Optical compressor · €35 + VAT
The A-2A: the optical compressor that settles a vocal
An optical tube-style compressor: the one you put on a vocal or a bus and it settles without ever sounding switched on. €35 + VAT, one payment and a permanent licence.
Special price until 12 October, 23:59 CEST: €28 + VAT with code ASTRA20, already applied by the button. From 13 October: €35 + VAT. Lowest price in the last 30 days: €0, as it was free during its launch week (until 14 September). VAT for your country is added at checkout.
What it does
It models the physics of the classic optical cell, which is not a fixed attack and release: the release runs in two stages with program memory, so the longer it has been compressing, the slower it lets go. That is why it breathes instead of pumping.
It also has GLOW, valve saturation with the second harmonic ahead of the third, and EMPHASIS, which makes the detector listen harder to highs so it tames sibilance and brightness without darkening the sound.
What you get when you buy it
One payment, and it is yours. Not a subscription, not a licence that expires: you pay once and the plugin stays with you, with the updates that come after.
Anyone who claimed it during its launch week keeps it just the same and still gets the updates.
Why try it
Because we publish what we measure. These figures come from our own bench, on the exact build you download, and the bench ships with the press kit so anyone can repeat them.
You can track through it. One of the equivalents we measured declares 576.
With a 7.5 dB soft knee. The other three squeeze between 4.3:1 and 6.9:1.
No hidden makeup. One rival starts at +8.39 dB.
Of one core at 96 kHz, on an M1 Mac mini. Put it on every track.
And where we do not win
In harmonic distortion and intermodulation we measure the highest of the four. That is a direct consequence of GLOW, which is a saturator: with GLOW at 0 the distortion drops to 0.003 %. We say so because the whole table is in the press kit, not the flattering half.
Hear it first
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Formats and requirements
macOS: VST3 and Audio Unit, universal binary (Intel and Apple Silicon), macOS 10.13 or later. Windows: VST3, 64-bit, Windows 10 or later. Mono and stereo, any sample rate, 64-bit internal processing.
One thing up front: the installers are not signed with a paid certificate, so macOS will say it cannot verify the developer and Windows SmartScreen may warn. On macOS you approve it in System Settings > Privacy & Security.