First off, we’ll address the elephant in the room: aside from controlling levels smoothly and effectively, Little Labs LL2A shares no attributes with a famous compressor bearing a strikingly similar name. In fact, it’s an entirely new — and quite novel — design that uses a single linear analog multiplier in the audio path to provide natural-sounding soft-knee attenuation of the input audio signal. The feature set, however straightforward, does include a very useful sidechain insert jack. For level and gain-reduction metering, the LL2A uses a new-old-stock neon Nixie tube that’s rather reminiscent of a 1966 Ford Thunderbird speedometer! Engineers at Sweetwater have found the LL2A to be well suited for everyday deployment on vocals and full-range material. The Little Labs LL2A’s streamlined 2-knob setup lets you nail great-sounding results quickly, while the high-quality stepped threshold and gain controls make settings recall effortless.