Optical
Here's my LA-2A style two-knob compressor. This is a feedba...
- Type
- Audio Effect
- Author
- OspreyInstruments
- Version
- 1.0
- License
- None
- Live version
- 10.1.18
- Max version
- 8.1.5
- Downloads
- 0
- Updated
- No Updates
Optical is an Audio Effect for Ableton Live by OspreyInstruments, distributed as freeware, with no license specified by the author. It targets Live 10.1.18 and Max 8.1.5. Published 2023-04-19.
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Description
Here's my LA-2A style two-knob compressor. This is a feedback circuit that (roughly) models a few different vactrols used for the gain attenuation, each with their own character and strengths:
LED - Fast and aggressive rise and fall times curves. This one is very snappy and responsive. I found it worked well on drums and slapped bass.
Electroluminescent Panel - This is the optical cell the LA-2A uses. Its got a longer release than the LED, but not as long as the bulb. Overall, this is smooth and well balanced, perfect for vocals.
Incandescent Bulb - This is slow to heat up, and has some after glow making it have very gentle characteristics.
Mercury Fluorescent Bulb - This is in between LEDs and the EL Panel in responsiveness. Good happy medium for when you want some more bite than the EL Panel, but the LED is overkill.
Clicking on the VU meter will turn on and off the "tube amp" output stage, that introduces odd and even harmonics, and also limits the output. The AGC toggle is useful, but a little buggy still. I did limit how much it can "compensate" after some unhappy accidents. I can't get it to misbehave anymore, but caution is still advised in this mode.