Vidéo: UA LA 2A vs NI Softube VC 2A Shootout

Paul Bissell on Jun 11, 2013 in Review 2 comments

Both the Universal Audio LA 2A and NI's Softube VC 2A are modelled on the original LA2A hardware compressor. Paul Bissell puts both to the test in this video review shootout.  
The VC 2A and LA 2A stack up very well against each other.

Le VC 2A et LA 2A s'empilent très bien les uns contre les autres.


En tant que propriétaire et utilisateur quotidien de Universal Audios LA610 préampli micro (610 préampli micro, LA2A compresseur combo) J'ai le son LA2A bien ancré dans ma tête. J'ai aussi l'UAD LA2A plug-in comme un premier appel à aller dans de nombreuses chaînes vocales. Avec Native Instruments et Softube libérant une version native (sans accélération matérielle), j'avais hâte de voir comment il se compare à la fois le matériel et Universal Audios propre émulation numérique.

Alors que UA ont gardé leur émulation LA2A totalement fidèle à l'unité d'origine, Softube ajouté quelques fonctionnalités supplémentaires. Le VC 2A (VC = Vintage Compressor), inclut un contrôle de mix / mélange permettant une compression parallèle, un circuit sidechain pour esquiver ou effets, et un filtre passe-haut dans le circuit de détection. Cela empêche le compresseur de réagir négativement aux basses fréquences.


Empiler - LA2A et VC2A

Alors, comment l'émulation Softube s'empiler? Vraiment, vraiment bien. Ils ont tous deux vous permet d'obtenir ce son. Vous pouvez regarder et écouter la fusillade audio entre les deux ci-dessous et faites votre propre jugement. Mais il ya un certain nombre de choses que vous devez garder à l'esprit. Il n'ya pas deux LA2As matériels originaux vont jamais être exactement la même. Ainsi, si les unités matérielles sont différentes, la émulé ou modélisées plug-ins vont être différents aussi, et c'est exactement le cas ici.


Paul Bissell

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Paul has being teaching music technology since 1992. He's exhausted and getting older by the minute... His compositions have been published for a mixture of ensembles and solo instruments, and as a performer, Dr. Bissell has played with a variety of orchestras and ensembles. You can hear him on the Spy Kids 2 soundtrack and Eric Jo... Read More

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Discussion

shiftjam
Hi paul,

What about the waves plugin? I think is waves cal 2a?

I know the topic is little sensitive and depending on such factors as taste, sound... And asking which one is the best might sound a little bit strange, but which one you would pick?

How does the waves compare with the others?

Best regards,
Leonard
Jun 12, 2013
Paul Bissell
Hi Leonard,
The simple answer is that I don't have the Waves version :)
I just did a quite Google search for "UAD Waves LA2A" and I see many. many posts about this already. Softube and NI are pretty much new comers, and so to be honest, I thought it would 'sound like a compressor' and that would be that. I was surprised how it captured the vibe - which is what you want in the end - well, what I want at least. The polarity invert / sum to cancel thing was just to give some kind of objective measure to my subjective opinion.
There are quite a few LA2A emulations - or at least plug-ins that compress and put a "two knobbed, simple silver interface" on the front. Therefore, the comparisons and shootouts could go on and on.

I don't mean to push back on your question, but honestly, the term "best" is one that is completely contextual, and since the context is so different in every song it is pretty much impossible to quantify.
The LA2A does 'that thing' which could be characterized as a smooth, silky, and warm - BUT it also exacerbates sibilance in vocals and leads to a front end bump that can be so "wrong" in many situations. A fast attack 1176 wouldn't have those same issues - but would have its own.

My article was written to say that these plug-ins by Softube/NI that come as a part of the larger Komplete 9 Ultimate package (which is mostly about sample instruments - not plug-ins!) are of similar quality to those of UAD - who in this case also make the hardware units of this model. Waves is native as well so that would be another kind of shootout I guess, and then there are the CLA versions which have their own thing...Bombfactory.....etc

Paul Bissell
Jun 12, 2013

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