Best LA-2A Emulation?

[planetearth]

FWIW, I have four LA-2A emus: Waves, NI, IK, and the Cakewalk version (yes, I have too many plugins). IMHO, they all do a good job of leveling out a guitar or vocal track, and my preference changes depending on what day it is ... and oh yeah, the style of song.

The sonic differences are subtle, I find. Generally I think the Waves is the most aggressive-sounding, with just a touch of that CLA bite which some may find harsh but can be well-suited for rock. The other end of the (narrow) spectrum is represented by the NI VC2A, which is smooth and silky. The newest IK version is rich and detailed-sounding to my ears. I find myself reaching for it a lot lately. The CW plugin is good but maybe just a tad lean. Again, these aren't night/day diffs, and my opinion is subject to change.

Feature-wise, give points to NI for the HPF on the detector and the handy wet/dry knob. Kudos to IK for the M/S function. And score one for CW and Waves for the RC37 screw, which can change the sound drastically.

Cheers,
Eddie

I second the call for an LA-2A shootout, and since Eddie has the four "biggies" in the game, I volunteer him! And he could even download the Optron 3A, just for grins.

Obviously, each developer sets the default parameters for the emulation a bit differently, so even if everyone who wanted to compare them used the same source audio file, I think the only practical comparison would be from someone who has all of them. Only that person would know what had to be "tweaked" to get the same amount of compression and the same output from each.

So, all in favor of Eddie giving up his weekend to do this, say "Aye!". (Thanks, Eddie, you're a great sport for helping out with this!)

Steve

[Compyfox]

Read the number again: 3A.

Then read up on the LAxA range.

[planetearth]

Read the number again: 3A.

Then read up on the LAxA range.

I'm not familiar with the Optron, but I guess I should have assumed it was a 3A emulation. That said, the developer's site is gone, and most of what I've read about it says, "Optron 3A is a VST compressor plugin featuring an opto-electric design similar to that found in hardware devices like LA-2A or LA-3A".

Maybe the developer couldn't decide which way he wanted to go with it.

Steve

P.S.: How's that shootout coming, Eddie?

[J4R1O]

An LA-2A emulation that sounded great on drums probably wouldn't sound like an LA-2A. I'd want to hear an LA-2A roundup on some dynamic, sloppy, bass playing. Or a dynamic vocal performance. Or an acoustic guitar part. That's where you'd most want to reach for an LA-2A.

IK's White 2A works really nice on acoustic guitar. Compared to Cakewalk's PC-2A, White 2A has more color and character. I don't even miss the R37 screw.

[Kingston]

An LA-2A emulation that sounded great on drums probably wouldn't sound like an LA-2A.

I have two hardware LA2A's set up like the first revisions. Sounds brilliant on drums, whether single mic or stereo stem. Sometimes even works on a master bus.

No idea about these emulations whatsoever, but I can tell you if a hardware LA2A doesn't work on drums, you should tweak side chain high pass filter. Universal audio calls it "HF pre-emphasis" even though it's a simple 1st order high pass right at the sidechain input.

I don't know why all of the emulations don't have this. It might have something to do with fact the original mechanical engineer decided it belongs to the back panel. But when you are modeling something like LA2A and don't know what all the trimmers do and what's in the back panel, you really aren't modelling well enough.

And if even that doesn't work it's time to get a new opto cell. They can vary a whole lot in their overall reaction time and program dependency and don't last forever.

Another thing I should point out, LA2A has quite a decent headroom and make up gain amp is very linear. It takes quite a beating to get it to distort, more than your average and loud DAC balanced output. If your emulation is doing any significant distortion, someone screwed up.

[Eddie TX]

I second the call for an LA-2A shootout, and since Eddie has the four "biggies" in the game, I volunteer him!

What!?!? And subject myself to ridicule for choosing bad source material, choosing wrong settings, not level matching properly, etc.? I'd never fall for that one.

Well, OK. But please, keep the whining to a minimum, willya?

The four comps were set so that they were getting about 7dB max of GR as per their meters. Then their gain was adjusted so that they level-matched as close as I could get, relying on my trusty T-RackS RMS meter.

The screws on the comps so equipped were set at default (12 o'clock).

The source is stereo strummed acoustic guitar from a BIAB loop. If anyone has a preferable source file, feel free to share.

The dry file is first, followed by the compressed output from each plugin. Order is random and will be revealed in due course. Until then, have a listen and post comments.

You can download each file (24/44.1) for more critical listening, which may be necessary to hear any differences, which I'm curious to see if anyone can discern -- as I mentioned before, I think they're pretty close and all worthy.

https://soundcloud.com/eddie-tx/sets/la2a-shootout

Cheers,
Eddie

[SWallace]

Preferred the Waves the best. Love the way it colours the sound the best. To me that's what sets it apart.

[Oden]

I second the call for an LA-2A shootout, and since Eddie has the four "biggies" in the game, I volunteer him!

What!?!? And subject myself to ridicule for choosing bad source material, choosing wrong settings, not level matching properly, etc.? I'd never fall for that one.

Well, OK. But please, keep the whining to a minimum, willya?

The four comps were set so that they were getting about 7dB max of GR as per their meters. Then their gain was adjusted so that they level-matched as close as I could get, relying on my trusty T-RackS RMS meter.

The screws on the comps so equipped were set at default (12 o'clock).

The source is stereo strummed acoustic guitar from a BIAB loop. If anyone has a preferable source file, feel free to share.

The dry file is first, followed by the compressed output from each plugin. Order is random and will be revealed in due course. Until then, have a listen and post comments.

You can download each file (24/44.1) for more critical listening, which may be necessary to hear any differences, which I'm curious to see if anyone can discern -- as I mentioned before, I think they're pretty close and all worthy.

https://soundcloud.com/eddie-tx/sets/la2a-shootout

Cheers,
Eddie

I preferred the 2nd processed example (3rd audio sample). The first could potentially be a winner, but I think it was driven too hard. I bet these plug ins use different refrence level for 0VU.

3rd and fourth sounded a bit plastic sounding to me in comparsion. The attack was not as nice.

This is at least my quick impression, in terrible listening enviornment.

I would like to know which comp was which. Feel free to PM Me.


Also it would be awesome to include the free Optrion 3A and Variety of sound ThrillseekerLA. Just to see how those compare.

Are these comps oversampled by the way?

[mandolarian]

And subject myself to ridicule for choosing bad source material, choosing wrong settings, not level matching properly, etc.? I'd never fall for that one.

I'm not going to ridicule you for choosing bad source material. But, why the hell did you pick an already over-processed loop? Why, for the love of clarity did you pick something that's already had most its life force sucked out it? What did we do to deserve this horrible faux-stereo phase-slop comparo?

To be fair, the soundcloud encoding artifacts probably hurt my ears more than the comp-happy kids at BIAB*.

Guess it's up to me to find a raw guitar track that has actual dynamics that require some taming, not just obliterating.

/Minimal Whine

* Nope. The dry BIAB wave file sounds terrible all on its own. All down hill from there.

[DuX]

Yap, that's one of the reasons why I don't use sample libraries. They're terribly sounding these days. It's just crap. They all seem to be fighting the loudness war, too. Good gracious dog.

[planetearth]

Well, I for one would like to thank Eddie for taking the time to do this! (Thank you, Eddie!)

Yes, SoundCloud screws up most tunes with its encoding. (I sometimes feel I should offer a disclaimer about SoundCloud's encoding artifacts on every tune I upload, and how what people here is not exactly what I intended!) But as Eddie suggested, we can download the original files, which I hope everyone does. He also suggested that if anyone had a better source file to use, feel free to share it.

As a shootout that was "thrown together" based upon the prodding of an irresponsible KVR member (yours truly), I appreciate the work Eddie's done, and I look forward to this--and any other open-forum comparisons anyone would like to host.

Steve

[Eddie TX]

Guess it's up to me to find a raw guitar track that has actual dynamics that require some taming, not just obliterating.

Please do. The file I used was all I had at the moment, unfortunately. I know it's not ideal, but I've heard worse on commercial releases.

I'm more into mixing than recording, so I doubt you'd be happy with anything I try to create myself. I can hear it all now -- bad choice of mic, poor mic placement, wrong strumming technique, cheap-sounding guitar, etc. Har har!

So, would anyone else care to comment on how the compressors sound? So far I see only one. Surely others have an opinion ... let's hear more before I reveal the contenders.

Seriously, this is fun stuff. And thanks to Steve for egging me on and for the nice comments.

Cheers,
Eddie

[electro]

Guess it's up to me to find a raw guitar track that has actual dynamics that require some taming, not just obliterating.

Isn't there any website with dedicated test files for all to download?

[jens]

I don't know why all of the emulations don't have this.

wrong - Stripbus has it.

[Funkybot's Evil Twin]

Eddie, haven't listened yet, but can I assume you were in "compress" mode (versus limit)?

I'm going to see if I can get the time to run the dry track through the new and old UAD versions to see how those stack up.