Universal Audio: Verve Analog Machines Plug-In

Universal Audio recently released a saturation and coloration UAD Native plug-in named Verve Analog Machines. Verve is a bit of a departure and something new for UA, as none of these machines are modeled after any specific piece of hardware, old or new, and they all feature minimal controls. Verve Analog Machine offers ten different nuanced flavors of tone bending and coloration for your tracks. When I think of the word "verve," it leads my mind straight to some amazing records in my LP collection by artists like Charlie Parker and Stan Getz. Frank Zappa and the Velvet Underground were even on the classic Verve label. UA's Verve collection channels some of that '60s analog nostalgia through a GUI with a fun Dwell Magazine graphic vibe that makes these plug-ins exciting and easy to use. Rather than blabbing on about my opinions on each of this plug-in's "machines," I thought it would be interesting to get some real-world usage notes from some of Tape Op's contributors, starting with our own Scott McChane. -JB

"What jumped out to me immediately was Verve's simple look and basic control set – just choose your machine and adjust its two effects parameters (such as Drive, Tone, and Warble). You also get a handy output level control, which you'll need when you start abusing a Drive setting. One of my favorite machines was Warm on female vocals, which gave just the right amount of poppy crush to a soft verse performance. Grab the 'Vocal Butter' preset in the upper lefthand dropdown, and it'll take less than a minute to tweak. The Warble control is not timed (which can be a good thing), and I found that though this machine worked well as an insert in my DAW, I liked it best as an effect send so that I could really push the Drive control then control the effect's blend on an aux return. All the 'Drum Bus presets are rad. I was working with a slow (and too clean) Phil Spector-style early '60s beat, so I initially tried 'Drum Bus 60s Bounced,' which gave me a good starting point. I ended up using the Thicken machine with the Drive pushed and the Warble tucked. This move worked perfectly and was a more controlled substitute for the too familiar now '1176 all buttons in on drum room mics' trick. I can't wait to try this plug-in on picked electric bass and punk rock vocals. Overall, I found Verve Analog Machines more subtle, usable, and realistic than any of my other 40 or so harmonic-based plug-ins – 10 out of 10 for me!" -SM

Next up we got some comments from mixing ninja Adam Kagan: “I've been playing with Analog Machines mostly during mixing. I get so many mixes where the session I receive is 90% there, and it just needs some polish, and a bit more attention to the sounds. I found that with Analog Machines I could add a little something extra that makes a track feel more finished, without losing the vibe of the intended sound. It works especially well for kicks, snares, toms, and drum subgroups. The Glow machine helped kick drum tracks in an indie rock record sit in just the right place. For electric bass, scrolling through the different machines is like having ten unique re-amp options that all sound excellent in their own way. On bass tracks, the plug-in gave just the right amount of push that felt like adding the weight of an amp versus a DI. I mostly used Verve for enhancing sounds while mixing, but if used during production it would definitely open up a lot of cool tonal possibilities.” -AK

I found similar uses for Verve in some tracks I was mixing for the Bay Area band Bad Tiger. On one song in particular I wanted a rhythm acoustic guitar as the primary guitar track to sound a bit oversized and hold its own next to a loud, full drum track. I started off with the “Acoustic Sizzle” preset on the Edge machine but ended up moving over to the Glow machine and tweaking that. The acoustic track maintained its own space in the mix against the loud drums but was not any louder than the original signal. Like Scott, I felt I had more control when I put Verve on a return and could blend it in with the original signal. -JB

Resident synth/pedal expert and all-around audio wizard Dana Gumbiner had this to say about the plug-in: “The Verve Analog Machines plug-in, in particular the more subtle Sweeten and Edge models, found a home at the front of more than a few mix bus chains as it added a nice bit of coloration and tape compression sound without eating up a ton of CPU or cognitive real estate. Perhaps belying its sweet and simple design, it has a shocking amount of tonal variety. Example: I used the Overdrive and Fire models in series (with two instances of Verve) to obliterate a clean DI electric bass sound, much to my great delight. Many Verve sounds made me think of it as a two-knob hybrid mashup of UA's Thermionic Culture Vulture and Studer A800 [Tape Op #85] UAD plug-ins, with a little extra compression character. The warble effect is charming, but I sometimes get a bit anxious that the lo-fi effect is often overcooked these days. Anyway, that was fun!” -DG

Daniel Ryan Morse mostly works out of his home studio in Reno, Nevada, and this is what he had to say about Verve: “Until I subscribed to UAD Spark, I thought engineers who mixed entirely in the box were either liars or lunatics. But when I had the chance to try UAD plug-ins on a mix (and compare them with matching hardware), I was sold. Some might complain that there aren't enough knobs to tweak on Verve Analog Machines, but for me Verve is an excellent bonus to the already stellar line-up of plug-ins included in the UAD Spark subscription. I typically apply them late in a mix once everything is roughly in place and I'm trying to improve my initial mix. When I'm listening back and feel that one or two elements need a little something extra, I'll open Verve and audition a few options. I've found that Vintagize is fun on snare for a good 'splat' sound, but it's not subtle! It will kill the clarity of the high frequencies, but in some cases this is to be desired. It helped me get closer to a '70s Royal Studios [Tape Op #120] sound, but it doesn't beat an old ribbon mic next to an old snare in a dry room! As a compromise, I duplicated my snare track and blended in some Vintagized snare to round things out without losing the crisp high frequencies. Thicken is good on a dry snare, too, eliminating some of the honki-ness while rolling off some highs. Edge is great for warming up a DI Bass (drive at 33% and tone at 50%), and I also found it useful on vocals if you want a little bit of breakup without going too wild. For bass amp mics (especially if they're not cutting through a mix), Glow adds some helpful grit (drive at 66% and tone at 33%). I've grown to love the color spectrum in the GUI, from colder (blue) to so warm that it's obliterated (bright red), as it allows me to select the spiciness I think will work while also allowing me to quickly experiment with neighboring colors to determine better what a track really needs. The best analogy I can think of is from cooking: Sometimes, you need more salt (savoriness), lemon (brightness), or chili spice (heat) to finish a dish. Verve Analog Machines helps me balance a mix that's almost there but needs a little more harmonic excitement.” -DRM

Tape Op's editor, Larry Crane, also took Verve for a spin and has some closing comments: "A lot of the songs I get sent to mix are using more and more virtual instruments, directly recorded instruments, sampled drum kits, and such that mostly feel bit lifeless or too pristine compared to mic'ing up real instruments and amps. For a recent mix with layers of DI'd synth and guitars, I would drop the Verve Analog Machines on a track, click through the ten machines, and then usually dial back the Drive a bit from the default preset. The tones of instruments will shift quite a bit, and in this case it was for the better. In the past I've spent a fair amount of time auditioning various harmonic plug-ins for this kind of processing, and they were almost always too harsh or too subtle for my taste. Verve got the job done faster and more musically, and that seems to be the whole point of this plug-in. My only note is that from everyone's review you can tell that a blend knob would be highly desired. But hell, if it speeds up my workflow these days, I am a fan."