Opal Comp
by Acustica Audio · Compressor · Optical/solid-state compressor
Not rated yet
Opal Comp is a dual-mono compressor from Acustica Audio, sampled from John Oram's Sonicomp hybrid optical and solid-state design.
It adds a feed-forward mode, soft knee and a calibrated VU meter, for €109 (about $124).
Best for: Vocals, Drums, Bass, Mix Bus. Genres: all genres.
Keywords: opto, solid-state, feed-forward, metering, dual-mono, bass, sampled hardware, vocals, bus processing, mixing, drums, full mix, glue, mix bus, single-band, smooth.
What it does
Opal Comp is Acustica Audio's sampled recreation of the Oram Sonics Sonicomp 2, an English optical and solid-state compressor/limiter designed by John Oram. Acustica captured the hardware with its Hyper 3 sampling technology and calls the result "the new frontier of compression".
- Hybrid gain reduction: optical and solid-state compression stages combined, as in the hardware.
- Feed-forward mode: switches the detector to a feed-forward topology for a different response.
- Soft knee: compression eases in gradually around the threshold rather than clamping at once.
- Peak control: a dedicated peak stage for catching transients that slip past the main compressor.
- Calibrated VU meter: reads gain reduction and output level.
- Output gain and dual-mono layout: make-up gain on the output; the plugin is built as a dual-mono processor.
KVR lists versions 3.0.1 and 3.0.0. The pages read did not say whether a trial is available.
Source: Acustica Audio product page
When to use it
Opal Comp sits between the classic optical levellers among the rated compressors, Teletronix LA-2A Leveler Collection and CLA-2A, and the bus compressors The Glue and SSL G-Master Buss Compressor: an optical-plus-solid-state hybrid, pairing opto-style levelling with a solid-state stage and a separate peak control. The feed-forward option gives a second character from the same plugin. It is a less familiar hardware model than an LA-2A or 1176, so its draw is the Oram sound and sampled analog colour rather than a famous name. Compared with Pro-C 3, it offers far fewer controls and more colour.
- Best for: smooth levelling on vocals, bass and mix buses with some sampled hardware colour.
- Genres: any; it is a general-purpose mixing compressor.
- Look elsewhere if: you want a clean, fully adjustable digital compressor with low CPU use (Pro-C 3), or the classic opto sound in its best-known form (LA-2A Leveler Collection).
Where to buy
- Acustica Audio: $123.77 (€109 converted to USD (ECB rate, 29 Sep 2026); price as listed on KVR)
Tutorials and reviews
- Acustica Audio "Opalcomp"
- Smooth compression with OPAL COMP!
- OPAL COMP
- OPAL COMP от ACUSTICA AUDIO. ВСТШНОЕ ЖЕЛЕЗО!
- Acustica Audio Opal Comp-Revisión en Español-
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