Universal Audio today announced the impending release of the highly anticipated Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb plug-in for the UAD-2 platform.

From the moment it was unleashed on the audio industry in 1978, the original Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb - with its tactile, slider-based controller and famously lush reverb tail - almost single-handedly defined the sound of an entire era, and remains one of the most popular and influential digital reverb units of all time.

The result of UA's modeling expertise, the Lexicon 224 plug-in for UAD-2 precisely captures all eight reverb programs available in original 224 firmware version 4.4, including every tunable parameter, with unique fader-style controls - inviting easy experimentation and sonic exploration. In UA's exhaustive modeling tradition, the Lexicon 224 emulation also incorporates the original unit's input transformers and early AD/DA converters - nailing the entire signal path right down to the last detail.

Additionally, the Lexicon 224 emulation for UAD-2 features direct input and presets from famous Lexicon 224 users, including Chuck Zwicky (Prince, Jeff Beck), Eli Janney (Jet, Ryan Adams), David Isaac (Eric Clapton, Luther Vandross), E.T. Thorngren (Talking Heads, Bob Marley), and Kevin Killen (U2, Peter Gabriel).

"The Lexicon 224 has been a significant player on hit records for three decades," said Matt Ward, President of Universal Audio. "But as with so many great vintage hardware units, original Lexicon 224's are getting harder and harder to find. Luckily, with Lexicon's assistance and our own elite DSP team, we can offer the true, iconic sound of the 224 to anyone making music with a UAD-2 DSP Accelerator on their Mac and PC."

"The 224 was really the product that launched the Lexicon brand," commented Michael MacDonald, Harman Professional Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales. "At Lexicon, we continue to push the boundaries of audio processing in new directions, but we entrusted UA to accurately model this classic unit from our past, which is really their forte. We look forward to similar collaborations with UA in the future."

Available for purchase via UA's Online Store in Q2 2011, the Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb plug-in will sell for $349.

Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb plug-in features include:

• Lexicon-endorsed, UA-modeled for complete accuracy.
• 8 reverb programs and 1 chorus program from final Lexicon v.4.4 firmware.
• Models entire analog circuit and digital path for total authenticity.

The Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb plug-in will be available as part of the new UAD Software v5.9.0 release, slated for Q2 2011. In addition to the Lexicon 224 Digital Reverb plug-in, v5.9.0 includes UA's first-ever Direct Developer plug-ins from Brainworx and SPL, as well as improvements for UAD-2 Satellite users.

Learn more about the UAD-2 Powered Plug-Ins platform here.