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
Deniz Koyu
"I really like the three curve settings on this compressor. No matter what material you’re dealing with, one of the three curves always gives you the response you’re looking for. Especially on drum busses it achieves such a great punch with perfect transients when I set the response curve to slow. I also love the harmonic distortion when you start pushing the input, and having the option to use only that feature without the gain reduction section is awesome!"
X:144
"Flavor. That’s what we ask for in this digital realm. The Acme Opticom has it. The moment you insert it on a track it makes itself known without applying gain reduction. The fact that you can bypass the compression “circuit” and drive the amp to give you that added size and…..well….flavor, that alone had me sold. I don’t usually run to optical compressors for bass, but I do now…and it’s the ACME."
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!"
