FATSO^™ Jr. / Sr. Tape Sim. & Compressor

A must for that FAT sound!
I also use it on bright drum loops to make em less bright/flashy

The Fatso is extremely useful on just about anything you put it on but one of my favourite uses is strapping it on the Master Buss and just letting it saturate and mixing into the saturation. I normally keep the input to where the yellow lights blink in tempo with the song and on the occasional tom fill or something loud it might go to red which simply means more harmonic distortion is being generated when it lights red. I usually knock off 1 db on the buss type compressor setting and I also unlink the Fatso so that both left and right sides saturate independently. If you run this into a Master Nuss compressor like the 33609 or the SSL G Series you can get very powerful and dynamic mixes, which would sound quite different were you to strap on these 2 plugs after you're done mixing your track.

I love the UA Fatso!
Owning vintage 1176's and LA-2A etc...I use this plugin on my drums buss and as bass and vocal parallel without thinking about a hardware comp.

This is a VERY colorful compressor. If you're looking to slam something past pretty, here's your choice. I do think it sounds like tape on some settings. It smears your tracks nicely. I've used it on drum busses and even overall mix busses. Not an every day plug for me but worth the investment.

Great compressor, always on my synth channels...warm and powerfull

This plugin has changed all my mixes for the better.

Excellent emulation of the real thing. We haven't had it for long, but it's been invaluable since our hardware Fatso is currently out for repair. Every time we've reached for it it's provided exactly what we're use to hearing. It would be nice if it was 64 bit native though...

I'm a huge fan of the Fatso Sr. It's really becoming an indispensable tool. weather I'm slamming a parallel drum buss, or taming transients, there's a lot of flavor to be had here. Which is not to say there aren't subtle users for it as well...

Every drum track, every recording, sometimes on the mix buss.
You gotta saturate if you wanna be heard.
Love
Christopher

I used to have 2 analog machines a 2"24 trk, and a 1/2 2 trk. I do not miss the 24 trk but I do miss the 2 trk (but I do not miss the maintenance on it). Anyways I demoed the Studer plugin and well did not like it so much. But I LOVE the fatso! It sounds great on everything guitar bus's, drums, mastering, anything you put it on it sounds great. I bought the fatso last night.

Ive only got a solo card and you can only run 2 stereo fatso's on it, so I will be needing to buy a quad card so I can run this on 8 stereo bus's.

UA when are you going to come out with a Distressor plugin, I have a hardware one and would love a plugin version.

I demoed this plug in and I found it amazing as well.
It shows how far we can go today in the Plug IN World.

I did not bought it because I own hardware as well and for the saturation part I am covered.
I must say for the compression part this plug in is as well very usable and I would not market it as tape simulator because to me it does not sound like my tape machine in any way.

It has other qualities---- for example it could in the saturation part hold on very well with some of my tube hardware and sounded amazing near like gear.

I was very impressed with the SR option it made compression easy.

I just give four of five stars because I find the user interface not very handy.
It is not handy with the real HW Fatso this would be thing they could have fixed in the plug in world.

An more intuitive user interface would have helped a lot to get more excited about the FATSO plug in.

I find it amusing and annoying when people focus on the FATSO as being tape emulation device. I have owned an Empirical Labs Distressor and absolutely loved it's signature sound for getting gritty distorted compression that grabbed vocal tracks like no other compressor could (except some of Crane Song's stuff which is out of my budget). Point being that the FATSO is the only plug in I have ever heard -- and which I have been waiting for for so long -- that can get that Distressor sound. The FATSO is more of a compressor then anything else. Why reviewers and even UAD (and Empirical Labs as well) would even place "Analog Tape Simulator" before "Compression" in the headline describing the item makes no sense to me given that it's tape emulation capabilities are minor both in their effect (since tape emulation is a minor effect) and function with the unit. In short, the FATSO is amazing, absolutely AMAZING as a compressor -- for vocals in particular -- and the first and only plug in that I'm aware of that can get that Distressor sound. Priceless!!!! Given this, I could care less whether it sounds as good as any other tape emulation plug in since, to me, that's only ONE minor feature and possible use for the device. I have replaced my hardware Distressor with this plug in, it sounds that good.

Seriously... Universal Audio has outdone themselves with the FATSO Jr/Sr!!
As an indie artist with an ear for experimentation and unconventional sounds... to where, lets face it, that territory comes with little income!! I love classic gear, but I can only afford one piece of unique or vintage hardware every 2 years (with my income).
But you guys have have changed all that, creating not only affordable, but f**king brilliant plug ins of some of the best gear in world, where I have only ever dreamed about owning!!

You guys just keep me inspired. Thanks a bunch!!

eos13
Producer/Mixer

i never hear the original FATSO, but the plugin sound is very very good !!! thanks Universal Audio *great job*

Love it !! simple to use and loads of analog juice saturation and tape goodness.You have to be careful not to over do it, stick to the presets as a guide and alter settings to get the desired results your after until you get used to it..... Any chance of the Empirical Labs Distressor now UAD pleeeeeaaaaase ?!!!

My only downer to the plugin is that i have a UAD 2 solo and one instance uses half its DSP, but the sound it produces makes up for it !!! I just bounce the track down i use it on and stick it on the mixdown at the end to glue the mix together.

Cheers UAD !!

Wonderful! Another overpriced tape simulator/tape compression plug-in! After shooting out the Fatso against the old classic DUY dad tape, for hours on end on the drum, guitar, bass and vocal buss bus I have to say DUY takes the prize for subtlety and simplicity, not to mention better sound and tape algos. Although the DUY costs more IT IS better at what it does and I will not be shelling out for the fatso. For those who can't afford these overpriced tape plugs across the board, get the Iron Oxide, it comes close for about $50. PLEASE UAD and I am begging you, get the ball rolling with Tube Tech, Crane Song, GML, Thermionic Culture, Weiss, Prism and Manley. I'll be waiting.

I thought the Neve 33609 was nice on the buss!!
But this is, (IMO) `The holy grail of Electronic digital music production`..PERIOD, its that good.....
Demo`d it on the master bus on some of my tracks i`m working on and it tottaly improved all areas of the sound...rich warm bass and warm valve`esque mids to highs.....
Sweet, Warm organic analogue processing...and seeing the hardware costs +£1000, its a great deal, with numerous plug counts (quad 2) and total recall, this will transform my productions in a great way.
Thankyou very much UAD, TOP JOB.

There it is!!
After playing around with the plug in for a few hours all I say:

It is a real creative tool may you cant go that crazy as with hardware but who cares it is a real tone shaper.
You can tweak your audio to different sounds without using an EQ or Compression.

Well done UAD it would be nice to see more and more Plug Ins which emulate the analogue behavior in this way.

Thats the only thing I miss the tones which hardware often do depending to the signal input level.
It would be great to see those plug ins more in the future even with different possibilities to get different tones form it so that not every mix sounds the same in the end.

It would be even nice to see a 1176,LA2A and Fairchild as well as Pultec second Edition!!!
With such an upgrade offer we could get more the saturation artifacts from those legendary units.

Congratulations on this plug in....a creative tool.

Andreas Oberholz
www.mixingroomberlin.de

I would like to say: Congratulations! Another milestone in modelling I reckon. I'm waiting till the beginning of August to see if there's a coupon coming & then I'm getting it (coupon or not) Fantastic Job!

Oh my God!!!The dream came trough...now i can get all the fluffy bunies i ever wanted to get with my music!!!!