Capitol Chambers

In 1956, the record company Capitol Records built a 13-story round office building in Hollywood, which today is one of Los Angeles’ historical landmarks. The circular shape of the building brings to mind a stack of LP records, and the pointed, luminous tower at the top, which broadcasts the word “Hollywood” in Morse code, symbolizes a pick-up needle.

In addition to offices for the record company, the building houses a recording studio. Nine meters below the building, four rooms (later expanded to eight) were set up as “echo chambers” designed by Les Paul. Each room has its own distinct shape and sonic “personality” varied by the shape of the room and the choice of speakers and microphones.

The rooms have no parallel surfaces, the walls are lacquered and the ceilings can be raised and lowered so that the reverberation can be adjusted in time and character. With a capacity of over 600 cubic metres, the rooms can reverberate for up to 5 seconds.

The first recording took place in 1956 with Frank Sinatra as soloist, and the studios have since been used by countless famous musicians and bands. After a major renovation, both the studio and Echo Chambers are still in use.

Universal Audio Capitol Chambers

Universal Audio, in close collaboration with Capitol Studios, has developed the Capitol Chambers UAD plug-ins, which emulate four of the eight rooms’ reverberation down to the smallest detail, with plenty of editing options for the rooms’ alignment, microphone placements and much more. With Capitol Studios as a UAD plug-in, you can add some of the most sought-after and natural-sounding sound options to your own productions.

UAD Blockbuster Promo

Capitol Chambers is included as a free offer in Universal Audio’s Blockbuster Promo in February/March 2021, where you get up to four UAD plug-ins for free when you buy a UAD DSP Processor.

UAD Custom Bundles

You can also get Capitol Chambers and other plug-ins of your choice at a big discount if you buy a Custom Bundle at the same time as an Apollo interface or a UAD DSP Processor.