“The most legendary opto in recording history—one that shaped the entire development of music for over half a century—comes out on Black Friday.

All Access Pass holders get it FOR FREE.🔥

Meet FG-2A, the most authentic model of the classic LA-2A ever built. The LA-2A has been used on thousands of recordings from legendary artists & engineers in every musical style. We spent over a year searching for the perfect unit—one that completely captured all the warmth, tone, and musicality of the LA-2A. We modeled every aspect from its warm, lush saturation to every last nuance of its components and iconic T4 cell.

The result? The truest, most accurate model of the LA-2A you've ever heard.👂

"I've used a lot of LA2As and I've never been totally happy with a software emulation before FG-2A. This one has the tone, the features and action right. It's pretty quickly becoming a favorite."

That's from Grammy-nominated mixing engineer Matthew Weiss, whose clients include Akon, Swae Lee, Chris Brown, Nicki Minaj, Yo Gotti, and countless other top recording artists. The FG-2A makes everything sound richer and more musical, just like the original hardware. ✨

But we're not done. Because FG-2A is 1 of 2 new opto compressor plugins coming your way. (More details about that after Black Friday.)

The next few weeks are going to be an incredible time. We have even more new plugins coming out on Black Friday, so stay tuned!”

Can we demo it?

Link?

Just saw the picture on Slate Instagram.

Great. And a nice addition for subscribers. Not me, but I hope for a decent price to buy it eventually.

And 1 other opto compressor? Am I getting Tube Tech vibes?

My guess is LA3A, since users have been loudly asking for it for years.

I don’t think this is going to be enough for me to renew my subscription. With a couple of exceptions I’m not using Slate stuff anymore, and they’ve spent the last year adding stuff I don’t care about...

Yeah, makes more sense to model both at the same time.

LA-2A VMR module!

https://www.instagram.com/p/CHqMSRgL...=14d4s3ghvvch9

Finally....I remember asking for this about 5 years ago when I went in on the VMR. I haven't quite hit retirement age and sold my studio yet so I may give it a spin.

Excellent! I wonder if the other opto mentioned is an LA-3A...

That's my guess (and hope). I'm glad they're releasing an LA-2A, although I'm more excited to see what else that have in store since LA-2A emulations are almost as prevalent as 1176-style plug-ins these days.

I'm really hoping for more VerbSuite packs, too. Yamaha SPX90, REV7, PCM70, Reverb B mode for the FG-2000, Alesis Midiverb, full-bandwidth 224XL, Dense Room for FG-3000, Random Hall for the 480, etc.

I sure hope so. I use my UAD LA-3A a lot more than the LA-2A. Having a 3A in VMR would be awesome.

Instagram page seems to confirm:
https://www.instagram.com/p/CHqMSRgL...=14d4s3ghvvch9 “FG-2A is 1️⃣ of 2️⃣ new opto compressor plugins coming your way! And we've got even more new plugin announcements happening in the next few days.”

Wow! Looks great! I know that this has been one of the most sought after ones from Steven so far!

Let me guess, it’s gonna be the most accurate and best sounding plugin mankind had ever seen or heard in years.

Lol it was the first freakin line in the post. 😂😂 I saw it now. Priceless.

Well this has to be knocked out of every ballpark in the world if slate gonna have a chance. Some epic competition out there now.

Absolutely.

Good thing we now have the ability to shoot it out against real hardware "in the cloud". Comparing my compressor plugins to the real hardware has been an ear opening experience.

Everyone should conduct their own tests and come to their own conclusions though. Well worth the money spent to do the tests...which I would have paid for to ship just a couple hardware pieces back and forth.

Doed an LA2A sound anything like a CL1B?

2 questions:-
What’s an LA-2a popularly used for?
Is it any use for electronic music like dub?

No, absolutely not.

They share quite different topology and workflow. Soundwise they are very different because CL1B is offering different tuning values.

Each piece has it's own application. But not in one to rule them all. There is no rule to this.

I love the VMR concept !

The ability to see the entire chain easily and on one screen wins it for me.

In terms of workflow the VMR is as good as it gets IMO
I also appreciate the tweaks that make it even more powerful like holding the shift button while changing the input level for example affecting the make up gain, the ability to save entire chains and easily switch positions between processors etc.

Unfortunately Slate Digital were VERY slow on developing new VMR modules for the last few years and if they're back at it now it's some good news for all of us users.

La-2a is a very god addition, even more so IMO would be an La-3a..


BTW the other Opto comp might be a VacRac which as far as I know haven't been modelled by a major analog modelling brand..

No idea regarding electronic music, but what LA-2As are most popular for are vocals and bass guitars.

omg, its crazy how people don't even know the LA2A nowadays or ask if it sounds like a CL1B, when the LA2A is one of the most known vintage compressors ever (CL1B came out later).

This is no hate at all, I'm just being nostalgic about how far we have come in the digital audio world .

This is great to hear, because it's always come across to me that barring the UAD LA-2A Gray, none of the plugin options on the market seem to be universally well-received as capturing the magic of the LA-2A both in terms of timing and release behaviour, and the saturation and tone. Essentially, no native LA-2A plugin seems to make everyone happy. Hoping the Slate FG-2A is that one!

Good call - I nearly suggested the same having previously owned an Inward TSL-4. I hesitated thinking that VacRac was a Vari-Mu, but it's in fact a vactrol-based optical circuit so you could well be correct! Fingers crossed... that is a wonderful compression circuit in its hardware form.

Look forward to trying it. Hope Slate Digital does a BF sale this year. 'Member Slate sales you guys? I 'member...

Slate Vouchers for subscribers PA style would be nice to

Is it a game changer though?

Another guess:
The bass will be more firm, the middle more pronounced, the treble silky smooth and of course,
everything sounds more 3d.

I never forgot.

After 'subgate' those days are long gone, alas.