Buy ACME Audio Opticom XLA-3, get a free gift with purchase:
Optical Compressor - Tons of Harmonic Coloration!
The ACME Opticom XLA-3 is a powerful and flexible optical compressor. The plugin has been developed in close cooperation with Brainworx.
Glorious tube sounds and opto-electric vibe, featuring steel covered military-grade components. Slap it across the drum buss for solid and seamless LA-2A style leveling. Force vocals through the input to add grit and attitude to a wimpy take.
A unique "Amp Mode" allows you to add harmonic color to your signal without even touching the dynamics.
The original XLA-3 hardware features three compression responses. Each treat sounds in a totally different way.
Brainworx faithfully emulated the XLA-3 and captured these features in plugin form, and several new features were added to the plugin version, including a parallel mix knob, an output trim control, and an adjustable noise floor. All of the complex and sonically beautiful behavior of the hardware has been faithfully captured in the plugin version.
Drive the input. Set the behavior. Level to taste. Done.
Features
- Unique opto-electric circuit that combines the best characteristics of 3 separate compression curves in one unit - from clean to dirty!
- Smooth and seamless ‘LA-2A’ sound plus optional even-harmonic distortion
- In Amp Mode this becomes a “tone box” - adding color and distortion without reducing dynamics
- Saturate with Output Gain, and attenuate to taste with the added Output Trim
- Several plugin-only features not available on the original hardware
System Requirements
- AAX, AU, VST3
- macOS 15 down to macOS 12
- Windows 11 down to Windows 10
Ethan Mates
"This plug has vibe for days! The attitude and grit I was able to pull out of some drably recorded vocals was amazing. Don’t sleep on Amp Mode either!"
Toby Pitman
"The Opticom XLA-3 is a clean and super useful compressor with all the squash and punch that you’d expect from an Opto like this. The Wet/Dry mix makes it really easy to get great parallel effects and I love the fact that you can just use the amp section on it’s own. I’m finding I rarely get past the letter ‘A’ in the plugin list!"
Michael Zimmerling
"This has been a big surprise; usually vintage comps have one or two great settings, but the XLA-3 surprises with a variety of flavors that are very, very good, and should be on everyone's shopping list."
