Recording - March 2013 - 39

Since combining opto and VCA compressors is a fairly common practice, where
one is set to capture quick transients while
the other smoothes and pins the voice in the
mix, that sort of application is a natural
here as well.
For all of its size and power, I was
expecting the SHMC to eat up a ton of
DSP, similar to the Massive Passive, but
where the Massive Passive gives you a single stereo instance on a UAD-2 SOLO
card, the Shadow Hills gives you 17. The
only small catch is that this is one of the
few UAD plug-ins that eats up the same
power whether in stereo or mono mode.
Final impressions
Overall, the SHMC exhibits a very high
fidelity and open sound, and it is not as
heavy-handed or imposing as some of the
other compressors in the UAD collection,
like the new and flavorful 1176 bundle
(reviewed August 2012) or the older LA2A, Neve 33609 and Fairchild, and that
is a good thing! Like the hardware unit, its
sound is all its own, yet still versatile
enough that it’s hard to pin down.
How does it compare to the hardware? I
had two of my clients’ albums mastered
through the hardware version at Trevor
Sadler’s Mastermind Productions, but that
was before the plug-in existed; from my
experiences at those sessions, the workflow

and “feel” of the plug-in was quite familiar
and I didn’t note any major diversions from
what it was like to work with the hardware.
My only true side-by-side listening experience came at the 2012 AES show, and
while a trade show is a much less than ideal
setting for critical listening, what I heard in
my tests sounded quite convincing as well.
[Editor’s Note: As those who have read our
reviews of the Empirical Labs Fatso family
and the Kush Audio Clariphonic well know,
we prefer to get hardware in hand when possible to make in-studio comparisons to the

plug-in versions. Unfortunately we could not
obtain a Mastering Compressor from
Shadow Hills in a timely manner.]
This is a unique, versatile and greatsounding addition to the UAD-2 lineup,
and will give you interesting and inspiring choices for flexible dynamics control
on instruments as well as the 2-bus!
Prices: Precision K-Stereo, $199; Shadow
Hills Mastering Compressor, $299
More from: Universal Audio, uaudio.com

In other UA News: More power and 64-bit support!
The UAD-2 line expands once again as they add a new PCIe card,
the UAD-2 OCTO, to the family (prices start at $1499). As the name
implies, the OCTO features eight Analog Devices
SHARC DSP chips and gives you twice the power of
the company’s already impressive QUAD cards. Like
the previous cards, the OCTO is available in a number of packages and bundles. I tested it with these
plug-ins and it’s a seamless drop-in replacement for
any other UAD-2 processor... it just gives you more room to
grow.
Next up, Universal Audio is now shipping 64-bit drivers for Windows and Mac. The latest UAD 6.4 drivers now offer 64-bit Windows 7 (and presumably Windows 8) support. So
far, on my Windows 7 system, the new 64-Bit drivers have been quite stable.
As of when this article goes to press in January 2013, the 64-bit Mac OS X drivers
are in beta and only approved for Apple Logic, but Universal Audio informs us that
the beta is very stable and they expect to have an official shipping version by the time
you read this.—PV

http://www.uaudio.com http://www.cloudmicrophones.com http://www.cloudmicrophones.com

Recording - March 2013

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