Universal Audio Astra | Starlight | Golden

A couple months back, we had the distinct pleasure of reviewing and demoing 3 brand new amplifier pedals from our friends at Universal Audio: Dream ’65, Ruby ’63 and Woodrow ’55, all of which were wicked spectacular. Today, we get to revisit more UA gear, this time in the form of three effects: Astra Modulation Machine, Starlight Echo Station and Golden Reverberator. We’ve had our eyes on these for a while, as I’m sure you have as well, so let’s jump right in and explore these wonderful machines…

Astra Modulation Machine

Taking you deep down the rabbit hole of classic analog modulation, UAFX Astra Modulation Machine serves up the most sonically authentic bucket-brigade chorus/vibrato, studio flanger/doubler, and tube-driven tremolo effects ever placed into a single stompbox. Chorus Brigade is based on a legendary gray bucket-brigade stompbox from 1976 that changed the sound of music with its thick, luxuriant chorus and wavy vibrato. Flanger Dblr is packed with late-’70s bucket-brigade tech, a classic rackmount studio flanger/doubler famous for stunning whoosh effects, organic thickening, and a parade of wild sounds that go way beyond typical flanger boxes. Modeled after the optical tube-driven tremolo of ’60s American amplifiers, Trem 65 is deep, undulating and the very essence of vibe.

Starlight Echo Station

Fasten your seatbelts for sonic time travel with UAFX Starlight Echo Station, featuring jaw‑dropping emulations of classic tape echo, bucket-brigade, and digital delay units in a single, uber‑powerful stompbox. Here, the Tape EP-III mode emulates legendary, vintage, early ’70s tape echo units, with all the wow/flutter, tape splicing and preamp goodness we know and love. The Analog DMM mode focuses on bucket-brigade delays, with syrupy repeats, thick modulation, and mind-bending sci‑fi effects. Precision is a goldmine of modern delays, featuring pristine, mirror‑image repeats with dynamic, shimmering modulation effects.

Golden Reverberator

Harnessing more than 20 years of reverb modeling expertise, UAFX Golden Reverberator puts a trio of iconic reverbs right at your feet. The tube-driven spring reverb of classic ’60s guitar amps. The dense and haunting sound of ’50s studio plate reverbs. The endless algorithmic wonder of early digital reverb hardware. Get tube-driven spring reverb from classic ’60s American guitar amps with Spring 65. Conjure up the dense, haunting sound of late-1950s studio plate reverb in Plate 140 mode. Harken back to the beginning of the digital reverb age and venture into atmospheric exploration with Hall 224.

Each of these units has their won special sonic quality, and you can easily get lost for hours experimenting with each one individually. However, we thought it would be fun to see how they all interact TOGETHER, so in the demo below, we make a lot of noise and have an absolute blast turning knobs, flipping switches and creating some beautiful ambient scenes, so be sure to check it out! Lots more information on all of the Astra, Starlight and Golden on the Universal Audio website – be sure to head over there as well to investigate these FX, the amp pedals, their interfaces, plugins and much more. Thanks for reading/watching/supporting us, have a great weekend!

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