Favorite Acoustic Guitar compressor

I have come to use my ONE LA on almost every acoustic guitar track I do. It's an awesome La2a clone but with attack times closer to La3a. I might go thru my 1176 at times if I want that 1176 sound on it, but mostly the LA which just makes it smooth and full and very easy to eq afterwards. I used to track my acoustics mainly with ribbon, but lately used tube or fet for that.

The best setup I’ve ever gotten: u67 body, km84, pultecs and very gentle on sta level, vintage everything

My budget version of this is C12 clone on body, shure pencil on neck, Neve EQ clone to VCA comp (or none) into Studer a80. It works awesome to digital, but the studer is whoa

I always fall back on the old faithfuls. But I get the wanting to change things up. For me, pretty similar to you - 3A, 1176 are the standards. I also like the Weight Tank Comp for a bit of more color.

I find the LA3A to be too grabby for strummed acoustic. 1176 too fast. I like to highlight the transient so I can turn the track down.

APA Leviathan allows for slower attack speeds while keeping a LA3A-ish character if you want it to swim a little.

Empress ECM-519 can do the fet thing with slower attack. Also parallel if you want to dig in and blend.

I recently picked up a Daking CompII, and I think its slow attack would be great for this, going to try it next time.

The 1176 seems to be the go-to for acoustic attack. I've tried a dozen others, but that's what gets the closest to what I need. I use the UAD plug-in, but at a much lower setting than most, usually 4 to 1. If you don't have a UAD device, despite my hate for most of the CLA plug-ins, the Waves CLA 1176 worked really well, better than a dozen others. The UAD is the smoothest.

I hate to say it, but this is one of the reasons the Neumann KM84 is such a holy grail mic. It handles a large percentage of the transients before you need any compression at all. When I had a pair to track with, it made the balancing in the track so much easier.

Daking FET II / 91579 works really well…but I don’t usually compress acoustic guitars in a strictly acoustic/bluegrass scenario. Sometimes the slow release thing is cool on the Highland BG-1 but that’s a pretty specific sound where it’s really more of the “box tone” than the compression (to my ears anyway)

But for strumming guitars in a pop song the Daking is great

yep, just listened to the radiohead song „fake plastic trees“: that to me is the overcompressed pop acoustic strummer example par excellence. oasis did this as well on those open chords a lot.
just tried it at home with the only distressor plugin i have - IK multimedias one, got it for free - and it does it immediately. although my 1176 can also do it.

heavy plectrum and a j45 like guitar also very important for this kinda sound. especially the plectrum is one major point. it just impresses a sound to the transients, more than a compressor.

Yes, especially for fingerpicking. One of them is quite fast and smacky and the other is more open. Both can be cool depending on the context. For strumming more often I’m using a slow attack/fast-ish release, often in parallel.

Usually UAD 33609 with HP side chain

Buzz soc.2.o fabulous
the Rupert neve 5254

Hmm, I’m interested in this now. This seems like a badass, versatile comp.

Picked up a Buzz Audio Velox last year and have been loving it for acoustic duties. Basically an SOC with a mix knob, optional transformers and a bit more versatility. With the mix knob, I tend to compress a bit more than I normally would and mix it 50/50. A really great tracking compressor!