don't think you could complain about owning any of these products, they all sounded great. They did what you wanted them to do. They were all a little different, but not a bad thing. Cool video dudes.

The 529 was actually very close; of the two cartoons, the UAD was a head and shoulders above the Waves version.

The sound of hardware is fantastic!!! The waves plugins add eq.

All of them sound different even hardware. But what I don't understand is what is that high boost coming out of Waves? Waves, if you are watching this, you have to fix that bug.

First off: a shootout with level matched material. VK...you guys rock! There's no comparison to the hardware to my ears. The 529 sounds excellent, and showcases just how good 500 series can be when done right. 19" original is my fav, followed closely by the 529...and with some material I struggled to tell the difference between the two. Plugins were a distant 3rd and 4th with Waves being my least favorite. I've been moving away from plugins for years now, and I'm happy with my choice. This is more proof that hardware still rules when it comes to audio.

I bought my api 2500 from vintage vintage and I love it 🔥🔥🔥

Thought the plugins were fairing better than expected until the drums example. Then it was night and day.

I actually liked the 529 best! Plugins felt like they are adding aliasing/distortion and flattening the image of the sound. Waves adding high frequency to trick you in thinking wow..I have gloss now. Like a turd with a cherry on top.

The differences were most pronounced on drums solos yet in the whole mix it was less noticeable. And drums always sound most responsive to compression, other instruments won’t be as obvious so the differences are more subtle 99 percent of the time

I'm sorry, the Waves had me in tears.

The UAD on the drum mixes sounds like a different unit altogether. Not in a bad way nescessarily, more fat than spanky

UAD/Waves for sure. I'm bailing on my Waves version after seeing this video.

Makes me glad I've been investing in hardware....night and day difference.

The rack unit sounds wider then the 500 series is not as wide and a bit brighter, UAD is darker with a weird mid low bump supposedly meant to sound more analog I guess pretty wide but definitely not eqed as the original, The Waves is the narrowest but maybe closer frequency wise as the 500 series. Then the rack HW gives this nice smooth effect that is not matched by any others.

Thanks for doing the shootout! The 2500 of course sounds the best, the 500 series version sounds very similar but seems to lose the sparkle and stereo width the full version has. The UA plug (which I own) does ok, but there is certainly a loss in resolution, and the Waves is laughable

The 2500 sounds incredible on drums and completely transforms the sound and pulls annoying high end out. The waves and UAD plugs do not do that at all.

The 529 did sound really close but I do have to point out that it wasn't in a 500 series chasis but instead seemed like it was in one of those API desk which would have a much better power supply. Just to keep in mind for those who feel they could drop the 529 in any 500 series chasis and attain the same results. :-)

Nice Shootout video. This is what I noticed. The hardware settings is punchy on the drums @7:19 and the UAD Seems to be warmer,when comparing to the hardware and the dry is not too punchy like the hardware or maybe the same settings from the hardware on the plugin won't give you the same results. The waves own is bright,maybe the pre-amps they used or the console they used in the processing was bright,they can work on that,And it changes the sound too I can hear some frequency lost.

Good job, showing the differences.

Great quick comparison. Interesting, they all have their differences though both hardware versions sound good on all material whereas the plug in emulations have their strengths and weaknesses depending on content-music style being processed. Get all of the plu-g-in emulations and pick the best sounding choice for your need that day. Or buy 3 analog compressors, say the API 2500, an SSL XLogic G series compressor, and grab a vintage or newer generation Neve compressor and pick your favorite sound that day. They will also all sound different and it's nice to have choice and variety.

Thanks for this guys! Well done.

The real API 2500 glues things together so smoothly and plugins pumping in a bad way compare to it. Low end also become dull after plugins. Anyway, thanks for the video, i like this shootout series

Actually. The UAD for that first rock track tamed that harshness. IMO the UAD sounds like a pop version of the API.

Like everyone has said, the hardware kills the software, with the 2500 edging out the 500 series. That's obvious. But many commenters need to remember to keep it in perspective - no hardware vs software comparison is ever going to be that simple due to the extra AD/DA conversion. A science experiment this is not. Also, we're just comparing same settings here, right? The software (both) sound like they were doing very little work on the mix buss compared to the hardware. Wonder if they could be tweaked to get a little closer to doing a similar amount of lifting. Would love to be able to bump that threshold down just a bit to see what happens. Would be easier to compare the tonality difference. It's just hard for me to imagine that even the Waves (or UA for that matter) would be THAT FAR away from the original unit. You'd have a hard time convincing me in a blind test that these were supposed to be the same unit. Still, this is an excellent comparison and thank you for having a go at it, VK. If you're going to do it, this is about as good as it can be done. Cheers.

2500 is my favorite. 529 sounds great as well, I would say I prefer the 2500, but some days of the week I might choose hte 529. I own UAD and Waves 2500 and although I find the UAD to sound much better than Waves, there is a distinct and audible compromise in the fidelity of the signal that is apparent even on KZfaq compression...So...someday the hardware will be in my studio as well, it sounds sublime. Till then, I'll keep using the UAD plug in, which has that "grabby" character, but it sounds like...a plug in really.

Call me crazy I prefer the 529 over the 2500. Good for my wallet! Also liked the UAD. It sounds more hifi actually I think, the transients of the mandolin are very well preserved. The hardware units both sounded more colorfull.

Very nice video ! Can you do the same comparaison between different SSL g comp compressor ?

Wow for the folky drums I liked the crunch of the Waves 2500 on the snare and overall tone of it more than the analog pumping of the real 2500, which was annoying to that particular take Never thought that would happen in a million years though! Might have to revisit that on acoustic singer songwriter tracks.

The plugins don't come close in this case. I honestly thought they would be much closer, but no. Actually kind of comical.

Sonically they all have different flavors but the hardware sounds better with the material.

So to my ear, the 2500 is the baseline, the 529 is pretty similar to that but a lot brighter, the UA plugin is very similar to the original, and the Waves plugin is kinda dull, or at least duller than the others. Anyone else matching up with that? Definitely makes me feel like the UA plugin is worth it.

Just get 2500 and damn! Why I did’t get it sooner. Before this day, I was thinking hardware is nonsens and plugins can do same job. For me 2500 was the missing link.

The difference is the hardware just does what its built to do and maintains clarity while clamping and glueing, where it creates pumping exciting with the acoustic your ear is focusing on what it is doing. The plugins are emulating the hardware but fails in the detail of maintaining that focus or clarity. Plugins always seem to loose focus on its intent and rather than clamping and glueing and hearing that clearly it just creates a version of it by becoming more blurred. It reminds me of plugin synths they sound amazing on their own but as soon as you add more tracks, multi-synths everything becomes a blurry mess because almost every instrument takes up the whole EQ spectrum. Thats kind of what I keep hearing with plugin emulators that they are reading all the digital information and all the frequencies.

Do an SSL Buss shootout. And please include Slate Digital FG-Grey in it. Instead of including Waves, adding Slate Digital will be better. As it emulates more authentically and true to the originals. In the next series, do A Hardware vs Slate vs UAD. Having a Distressor, SSL Bus, and Neve Preamp shootout will be awesome.

Even the 2 hardware units didn't sound the same so how come you're bashing plugin companies for not being exactly either? Even 2 API 2500s wouldn't even sound the same and that's what non-linearity mean. Thanks alot for the Video VK!

The hardware has the low end sounding the tightest/cleanest. Next UAD. Everything else sounds muddy to me. Waves sounds like added eq.

The 2500 sounds best in all comparisons. It has a wide open detailed sound that is meaty. The 529 has a slightly forward mid center stereo field which does not have as open of a sound but is still meaty. The UAD 2500 stereo field sounds closer to the 2500 but it lacks the weighty sound of the transformers. Waves I don't like as much as any of them.

Listening through cheap earbuds and there IS a night and day difference. I prefer the hardware. Only thing is the API rack is unable to work in dual mono like some other bus compressors. In this way I would be able to maximize on it's value.

Subbed.

Night and day, I'm uad user but honestly this time they totally miss the point. Where is punch?

the UAD plugin comes closer to the real 2500 than the 529(which sounds slightly darker) does, IMO.

On the drums, the UAD suck but the Waves version I still far behind the hardware 😮

Compression is still the last bastion of analog superiority for me.

Damn, the UAD sounds so close to the hardware.

I certainly wouldn't say the hardware is uniformly better than the plug-ins. I actually liked the character of the UAD plugin better than the 529 and thought the UAD plugin was pretty close to the 2500.

Night and day...

so the answer.... Just get the real thing,... :)

Hardware’s much better then software‘s

Waves is garbage compared to the others

The plug-ins are just bad.

glooo 😂

Wow! Digital stuff stinks in comparison. Eye opening!

UAD was extremely close to the hardware... until the drum examples lol. Then the separation was crystal clear. For the price difference though, you gotta hand it to UAD for getting so close at 1/8 the price of the hardware 🤷🏻‍♂️ Unless you're a mix engineer full time, the advantage to having as many instances of the 2500 as you want all over your mix far outweighs the performance differences with the hardware. If the plug is 85% there... and 1/8 the cost, if that 15% performance really worth $2000??

Major loss of fidelity with plugins