Paper year
2026
Paper dossier
Objective Analysis and Perceptual Evaluation of LA-2A Compressors and Vocal Recordings
Detail viewSimilarity handoff
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Citations
0
Authors
1
Topic labels
3
Source readout
Source and corpus status
Venue
Journal of the Audio Engineering Society
Source slug
jaes
Corpus placement
Core corpus
Similarity rows
Not available yet
Ranking readout
Where this paper lands in the current run
Run shadow-generalization-product-candidate-ranking-v1Top 50 surfaced
This block uses the same resolved ranking run as Recommended. Ranks here are materialized paper_scores ranks; live Emerging may be reordered by the bounded ML scorer. Family rank is global within each family, but rank is only shown when this paper lands inside the surfaced top 50.
Families present
3
Top 50
2
Run label
shadow-generalization-product-candidate-ranking-v1
Snapshot
source-snapshot-shadow-generalization-v1-20260521
Scope: family global | run rank-83787b91ef
Emerging
Present in run, outside top 50
Emerging: embedding slice fit vs included-corpus centroid (title+abstract), plus citation velocity and topic growth; not universal relevance. Bridge signal not used here.
Signals: semantic=0.8006, citation_velocity=0.0000, topic_growth=0.7636, diversity_penalty=0.0000
Why this surfaced | 3 used | 1 penalty | 1 not computed
Embedding slice fit (corpus centroid)used
Embedding slice fit (corpus centroid): high; used in final ranking (contribution to score: 0.1601)
Recent attentionused
Recent attention: low; used in final ranking (contribution to score: 0.0000)
Topic momentumused
Topic momentum: high; used in final ranking (contribution to score: 0.2291)
Cross-cluster signalnot computed
Cross-cluster signal: not computed for this run
Similarity penaltypenalty
Similarity penalty: reduces score when non-zero (contribution to score: 0.0000)
Bridge
In top 50 at rank 50
Multi-topic paper in active topics; no cluster_version on this run so bridge_score was not computed.
Signals: citation_velocity=0.0000, topic_growth=0.7636, diversity_penalty=0.0000
Why this surfaced | 2 used | 1 penalty | 2 not computed
Semantic matchnot computed
Semantic match: not computed for this run
Recent attentionused
Recent attention: low; used in final ranking (contribution to score: 0.0000)
Topic momentumused
Topic momentum: high; used in final ranking (contribution to score: 0.4963)
Cross-cluster signalnot computed
Cross-cluster signal: not computed for this run
Topic breadth penaltypenalty
Topic breadth penalty: reduces score when non-zero (contribution to score: 0.0000)
Under-cited
In top 50 at rank 33
Low-cite candidate pool (see docs/candidate-pool-low-cite.md v0): core corpus, recency floor, citation ceiling, title+abstract gate; popularity penalty among pool members only. Semantic and bridge not yet modeled.
Signals: citation_velocity=0.0000, topic_growth=0.7636, diversity_penalty=0.0000
Why this surfaced | 2 used | 1 penalty | 2 not computed
Semantic matchnot computed
Semantic match: not computed for this run
Recent attentionused
Recent attention: low; used in final ranking (contribution to score: 0.0000)
Topic momentumused
Topic momentum: high; used in final ranking (contribution to score: 0.5345)
Cross-cluster signalnot computed
Cross-cluster signal: not computed for this run
Pool popularity penaltypenalty
Pool popularity penalty: reduces score when non-zero (contribution to score: 0.0000)
Abstract
The LA-2A compressor is a popular optical dynamic range compressor and is much used in popular music productions, particularly as a vocal compressor. There are many claims about sonic differences between different LA-2A versions, but most of these are anecdotal with no empirical evidence to back them up. This paper explores the objective differences between six hardware LA-2A compressors, three vintage Teletronix units, and three Universal Audio reissues. Firstly, it conducts a series of measurements on six compressors, using frequency response sweeps, total harmonic distortion measurements, and tone burst to explore their attack and release characteristics. The results showed subtle differences, particularly around THD and attack and release. Subsequently, an ABX listen test was conducted with 17 trained listeners to explore the audibility of these differences. The test comprised comparing three songs where the vocal tracks had been compressed using the two most dissimilar LA-2As. The results showed a mixture of significant and nonsignificant results, suggesting that discrimination is context-dependent and difficult to discern in typical music productions.
Authors
Neighborhood labels
Topics
3 labels
Topic labels are imported metadata and can be noisy; use them as coarse navigation hints, not authoritative classifications.
Music Technology and Sound StudiesMusic and Audio ProcessingHearing Loss and Rehabilitation
Neighbor surface
Similar papers
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