Dark3A

Dark3A

A faithful emulation of the LA-3A solid-state optical leveling amplifier — the faster, brighter cousin of the LA-2A. It keeps the natural opto leveling feel with a real photocell gain element, but the solid-state stage makes it react quicker and more aggressively to transients, making it great on guitars, drums, vocals, and bass where you want opto smoothness with more snap. Dark3A reproduces the program-dependent opto attack and H2 character, with added sidechain EQ, output EQ, parallel mix, and transformer color.

Main panel — compression

PEAK REDUCTION (0…100) — The main compression amount. Higher = more leveling/gain reduction. (The LA-3A’s single compression control.)

GAIN — Makeup gain at the output.

COMP / LIMIT switch — COMP = ~4:1 soft-knee leveling; LIMIT = near-infinite (~50:1) limiting (the LA-3A’s two-position mode switch).

FB / FF — Detector topology. FB (feedback) is default — authentic vintage opto character, smoother. FF (feedforward) is tighter, more transparent transient catch.

ON/OFF — Compression in/bypass.

There is intentionally no attack / release / ratio control — the LA-3A’s timing and ratio are inherent to the opto cell. Its attack is program-dependent: small signals lever slowly (LA-2A-like), but large transients grab much faster (~1.5 ms) thanks to the solid-state stage — the defining LA-3A trait.

Metering

VU — Gain reduction metering.

ADV panel

MIX (0…100%) — Parallel compression, blends dry with compressed.

INPUT (−18…+18 dB) — Pre-compressor input-gain trim (auto-compensated after, so level stays neutral).

KNEE (−10…+10):

• negative = harder knee — compression kicks in more abruptly at threshold, snappier/more aggressive.
• 0 = stock — the opto cell’s natural soft knee.
• positive = softer knee — compression eases in more gradually, smoother and more musical.

CHARACTER (0…100) — Drives the amount of photocell harmonic coloration (H2-dominant warmth). 0 = cleanest; higher = more harmonic character, which also grows naturally with gain reduction.

OUTPUT (−12…+12 dB) — Final post-everything output trim.

EQ display + EQ MODE (SC / OUT) — One 6-band parametric EQ display that toggles between two destinations:

• SC — Sidechain EQ: shapes what the detector hears, so the compressor reacts more or less to certain frequencies.
• OUT — Output EQ: post-compression tone shaping on the audio itself.

Drag bands on the display; per band On, Type (Bell/LShelf/HShelf/LCut/HCut), Freq/Gain/Q.

Transformer (combobox) — Output transformer emulation, 17 options (None, Carnhill, Sowter, Cinemag, Marinair, Haufe V72, Triad HS-30, Reichenbach, EA Edcor, Neve 1272, API 2520, UTC A-20, Peerless S-415, St Ives, Lundahl LL1538, Jensen JT-11, Tamura TKS-27). Default None keeps the transformerless sound.

Oversampling

x2 / x4 / x8 (combobox) — Anti-aliasing. Default x4.