ANALOG vs DIGITAL PREAMPS | Warm Audio WA73 VS Universal Audio Neve 1073 Unison

This comparison is from a while back. But to me listening to it where the mix comes in is where the warm wins. Just has that little more weight to it.

As a vocalist, I found the Neve from UAD had a clearer sibilance. It was easier for me to understand and feel/experience your vocals through the UAD.

Especially in the mix and with the EQ. More HiFi sound.

Just the vocal take sounds similar, in the miss the hardware kickin the ass

If you got a hit song either one will do

Night and day, gear sounded better. The 1073 UAD sounds dull, the compression actually emphasizes it.

This made me want to sell my UAD octo and all the plugins to get this and a wa 76. Will I be able to rout these directly into my uad solo while bypassing the preamp on it to track vocals into my daw? I undestand the lack of outputs on my solo would not allow me to use them from my cpu going into the hardware.

Damn the last examples with music are DRASTICALLY different :O

"My hardware is like freshly squeezed orange juice and plugins are like Tang"

-Chris Lord Alge

What Interface you use with both? I wonder how warm audio sound with an Apollo x16.

digital plugins sound great on solo, but when you mix more than 10 tracks, you will find out why hardware is the best way to achieve fine sound.

Wow when processed with compression and reverb try warm audio sounds seriously more rich than the plugin. This violated my expectation. This warm audio pre sounds a lot better to the wa12 preamp as well imho

I think the plugin works well enough if you have extra plugins to add more warmth to replicate analog sound

both are great however I prefer the plugin

Tone of the click track is exactly the same!😂

Great video. I subscribed. I have a question.
I’m using the uad neve + teletronix with an akg c414 xls mic.
If you had to choose either the pre or the compressor, which one is the better analog upgrade to get first?
Or which piece would make the most difference

These types of shootouts don't interest me at all. If I had to $1,000 to spend on an Apollo interface then I would rather just buy a real Neve preamp.

what im hearing actually is that uad sounds pretty compressed already and has more prominent room tone in it.. actually the plugin loses a lot of dynamic

Wow, Fineas' dad sure is a knowledgable bloke.

It seems that the warm ist kinda harsh in the High frequencies area, and kinda boring in the low mid end.
The plugin sounded way more cleaner kinda like its not 100% mixed in. but the Harshness is not there and the low mid end ist harmonic kinda like.

The Plugin sound more balance and clean to me definitly would go with the plugin instead with the Warm Audio option.
I liked this videos please do more these kind of comparision.

I have both, and although the hardware does sound marginally better than the plugin the cheap quality of my Warm hardware vs outlay over plugin convenience is a consideration. One unit with crackling switches, cheap wobbly pots and brittle top eq vs multiple noise free plugins with comparable sound at one tenth the price is a no brainer!

much more defined and weighty with the warm pre - just pulled the plug on 4 of them!

I have a question.

When it comes to running digital preamps into analog gear, how exactly would you do that? I have Apollo X4 and looking at expanding into outboard gear.

Hey, great video… what do you use to convert your wa73

I hate warm audio, EXCEPT for this unit. It’s their best effort. None the less the difference between my BAE unit and the UAD is much more of a difference. These are very similar with of course the Warm audio coming out slightly ahead, which is something i recognize they do on most of their units. At $800 i don’t think it’s enough of a price difference to spend though. My BAE pulls the sound forward every time. This subtly does that if at all. It makes things feel more 3D. I also want to mention that the BAE is 3.5 times the price or so (i got it used for much less though). But it IS worth it imo. Where the slight difference with the Warm audio just feels too close to the plugin version which is a tenth of the price on sale. Is the BAE worth the 35 times the price though? Probably not either 😂. This is a testament to how good the UAD plugins are. They are like 90%+ there. And the distressor is one of UAD’s best replications.

Oh I also would have liked to see you drive the preamps for how the coloration and harmonic distortion happened. That’s the REAL test of analog gear imo. What happens when you saturate the EQ? Does it sound super harsh or is it smooth?

Very good comparison. Nice voice!!
In my opinion, it looks like the Warm audio has a little more mids, but I can't say which one is better. I own both, a real Neve 1073 and the UAD unison emulation. The emulation sounds cool, but when recording instruments with low frequencies like a bass, the real neve 1073 let me mix them much easier. The emulation tends to have irregularities in the low frequencies as well as the transformerless preamps do.

Even listening just with my phone I can hear a difference.. the WA73 wins

good channel man thumbs up bro. just ordered the wa73 and wanna try it with my 6176 compressor side, not sure rn if it will be better than the 610 tho wanted a bit more punch in my vocals for rap, the 610 is nice but not sure if its always cool to have those transients shaped from that tube sound. btw a stupid question what cable do I need to connect the wa73 to my 6176? xlr to xlr into the input of the comp right then xlr to try into my apollo x6? anyways keep up the good work greets from Germany

I can't agree with the description. The UAD is not a 'digital' preamp. It's an analog preamp which can get processed on a digital plugin in real time with zero latency.

after purchasing does these digital plugins like Avalon or Neve needs license renewal every year or after a certain period of time, I am curious. can I get some info about it. Thanks

To have music listened in a mobile phone. The analogic one is like using a medium format camera with 120megapixel, to post on Instagram and compete with Reels 😂

In the mix the uad plugin sounds like a radio ready record, while the Warm Audio still sounds amateur.

Yes, wa73 makes voice sounds more solid and "true" i would say

Very Nice vídeo.
I liked your Channel.
Do you know four computer audio:Roland Rubix, Black Lion, Mackie onyx and RME Interface.
Because ,I am looking Audio interface for 3 Channel:Talk Show, Gameplays and Gospel.
Where do you from?
Greeting from Brazil.

I did not expect the difference between the hardware and the plug-in to be this apparent. It's subtle, but your voice sounds thinner and more muffled with the plug-in, especially at the first phrase.

Both sound good but the WA73 sounds incredible, the plugin sounds like plastic in comparison.

I couldn’t hear a difference. I only listened. I still don’t know which is which

There’s something funky going on in your full mix comparison: the vocals are clearly louder in the hardware clip, and the bus meter is only half the level of the previous examples.

Where can I hear this song?

The UAD 1073 was much more musical sounding in the mix. It sounded so good

Wow I could tell the difference listening on my iPhone speaker WA73 all day not even a comparison

Great job. There IS a noticeable difference of course. I have UAD but I like very much the hardware tone here.

I own both hardware all day ...the plugin is hallow

This was a great video! I love my 1073 plugin, and have been contemplating purchasing a wa273. Truthfully I thought they both sounded great despite some subtle differences.

Great video, Do I need to have the Apollo interface in order to record vocals in with the Neve UAD 1073 preamp, or can I just apply it to my on the vocal channels effect rack in logic ? Thanks

I can hear the saturation on the WA73. However, they both sound great.

Analog sounds way better, more natural.

Here's my opinion of this as a whole mind.

A track is comprised of many many tracks and takes layered.

To mix purely in Analogue involves a lot of subtracting to make everything fit and digital is easier to mix but lacks that magic analogue has.

So in conclusion, the best setup these days with all of the advances digital has had is to have a few key analogue pieces for the input of production and full key analogue units for the bus and masters on the output.

Like real tape extra.

Because with technology we have such flexibility in what we can do within the production and main mixing stages that the flexible recall is a must... so really we just need a little bit of magic in and out to give those processes the light and warmth they deserve.

Am i the only one listening to this using the built in speakers of my device?

Preamp hardware and software aren't directly comparable. In the plugin version you are basically using it as line driver for saturation. The hardware is responsible for the initial capture of the sound, which includes the clarity and transient response. The hardware can also be pushed harder than the plugin without causing horrible things happening in the high end (aliasing or odd harshness)