Waves CLA-3A Compressor/Limiter Plugin

In this article by Waves, Mark Ronson states : "In terms of plugins, Waves have been part of my workflow since I ran my first session in Pro Tools back in 2000 with Nikka Costa. The Waves stuff was our bread and butter on those, especially the Renaissance series. The Renaissance EQ and Renaissance Vox plugins are things I learned on; I know them so well, they’re engraved in me like muscle memory. They’re great, they don’t take up a load of my CPU and I can use them quickly and move along with what I’m doing. The one plugin I use the most is probably the CLA-3A compressor. That was something I picked up from [producer] Jeff Bhasker when we were working on “Uptown Funk.” You throw it on a vocal or a bass track, and it makes everything a little tougher and also makes the mix just a little more centered."

> I added relatively few effects on the guitars and the keyboards. Some of the guitars have the Waves C4 and CLA-3A, and I sent three guitar tracks to the Altiverb plate reverb and two to the Altiverb bathroom space. Sound on Sound article, 2013.

In this Instagram video, the plugin can be seen open in their DAW. This is confirmed to be the Waves version because the Waves logo can clearly be seen near the top left of the plugin

Waves CLA-3A Compressor/Limiter Plugin is listed under third-party plugins that Greg Kurstin uses in his interview with Apple on Logic Pro X.

Used for "How to Talk", as stated by mix engineer Kesha Lee in this December 2017 *Sound on Sound* article. > “The intro track was a voice note Uzi had recorded on his phone, and he played it in the booth on his phone, and we recorded it through the mic like that. It sounded really telephone-y, which we wanted, but I tried to take out some of the highs with the Waves OneKnob. All audio vocal tracks apart from the intro have Antares Auto-Tune as the first plug-in. Uzi hears his Auto-Tuned vocals in his headphones while singing. We used to just have it on default, with a Retune speed of 20, but lately he has been like: ‘Give me more Auto-Tune!’ so now we have the Retune Speed set to anywhere from 12 to 5. The ‘D’ after Auto-Tune is the Waves De-Esser, the ‘Q’ the Avid EQ3 seven-band, and the ‘1’ is the Waves C1 gate. All vocal audio tracks also have sends to the delay and the reverb aux tracks. The delay aux track has the Avid Mod Delay II set to half notes, with feedback at 43 percent, the Waves Renaissance Reverberator, set to ‘Hall 1’ reverb, with the highs cut on the reverb EQ, and the Waves S1 stereo imager. The reverb aux has the Renaissance Reverberator. > “All audio vocal tracks go to the vocal aux track. I had two vocal aux tracks in this session, because I wanted to try something different, using plug-ins I don’t normally use. That’s why one of the aux tracks is muted. The vocal aux track that I did use has the Waves De-Esser acting around 4230Hz, then the EQ3 seven-band which has a high-pass at 96.4Hz, and I’m dipping out muddiness at 200 and 500 Hz. I’m also adding some high end at 6.52kHz. I don’t normally add EQ with the seven-band, but Seth would add some high end on Future’s voice and that worked well, so I tried it here. Next is the Waves Renaissance Compressor, to keep the dynamics in check, and then the Waves SSL E-channel, on which I am again dipping out various frequencies. The latter plug-in is more for colour and character. The Waves CLA-3A is more for the sound, and the RN Digital Detailer made Uzi’s vocals sound fuller and wider. > "The final plug-in in the chain is the Nomad Factory MCL-2269 limiter and compressor, again for the sound and for more volume. We always go for a warm, full, loud, in-your-face vocal sound, also because we like the vocals to be louder than the beat. I always turn the beat down 1-2 dB. There are no plug-ins on the master track, because I used to work for a producer who didn’t want that, as the mix would go to the mastering engineer. So I’m still used to doing it like that. I turn the master volume down anywhere between -7 to -9 dB before it goes to mastering, so they have room to work with.”

"I love the Korg Poly 800 II and Juno 60 synths—they have so much character. I like CLA-3A by Waves for compression."