences between the capabilities of a modern home studio and a big-name studio are down to the choice of quality microphones available in pro studios, and to the acoustics of the recording spaces themselves.