Antelope Audio BA-6A

BA-6A follows the original simple, beautiful, and effective design of a 1950s limiting amplifier. Although the original of this plugin was created for TV and radio broadcasting purposes, it was quickly adopted by many recording engineers because it was easy to use and sounded so great. Even today, the original not only holds up but is still sought after and used in various pro studio facilities across the globe.

Boasting three-stage amplification with a moderate drive, hard knee, fast attack, and medium release, the BA-6A offers a balanced and vintage sound. It can help you tame the most aggressive and peaking instruments or the wildest mixes without losing any of the music’s punch.

The BA-6A implements a Vari-Mu style valve compression or as it’s often called – true tube compression. In contrast to the later Opto valve compressors, the Vari-Mu designs can offer faster attack, variable release times, and more musical and forgiving compression.

Due to the nature of its circuitry, the BA-6A is known for its high gain and fat yet gritty sound. This compressor gained its reputation being abused by Jimmy Page and is responsible for much of his huge-sounding guitars.

The original hardware unit had a three-stage amplifier, 9 valves, a rectifier, and a voltage regulator all resulting in a beautiful array of harmonic distortion that we carefully emulated in our BA-6A effect.

The unique character and thickening effect of the BA-6A have become a quick shortcut for “beefing” up snares, kicks, basses, and vocals with even minimal compression. Now, this is readily available with all Antelope Audio interfaces.