Have questions about the craft of mixing? (NOT recording. In terms of emulating the originals, we'd have no hesitation in calling the Classic Leveler Collection definitive.This subreddit is about the stage of music production that involves mixing all the individual tracks of a song together. Which of the trio is 'best' is down to personal taste and usage, but there's no arguing that they all represent a big step up from the original LA-2A plugin, and it's comforting to know that circuit modeling is now at such a level that the subtle nuances of different versions of the same model are audible. The LA-2 is tonally quite similar to the Gray, but with its slower response, doesn't work so well on a fast vocal, being much more effective on more spacious legato material. The warmth of the Gray is sublime, but there's much more reduction of the high frequencies, and with its slow recovery it's not so in-your-face. The Silver is more immediate on vocals, being punchy and transparent, but not as warm as the Gray model. Once they're all on a level playing field and running the same peak reduction, though, it's easy to hear the differences between them. Unlike its original, Legacy LA-2A plugin, the default settings are all at least 4dB higher than unity the LA-2 is a good 1.5dB quieter than the Silver, with Gray somewhere in between the two.

'The Silver is more immediate on vocals, being punchy and transparent, but not as warm as the Gray mode'Īccurately comparing the three models takes a bit of setting up, since UA has cheated slightly with its gain structures to make them sound unrealistically 'better' by default. Then there's a Gain knob to make up the gain at the output, and an Emphasis setting that can be used to roll off low frequencies in the sidechain. The optical process is slightly frequency-dependent, however, so the ratio can vary a bit with the frequency content of the input signal.

The LA-2 has a fixed compression ratio of infinity:1, while the two LA-2A's offer a choice of 3:1 or inf:1 (limiting) via the Comp/Limit switch. The Peak Reduction knob lowers the threshold as you turn it clockwise, setting the amount of compression applied. All three models have essentially the same controls, and using them really couldn't be more straightforward.

Fairchild legacy vs uad