Name: Optotron
Brand: Desert Moon Audio
Price: 49.00 USD
Availability: InStock

Optotron

Electro-Optical Leveling Amplifier

One knob, and the light does the rest

Optotron is an electro-optical leveling amplifier: the audio drives a light panel, the light falls on a photocell, and the photocell turns the gain down. The gentle knee, the ten-millisecond grab, the two-stage release that hangs onto long notes — all of it falls out of that one mechanism, because Optotron models the mechanism itself rather than tracing curves off a single unit.

Three units share one chassis, and switching swaps the entire faceplate as well as the voicing: SILVER, the modern reissue — cleanest, widest, quickest to recover; GRAY, the vintage reference with the famous program-dependent release and warm tube midrange; and OT-2, the original — slowest, most coloured, with the jewelled power lamp. Loudness-honest Auto Gain, an external sidechain with SC listen, and a Cell Age control that ages the photocell for real round out the panel.

Works with all major DAWs

AU / VST3 / AAX for Mac · VST3 for PC

Yours forever — no subscription

Instant download after purchase

14-DAY FREE TRIAL

Full version, free for 14 days. No payment details needed.

Optotron cycling through its three faceplates — Silver, Gray and OT-2

About Optotron

Optotron is an electro-optical leveling amplifier: the audio drives a light panel, the light falls on a photocell, and the photocell turns the gain down. Everything this kind of compressor is loved for — the gentle knee, the ten-millisecond grab, the release that lets go in two stages and hangs onto long notes — falls out of that one mechanism. Optotron models the mechanism itself, with its fast carriers and slow trap states, rather than tracing curves off a single unit, and a built-in measurement bench holds every figure to the published hardware behaviour on every build.

Three units share the chassis, and switching between them swaps the entire faceplate as well as the sound. SILVER is the modern reissue — the cleanest electronics, extended bandwidth, the quickest recovery. GRAY is the vintage reference — the famous program-dependent two-stage release and warm push-pull tube midrange. OT-2 is the original — slowest and most coloured, deeper release bloom, stronger second harmonic, with the meter selector under the glass and the jewelled power lamp.

Key features

Three units, three faceplates. SILVER, GRAY and OT-2 — each drawn as its own piece of hardware, each with its own electronics, bandwidth and release character.

The cell, modelled for real. A superlinear lamp law onto a photoresistor with fast carriers and slow trap states: the ~10 ms grab, the 50%-in-60-ms first release, the seconds-long program-dependent tail, and the way deep reduction blooms back are consequences, not presets.

Cell Age. Scales the photocell's real physics — a worn cell grabs slower and hangs far longer. Something a curve fit cannot offer.

Loudness-honest Auto Gain. Make-up rides the average reduction slowly, so bypass and Peak Reduction moves compare at matched loudness instead of louder-is-better.

A working sidechain. External sidechain input, a momentary SC listen that auditions exactly what the detector hears, a continuous rumble filter, and Emphasis on the front panel.

The standard service rail. Parallel Mix, stereo link, 4x oversampling through the whole nonlinear path, A/B compare, undo/redo and presets.

The Optotron VU meter moving with the program

Peak Reduction sweeping on the OT-2 faceplate

Quickstart tips

It's a two-knob compressor. Push Peak Reduction until the meter swings a few dB, then bring Gain up to match — or switch AUTO on and let the make-up ride itself.

Pick the unit by the source. SILVER for clean vocals and the mix bus, GRAY for the classic vocal and bass sound, OT-2 when you want the most colour and the longest hang.

COMP levels, LIMIT grabs. Start in COMP; flip to LIMIT when peaks need holding rather than shaping.

Try AGE before you reach for another compressor. An older cell releases slower — on sparse vocals and bass it reads as glue you can't dial in any other way.

More details

Yes — 14 days, fully featured, from the first time the plugin loads. All three units, every control, no interruptions and no signup. When the trial ends, audio passes through dry until a license is entered, so your sessions always open.

Yes. It's a one-off purchase, not a subscription, and there's nothing to renew. Updates to a plugin you own are free — download the current installer and run it over the top.

Every plugin is sold on its own, so you can buy just the one you want.

Your license works on all machines you personally own — studio desktop, laptop, spares. Enter the same key on each; there's nothing to deactivate and no activation server, so a machine dying never costs you a slot.

Your download link and license key are in the order confirmation email sent at purchase. Run the installer, open Optotron, click the trial notice on the panel, paste the key — done.

Can’t find the email? Check spam, then write to info@desertmoonaudio.com and we’ll resend it.

Yes — after activation. Entering your license key needs an internet connection once; from then on the plugin runs fully offline and doesn't phone home.