BA-6A

BA-6A is a compressor plugin inspired by the simple and effective design of a classic 1950s TV and broadcasting limiting amplifier. Suitable for taming the most aggressive and peaking instruments without losing any of their punch, BA-6A is your tool of choice if you need to beef up your drums, vocals, or guitars. 

Boasting three-stage amplification with a moderate drive, hard knee, fast attack, and medium release, The BA-6A implements a Vari-Mu style valve compression or as it’s often called – true tube compression. In contrast to the later Opto valve compressors, the Vari-Mu designs can offer faster attack, variable release times, and more musical and forgiving compression. 

Due to the nature of its circuitry, BA-6A is known for its high gain and fat yet gritty sound. This unit gained its reputation for being abused by Jimmy Page and is responsible for much of his huge-sounding guitar recordings. 

History

The original hardware unit had a three-stage amplifier, nine valves, a rectifier, and a voltage regulator all resulting in a beautiful array of harmonic distortion that we carefully emulated in our BA-6A effect. 
  
Despite the unit being originally designed for TV and broadcasting purposes, its unique character and thickening effect, combined with the straightforward controls and all-analog circuitry, helped the original that inspired us to create BA-6A become a quick shortcut for “beefing” up snares, kicks, basses, and vocals with even minimal compression. 

Features

• Balanced, three-stage limiting amplifier 
• Prevents overmodulation and overloading. 
• Brings vocals to the front 
• Gives vintage thickness to any instrument 
• Adds character, grit, and recognizable analog mojo to your guitar tone 

Included versions

• Native Plugin: Runs on your Mac or PC without any additional hardware needed.
• Synergy Core Real-Time: Runs in real time with no perceptible latency on compatible Synergy Core devices.