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# Universal Audio Capitol Studios Plugin: Mix Inside Studios A and B
- URL: https://www.unknowndivide.com/universal-audio-capitol-studios-plugin/
- Published: 2026-11-08T12:32:33.000Z
- Updated: 2026-11-08T15:27:58.000Z
- Description: Universal Audio has released Capitol Studios, a native plug-in that models Hollywood's Capitol Studios A and B, a vintage mic locker, large-format consoles and four underground echo chambers. It runs on macOS and Windows without Universal Audio hardware.
- Author: unknowndivide staff
- Tags: Gear, #surfacing

Capitol Tower has been sitting on Vine Street since 1956, a circular stack of studios with echo chambers buried underneath. Until this week you had to book time there, or settle for a guess. [Capitol Studios](https://www.uaudio.com/products/capitol-studios?ref=unknowndivide.com), a new native plug-in from Universal Audio, models those rooms so you can mix in them from any DAW.

## Capitol Studios A and B

The plug-in puts you in Studios A and B, the same spaces Universal Audio names in connection with Frank Sinatra, Billie Eilish, Frank Ocean, Bob Marley and Green Day. You can set up vocals, drums and larger ensembles, then hear how the room answers. A slider-and-drag system lets you move microphones around the floor and listen to the space change in real time, which is the part that feels closest to actually walking the room.

There is a Decca Tree option too, the three-microphone orchestral array used for strings, horns and vocal groups on countless records. Source modes on the official interface cover drums, acoustic instruments, speakers, vocals and ensembles, with separate paths for close mics, room mics and the Decca Tree.

## A historic mic locker and four echo chambers

The microphone setups were curated by Steve Genewick, a longtime Capitol engineer. Universal Audio describes them as a historic locker of vintage mics, the sort of collection most home studios only read about. On the other side of the chain are Capitol's large-format British consoles and the in-house analog processors the studio has trusted for decades.

Then there are the chambers. Four underground echo rooms sit beneath the tower, and the plug-in brings those reverbs in as part of the same session, so the room sound and the chamber sound belong to the same building.

## It runs natively, with no Universal Audio hardware

Capitol Studios is a UAD Native plug-in for macOS and Windows. It does not require an Apollo interface or other Universal Audio hardware, which is the detail that matters if you do not already live in that ecosystem. It is available now from the [Universal Audio press announcement](https://www.uaudio.com/blogs/press/universal-audio-releases-capitol-studios?ref=unknowndivide.com) and the official shop, and it is also included with a [UAD Spark Studio](https://www.uaudio.com/products/uad-spark?ref=unknowndivide.com) subscription. Presets come from Capitol engineers, producers and musicians who work in those rooms. The rooms themselves are still documented on the [official Capitol Studios site](https://www.capitolstudios.com/?ref=unknowndivide.com).

Will Shanks, Senior Product Designer at Universal Audio, has said the company wanted to capture what makes the rooms special and, working with the Capitol team, bring that sound to people wherever they make music.

Room plugins are everywhere now, but very few of them start from a building that has been making records since 1956 and then let you drag a microphone across the actual floor plan. For more on getting a voice to sit in a mix, read our guide to the [best microphones for home recording](https://www.unknowndivide.com/best-microphones-for-home-recording/), and if you want a single vocal mic to start with, the [Shure SM7B](https://www.unknowndivide.com/shure-sm7b-dynamic-microphone/) is still the usual recommendation.