Recording - June 2013 - 26

Universal Audio Teletronix LA-2A

Music goes in, you clamp down on it
with the gain reduction, then you boost
the gain back up—it’s really that simple.
In fact the LA-2A should be taught in
recording school as Compression 101.
A few “software” mods
On the LA-2A models there is a
Comp/Limit switch offering 3:1 compression in comp mode and infinity:1 in limit
mode. This feature was not originally

available on the Gray version, but it has
been added to make it functionally akin
to the Silver. The LA-2 is limit only.
The last control on each plug-in is
labeled Emphasis and was originally a
set screw found on the rear of the unit
called R37. This control was an
early form of what we’d now call
sidechain filtering. As you turn it counterclockwise, low-frequency signals will
pass through without triggering compression. I find it interesting that this new feature was actually present on one of the
earliest compressors made.
Leveling, Limiting, Speed
Although labeled a limiter, the LA-2A is
not of the modern brick wall, none-shall-pass
type. The secret to the LA series is that its
knee and release times are program-dependent with an approximate 10 ms attack
time, and a release time that can vary from
60 ms at 50% release up to 5 seconds,
depending on the nature of the input signal.
The biggest variation in the three models is their speed. The LA-2 is the slowest,
the Gray is medium and the Silver is the
fastest. Each plug-in also gets sonically
more open and less thick as you move
from the LA-2 to the Silver, but the effect is
subtle.
For instance
I tried all three units on a number of
sources alongside the original 1999 LA2A plug-in now known as the Legacy version, which comes as a fourth member of
the new collection and is a great choice
when processing power runs low on your
UAD card.
26

RECORDING June 2013

Like the 1176 updates, the LA-2A uses
a fair bit of horsepower, especially when
compared to the Legacy version. On a
UAD-2 Solo card the original Legacy LA2A could get 27 mono and 24 stereo
instances. In comparison, the new models
give you 6 mono and 4 stereo. On a
newer UAD-2 Octo card you can get 48
mono and 32 stereo. Stop by UA’s support page for a full instance chart of all of
their cards and plug-ins.

In use
The LA-2A has
a reputation as one of
the best vocal compressors
ever, and UA’s Legacy plug-in
has long been a favorite of mine when
mixing in the box.
Starting on a James Taylor-style male
voice I noticed, when moving from the
Legacy version to the Gray model, that
there was a subtle weight and fullness and
an airier top. Moving to the Silver model,
the sound became punchier and a tad
more forward, and moving to the LA-2 it
seemed to have a fuller bump in the low
mids. The LA-2 also needed to be pushed
harder than the others for the best results,
and it was less sensitive to transients.
On a soulful female voice the LA-2 was
a standout with 2–5 dB of reduction. It
was nicely compressed but still lively. The
Grey could be pushed a tad more into
5–7 dB and had a nice smooth weight as
well. Moving to a bold female gospel
voice, both of the LA-2A models did well,
as they can be pushed up to a whopping
18 dB of reduction on held notes and still
not sound clamped or unnatural.

On bass guitar, another LA-2A staple, I
found the LA-2 worked best, more as a
tone box than a limiter. When just tickling
the meters it offered a thick, nasty,
aggressive pick tone. The Gray added a
woof to the low mids and again sounded
better when hit harder. The Silver was the
least sonically imposing on the tone and
captured the initial transients of the notes
in a faster and bolder way. To my ears
the Silver is the most versatile and best
sounding overall for bass tracks.
For clean electric guitar, the LA-2 again is
a flavor box when just tickled with 1–2 dB
of gain reduction. It also sounded great digging deeper with the Emphasis backed off,
great for classic blues and jazz tones.
For thick classic rock guitars the Silver
gave the best balance of clarity and control. The Gray was just a tad too middy and
honky for my taste on dense rhythm work,
but was the nicest of the bunch for evening
out and thickening single-note lead work.
I don’t often compress acoustic guitars
heavily, if at all. But with the Emphasis
cranked down and the peak reduction
barely registering, each of the three units
can give a nice presence bump in its particular favored tonal range that gives a
thin acoustic an added presence.
The LA-2A plug-ins also make a nice
piano compressor. I was forced to use a
sampled piano on a session recently,
since the acoustic piano I normally
track was out of tune. I often find
sampled pianos hard to place convincingly in a mix, and doggonnit if
the LA-2 at about 5 dB of reduction
didn’t do the trick nicely, to add control and gel the tone together.
A last big plus of plug-ins over
hardware is that you can use as many
as you want in a session, on both
mono and stereo tracks, and—face it,
most studios are lucky to have one LA-2A,
let alone a pair. These plug-ins are adept
at room squashing, stereo synths, and as
mentioned they make great tone shapers
and instant analog-izers.
Speaking of hardware, you may have
noticed that I have not mentioned how the
plug-ins compare to the real thing. Well,
as you all know, I like to put plug-ins head
to head with the real thing whenever possible, so read on!
Meet the real deal!
For this review the folks at Universal
Audio were nice enough to send me a
hardware LA-2A for some side-by-side
comparison, and I thought this would be a
good time to take a fresh look at this reissued hardware classic, now 14 years on.
Functionally and in layout the hardware
LA-2A is similar to the plug-in versions
described above. It is a 3-space light-gray
tube compressor with the dual-knob layout, backlit VU meter (with a zero-point
adjustment setscrew) and the comp/limit

Recording - June 2013

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