Teletronix LA-3A Audio Leveler Black Friday Deal 2026: $29, 70% off

Teletronix LA-3A Black Friday deal: this Universal Audio compressor plugin is $29, 70% off, with the offer ending Nov 30, 2026.

The Teletronix LA-3A Audio Leveler plugin is modeled from a unit in UA's vintage collection. Universal Audio calls the hardware a "secret weapon" limiter, known for pushing sounds to the front of the speakers with an aggressive character.

What is the Teletronix LA-3A plugin?

It is an optical compressor and limiter. The original hardware debuted at the 1969 NY AES show and moved away from the tube design of the Teletronix LA-2A.

The LA-3A took parts and design ideas from UA's solid-state 1176LN Limiting Amplifier. It kept the LA-2A's optical compression design, which gave it a sound of its own.

Universal Audio describes the result as faster limiting than the tube-driven LA-2A, with the clarity of the solid-state 1176. The maker calls the tone bold and mid-forward.

What does the plugin add to the hardware?

Two features come with this version:

• The hardware's original HF Emphasis sidechain filter
• A new Dry/Wet Mix control for parallel compression

HF Emphasis lets you punch up a drum bus without the kick triggering the compressor's threshold. Dry/Wet Mix gives you quick parallel compression on a synth or piano track, or on an instrument bus.

What is it used on?

Universal Audio points to these jobs:

• Adding energy and harmonics to vocals and acoustic guitars
• Injecting grit and texture into bass guitar and soft synths
• Punching up drums with HF Emphasis and parallel Dry/Wet Mix

The maker also lists guitars among the sources it suits.

Which versions are included?

Two versions come with your purchase. UAD Native runs on a Mac or PC without any UA hardware, and it works with any audio interface.

The Apollo Realtime and UAD-2 version runs accelerated on Apollo interfaces and UAD-2 hardware. If you track through Apollo, that is the one to load.