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Post by ninworks on May 20, 2023 11:45:22 GMT -6
I recently acquired the Blackface Urie LA-4 that was in the studio my studio partner and I had back in the 80's and 90's. When we parted company he got the LA-4 as part of the deal. Ever since then it had been in storage. I recently bought it from him and put it back into service. It still works just as well as it ever did but I am considering selling it and getting a different compressor. Preferably an optical one. The LA-4 sounds quite good if you don't apply much gain reduction. When you get above about 5dB it tends to get a bit muffled sounding.
Is there a market for these old comps? I looked on Reverb and there is a silver-faced one that has been listed on there for a year.
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Post by notneeson on May 20, 2023 12:15:33 GMT -6
I recently acquired the Blackface Urie LA-4 that was in the studio my studio partner and I had back in the 80's and 90's. When we parted company he got the LA-4 as part of the deal. Ever since then it had been in storage. I recently bought it from him and put it back into service. It still works just as well as it ever did but I am considering selling it and getting a different compressor. Preferably an optical one. The LA-4 sounds quite good if you don't apply much gain reduction. When you get above about 5dB it tends to get a bit muffled sounding. Is there a market for these old comps? I looked on Reverb and there is a silver-faced one that has been listed on there for a year. Hard to say. At one time the prices seemed to have gotten pretty high but generally it seems harder to sell gear now. I have a nice modded one here that I need to return to its owner (my friend and former studio partner). I can see wanting something modern, like an IC Brute etc., more than an LA-4 if the resale on the Urei were high enough. |
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Post by unit7 on May 20, 2023 12:56:00 GMT -6
My 2 channels sold within 24 hrs on a market here in Sweden
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Post by stam on May 20, 2023 13:49:45 GMT -6
You can mod and it sounds amazing!
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Post by timcampbell on May 20, 2023 16:41:44 GMT -6
I recently acquired the Blackface Urie LA-4 that was in the studio my studio partner and I had back in the 80's and 90's. When we parted company he got the LA-4 as part of the deal. Ever since then it had been in storage. I recently bought it from him and put it back into service. It still works just as well as it ever did but I am considering selling it and getting a different compressor. Preferably an optical one. The LA-4 sounds quite good if you don't apply much gain reduction. When you get above about 5dB it tends to get a bit muffled sounding. Is there a market for these old comps? I looked on Reverb and there is a silver-faced one that has been listed on there for a year. The LA-4 is an opto compressor. As Josh says you can upgrade this and it can sound amazing. I know that Eddie Cilletti does upgrades on these. In the old days that was one of my favorite acoustic guitar compressors.
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Post by ninworks on May 20, 2023 17:12:45 GMT -6
You can mod and it sounds amazing! I know about the mods but it would cost me as much as I could sell it for to have them done. Adding that to what I have into it already doesn't make economic sense unless I was really in love with it. I like it but don't love it. I got a pretty good deal on it. I still prefer the sound of it over an 1176 for acoustic guitar. At 2:1 it sounds quite good. The magic in these resides in the lower ratios.....at least for me. Mine is bone-stock other than someone had drilled some holes in the rear panel to put some jacks in and then realized there wasn't room on the inside for them where the holes are drilled. It was that way when we got it. I should replace the electrolytic caps in it at the very least anyway. I can do that. I have too many other things I would rather spend the mod money on right now. I'm waiting for Capi to have their BT50 EQ kits available again first. Then there's a Stam SA4000-5 I want. Then there's a.........and a .........and a ......... For now the LA-4 is okay for what it is. It has its place in the grand scheme. |
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Post by sean on May 20, 2023 17:23:41 GMT -6
The blackface ones usually command a little more money but $500-$600 is what you can expect for one.
I had Jim Williams at Audio Upgrades modify mine and it wasn't super expensive, and while they sounded better and didn't have the high frequency roll off at higher compression I still ended up selling them...but I have SO many compressors. It's one of those units where sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. The Fuse Audio plug-in is great, the DIYRE compressor is based on the LA-4 but has some more flexibility...and for around what you could sell it for you could get a used Buzz Audio Essence or even a JLM LA500A which I think are better sounding, more flexible units...even after the mods (I've used a pair with the Eddie Cilletti upgrades as well very often and my opinion is the same)
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Post by Ward on May 22, 2023 10:04:29 GMT -6
It is fantastic on bass, and acoustic guitar as timcampbell pointed out. A great option to using an LA2a on bass. |
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Post by Deleted on May 23, 2023 0:48:57 GMT -6
Get it modded or get something with an external sidechain input so that you can take the highs out of the detector.
If the lows are triggering the compressor to shove down the highs with them too much and a high shelf afterwards isn't working or is raising up too much crap, you need something with a high frequency expander linked to the gain reduction. Drawmer DL251, Aphex Expressor, U-he Presswerk even though it's a plugin.
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ericn
Temp
Balance Engineer
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Post by ericn on May 23, 2023 11:40:04 GMT -6
The LA 4 is sort of the often forgotten step sister, stock a useful utility comp, modded often the secret weapon everyone forgot about.
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Post by ninworks on Jul 21, 2023 16:18:37 GMT -6
I sent my LA-4 off to Jim Williams today to get it rebuilt and upgraded. Before I sent it I ran a 12 string acoustic guitar track through it, recorded it, and documented all the settings so I would have a reference to compare it to when I get it back. Jim said it would take 1 to 2 weeks for the work. I'm anxious to see how it sounds when it gets here.
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