SOUND ON SOUND

[Glenn Bucci]

I never purchased the UAD LA-2a collection since I had the old UAD and Waves version of this compressor. The Waves version is clearly better than the UAD original version which softened the track too much. Since UA is having their big sale I figured I would do some carefully A/B comparisons.

As the UA web site says,the silver version has a faster attack time, and is a little cleaner than the grey. I was told this is the closest version to the current UA hardware version. The grey has a little more character and is very nice. The original has the slowest attack speed and though it might be helpful in certain situations, I found I preferred the other two in usual situations, When comparing the grey and silver to the Waves, the UAD versions sounded like part of the original signal and you could hear the modeling of the entire signal path. Depending on your source, one will sound good,and the other even better. The Waves LA-2a sounded good, but it sounded on top of the signal and not part of the signal like the UAD version. You also don't hear the electronic character of the signal path like the UAD version. The UAD versions have a clearer open sound as well. Needless to say, I was very impressed with the newer UAD LA-2A collection and it now is part of my studio.
Highly recommended, :bouncy:

[un_quantized]

Thanks. I am more than tempted now.
Also with an eye on the Fairchild collection. I love the original one esp. on vocals