Acustica Releases the Lava Plug-in to Revolutionize Microphones

Acustica Audio makes a bold statement by claiming that their newest plug-in, Lava, will “revolutionize microphones”. Certainly, a daring proclamation but it did catch our attention!

With the Lava plug-in, a microphone can recreate the tone, frequency response, harmonic content, and proximity effect of other mics through an emulation. This means that even the cheapest microphone can sound like the most expensive one on the market. It may not look like the microphone of your dreams but it will perform like it — all with just a few taps and clicks using the Lava plug-in. This definitely cuts down the work needed for equalizing a microphone.

Speaking of the microphone emulation, the Lava plug-in interface also boasts a user-friendly and intuitive design. When the microphone is plugged in, the Lava application will show the microphone in the center and will have large input trim and mix knobs on the left and right sides. There is a high pass filter and a slider that will allow you to indicate the distance you want the microphone and sound source to have from one another.

Having such features allow your microphone to be a do-all and versatile mic for many applications. This means that your microphone which was just intended for vocal recording can now be used for recording instruments, broadcasting, and many more. As a bonus, the lava plug-in can also be used for tracking and mixing should you avail of the alternative ‘ZL’ (zero latency) version for a couple of extra bucks.

The Lava plug-in can be a game changer in terms of “microphone collection” in the sense that one microphone can recreate the sound of over a hundred microphones of your choice. This is made possible as the Lava plug-in can emulate over 140 microphones; 100 source mics and 41 destination mics.

With over 100 source microphones, mic compatibility with the Lava plug-in may not be an issue. Generally, the most common microphones a studio or a user would have are the AKG C414, Neumann U87, Shure SM57, and the Sennheiser MD421, so the chances of these microphones working with the Lava plug-in are high.

Currently, the Lava plug-in can run on macOS 10.14 or higher and Windows 10 or higher, while it is available in VST, VST3, AU, and AAX formats. Acustica is offering the Lava plug-in at an introductory rate of $128 or €129 until the 11th of October 2022. After which, the price will increase to $208 or €209.

If that number is too much of an investment for you now, then you can first avail yourself of the Lava plug-in trial. Although if you ask us, the price may not be that steep given Acustica’s combined value evaluation of the Lava giving you over $170,000 worth of microphones.

Perhaps Acustica Audio’s claim on the Lava plug-in revolutionizing microphones may not be that far-fetched if they can deliver all of these features superbly. After all, who wouldn’t call a $100 microphone performing at the same level as a $9,000 microphone a revolution?