Universal Audio's UAFX distills 3 of its Premium Pedals into 4 More Accessible Streamlined Compact Editions
I’ve really enjoyed covering the various new UAFX pedals on this site - which have been a mix of mostly delights and then some slight disappointments. I noted early on - that I really liked the original silver-topped knob choices on the first two batches of 3, but the 3rd batch then came with those slightly cheaper looking smoother knobs - which now seem to have been adopted as the mainstays - not sure how I feel about those yet.
Obviously the overall styling on what we’re now calling the ’Premium Series’ was pretty gorgeous all round - with those beautifully curved, carved / recessed and overall elegantly shaped enclosures. Upon first glance of the new ’Compact Series’ my initial thoughts were that those looked a touch cheap and not nearly as stylised or iconic as the Premium ones. I feel there could have been a more elegant in-between solution for the aesthetic - the compacts don’t have any way near the same prominence or appeal as Strymon’s 2 recent Compacts either. While the UAFX Compacts are no slouches really - having 8 controls at your disposal - including two handy 2-way switches on the rear edge.
There’s much I like about the concept of distilling down and streamlining a pedal extraction from the flagship Premium Series - while there are quite a few oddities here that I would personally have done differently. I would for sure have retained the fonts from the original source pedals to indicate that the smaller ones were cut from the same cloth as such. Also it’s odd that UA is keeping its logo off the facia of the Compacts - there’s just too many incongruences here for me overall.
The 1176 Compressor really makes the most sense here and is the easiest to get your head around. I’m not sure why we have 2 separate distillations of the Golden Reverberator, the recent EQD Ledges covers Room, Hall and Plate modes - with some cool overlaps, and the most typical 3 Modes for compact Reverbs are usually Spring, Hall, and Plate. I get that they have slightly different controls - but surely when you have a sort of stripped down semi-budget line it’s normally about versatility!
Looking at Sweetwater - the Golden Reverberator is currently at $319, and covers Spring, 2 x Plate, Hall and Chamber Modes. It would surely have made more business sense to go with just the one compact Reverb pedal to mostly cover that. The Orion is fairly self explanatory too - just taking a facet of the Tape EP-III Mode / Algorithm from the Starlight.
I’m not sure each of those compacts is particularly equal in function or versatility, and at the offset I struggled to figure out exactly who is the intended target market for these. As they are an odd mix of granularity, versatility and specificity.
The UA algorithms are of course always superb - so that goes without saying really - and while there is some degree of granularity and some versatility - where is the proper smarts or the innovation here? These are obviously more affordable than the recent Strymon compacts - but nowhere near as appealing to me somehow.
There is something about the UAFX Premium Series - particularly the first 6 - which is just timelessly classic, while these 4 new Compacts are looking a little hasty pudding to me - and a little anonymous.
I still feel that there is some genuine worth to the 1176 Compressor - but I’m not really seeing the mainstream appeal of the other 3.
There’s nothing distinctly wrong with the feature sets here - it’s just the overall appeal of each of these units. I’m probably not the right target audience here - while I can usually pick things out which appeal to me across different strata - and while I’m still considering acquisition of some of the larger Premium ones - even the 1176 which I think has the most appeal here - offers little appeal to me.
There’s been some hyperbole from various bloggers’ and vloggers’ descriptions of these as being the best thing since sliced bread for the compact format, and I’m just not seeing that in the same light. This all comes across a little as very much a commercial decision rather than genuine pedal innovation - while I’m always happy to be proved wrong. I was quietly impressed with the Premium Series launch - while these new 4 have left me somewhat scratching my head?
I would love to hear your opinions on the subject. Feel free to set me to rights!
1176 Studio Compressor - $199
Controls - Input, Output, Mode : Single / Dual / Sustain, Attack, Release, Ratio, Bypass : Buffer / True, Parallel : Off / On.
A pretty pro offering in many ways with multiple different Compression modes in Series as well as Parallel. Obviously the 1176 is still Universal Audio's historic flagship product - making this a worthy exercise. I just wish the enclosure could have been more impressive and imposing - it doesn't really look like it's distilled from the Premium series at all - the visual cues / brand echoes just aren't strong enough. I feel that the new Compacts could have been made a lot more iconic for pretty much the same outlay!
Evermore Studio Room / Hall Reverb - $219
Controls - Modulation, Mix, Mode : Room / Small Hall / Large Hall, Bass, Mid, Treble, Bypass : Trails / True, PreDelay : Off / On.
It's great to have such great tone-shaping ability on a Reverb - there really aren't many that have 3-Band EQ. Price-wise this is $20 more than the recent EQD Ledges - which comes with 6 Presets - surely a key competitor. As I said in the intro - I'm not entirely sure on who's being targeted here - you have some areas of extended granularity - which mark these out as being more specialised - while there pricing and look would seem to indicate they were intended to be more entry-level. For sure capable of some great sounds - but which is the most likely frontrunner in and around this price range?
Heavenly Plate Reverb - $219
Controls - Decay, Mix, Mode : A) Vintage Bright / B) Vintage Dark / C) Modern Full, PreDelay, EQ, Modulation, Bypass : Trails / Turn, Mod Rate : Slow / Fast.
As with this one's sibling - this Plate Reverb is quite specialist in some ways, and yet not necessarily specialist enough - and the look of the pedal kind of says nondescript and budget - rather than a specialist tool for particular fans of the Plate style of Reverb. There's so much competition at the compact level - that unless you're doing something particularly smart - like Strymon, or particularly budget - like the JHS 3 Series - which are the current trends - then who are you intending to target really? At this level people are usually looking for more of an all-rounder work-horse - say a Boss, MXR or TC Electronic Reverb. Or you want something more quirky - like one of OBNE's offerings. So where do the Evermore and Heavenly really sit within all of that? I myself am a fan of Reverb Workstations - where you have that perfect combination of versatility and granularity - with presets! I'm struggling to figure out who is the most suitable target audience for these?
Orion Tape Echo - $219
Controls - Delay, Mix, Mode : Mint / Worn / Old, Feedback, Wonk, Record Level, Bypass : Trails / True, Preamp : Off / On.
Essentially another take on the Echoplex - where there are numerous competitors already - Catalinbread Belle Epoch, Dunlop Echoplex, Keeley Eccos, Keeley Mag Echo, SGFX EM-III, and TC Electronic Gauss to name a few. The Orion offers quite a bit more granularity than most - giving you more of those withered artefacts and such. There's of course 3 key varieties of Magnetic Delay - Echoplex, Echorec, and Space Echo - where my own taste leans rather more into the latter two. I still think the Orion is pretty handy - while I'm still not clear on which precise target audience it would fully satisfy!?
Further Demos
