Universal Audio

The company dates back to 1958, when recording engineer and inventor Bill Putnam Sr founded Universal Audio in Hollywood to build the consoles, compressors and amplifiers used in his United Recording studios on Sunset Boulevard. Designs from that era and from its successor UREI, including the 610 console and preamp, the 1176 limiter and the Teletronix LA-2A levelling amplifier, became studio standards. The Universal Audio name had disappeared from the products by the mid-1970s.

Putnam's sons, James Putnam and Bill Putnam Jr, re-founded Universal Audio in 1999. They set out both to reissue their father's analogue designs, starting with the 1176LN, and to build digital tools with a vintage analogue character. That work led to the UAD plug-in platform and, from 2012, the Apollo interfaces with built-in DSP.

UA moved onto the pedalboard in January 2021 with UAFX, its first line of effects pedals: the Golden Reverberator, Starlight Echo Station and Astra Modulation Machine, each offering three emulations of classic reverb, delay or modulation hardware on a dual-processor engine. In May 2022 it added the Dream '65, Ruby '63 and Woodrow '55 amp-emulator pedals, which recreate vintage American and British valve amps and can be adjusted through the UAFX Control mobile app.