Welcome back to the blog, today we’re launching a new blog and YouTube segment called Hold Ya G.A.S. Where GAS stands for Gear Acquisition Syndrome. We’re all audio nerds here and we all suffer from severe GAS from time to time. Today we are going to look at the new line of products from Universal Audio, the Volt interface lineup Particularly the Volt 2 and 273.
Should you Acquire it or should you leave it to fade into the ether?…
Universal Audio has a long established pedigree when it comes to Audio products. From Bill Putnam Snr who started the company, developing the venerable 610 tube mic preamp and eq channel strips, the 1176 compressor, to the now head of universal audio bill Putnam jnr who has lead the digital revolution of converting all this analogue goodness into high end digital plugins.
Either way you slice it, universal audio make some amazing products aimed at the higher end of the market. This new device however, the Volt 2 and Volt 273 look to assert their foothold into the entry level and home studio market. Every major audio company now has an interface in this range and like SSL before them, UA are trying to offer a little more of a high end sonic advantage compared to the rest of the competition.
But my question is….is the interface line up actually offering what they claim…or is it just some hot air! UA claims this interface has a Vintage Mic Preamp mode for recording voice or guitar with the rich, full sound of a classic UA tube preamp, meaning the tube based 610 mic pre and a Built-in 76 Compressor that adds instant clarity and punch to voice, instruments, and other sources with all-new analog circuit based on UA's iconic 1176.
Now here’s the thing….getting an entry level interface with these kind of specs sounds great but does this things actually offer what it claims. If you know what the original 610 preamp and 1176 compressor are and more importantly how they actually sound, you will know that the preamp is rich, detailed and warm sounding and great for vocals and bass guitar. The 1176 is an amazing compressor that offers extremely fast compression times and unique, aggressive and punchy sounding distortion when driven into at higher input volumes. Both of these pieces of hardware cost many thousands of dollars each, so I wouldn’t expect these “emulations” to actually come that close to the real thing. Honestly. Universal audio are being very careful with how they describe the functionality of these features and on the 610 reamp emulation they state ;
“the Volt 276 gives you the rich, full sound of this classic UA mic/line/instrument preamp, thanks to its built-in tube emulation circuitry, a UA exclusive”.
and on the 1176 emulation they claim; “an innovative analog circuit inspired by UA's classic 1176 Limiting Amplifier. The 76 Compressor features three perfectly tailored presets to tame voice, guitars, synths, and drum machines. Just plug in, pick a setting, and play”.
Now what makes me a little skeptical here is, are they using their high end plugin emulation and unison preamp technology? It doesn’t appear so. Especially seeing there’s no support here for any of their other UAD plugins. In fact, you only have access to a bunch of plugins catered to this very product. Some of these looks decent enough and very usable.
But buyers may be left feeling a little cheated here, as these devices seem to not at all give any access to the higher level plugins offered by UAD. On top of that, there is no mention of the audio conversion quality beyond that it offers what they describe as “class-leading 24-bit/192 kHz audio conversion for Mac, PC, iPad, and iPhone”. (fart6).
This interface does not seem to offer the kind of AD/DA conversion found on their other interfaces. In fact it’s probably utilizing a similar DAC to most of the other 2 channel interfaces on the market. So is this device everything they’re hyping it up to be….or is it just a bit of a stinker? If this is your first ever interface maybe it is a good choice. The plugins available with this device look pretty decent, especially if you’re a singer songwriter. However, some people might be shocked by the eye watering $479 price tag (here in the land of Oz, of course) for the “entry level” interface. For that price you may be able to get a similar quality interface and a full range of high end, analogue emulating plugins from other developers.
More importantly, I’m more skeptical of the marketing trickery at play here, of UAD trying to convince consumers that this device could possibly emulate anything close the real vintage hardware.
I think maybe you should hold the GAS on this one. Let me know what you guys think down below.
Mitch,
The DIY Recording Studio
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