| User Review | | Sound Quality | | 5 | | Ease of use | | 4 | | Features | | 4 | | Bang for buck | | 4 |
Overall:  4.25 |  ART Pro VLA II
Published by beasone
1st February 2012
| | ART Pro VLA II
Features:
Vactrol Opto-Compression Design
Mastering-Quality Audio Signal Path with Tube Gain Stage
Enhanced Link Mode (Stereo Link Mode)
Variable Threshold, Ratio & Output Controls
LED Backlit VU Input/Output Level Metering
LED Metering Indicates Both Average Level And Peak Hold
Accurate Ten Segment LED Gain Reduction Metering
+4dBu/-10dBV Mode Switch
Active Balanced XLR And 1/4-inch Inputs and Outputs
Toroidal Transformer Reduces Mechanical and Electrical Hum
Art's Pro VLA II is a tube driven vactrol based compressor / limiter which has gained quite a reputation on these forums. The VLA II's tubes can be rolled for vintage NOS tubes such as Mullards, RCA, Telefunken, Phillips, Sylvania, etc. I installed a pair of NOS 12ax7 Mullards and the sound of the VLA II is absolutely outstanding. I recommend rolling out the stock Electro-Harmonix tubes with something low-noise NOS. As it is, I would feel confident using the VLA II for tracking as well as mastering.
The previous version of the VLA II did not have variable attack and release, so this is a wonderful upgrade in this version. I enjoy using the VLA II for warming up my digital recordings with its tube gain stage in addition to utilizing the compression settings. It is quite effective and transparent at compressing vocals, instruments, and percussion.
The VU meters on the VLA II are one of its best features. They have selectable input and output metering. The LED gain metering is also extremely useful in properly staging the gain. The choice of balance XLR and balanced TRS inputs is helpful as well. I've seen this unit in a number of studios, and for good reason.
Overall, Art's Pro VLA II is a strong candidate for your compression needs and I highly recommend it based on its reputation and my experience using the unit. I give the VLA II 4 1/2 out of 5 stars. | | | | | | | Sound Quality | | 4 | | Ease of use | | 5 | | Features | | 4 | | Bang for buck | | 5 | |
Overall: 4.5 | | Art pro vla ii
The ART PRO VLA II is quite possibly the best piece of low end gear on the market. I read a slew of great reviews of this in Tape OP, so I dropped $250 for one. I immediately replaced the chinese tubes with NOS European tubes. All the reviews were spot on. I was astounded at how good this thing sounds as opposed to how cheap it is. It really is a steal. The PRO VLA is kind of a poor man's LA-2A, and would be a great first compressor for anyone.
I found that this unit sounds best on single sources, especially vocals and bass. It also works well in stereo mode on a drum bus. There are 3 different meters on this thing, two VUs and two different LEDs. It's almost overkill, but it seems to be pretty accurate metering.
The PRO VLA II starts to show it's low endness when used on a mix bus. I ran some mixes through it to compare to straight ITB. There was a low end distortion and muddiness that was not pleasant. In any case, this is not a mastering compressor.
I recently sold mine to help pay for a Universal Audio LA-610, but I would buy another PRO VLA II in a heartbeat. Great value. ART also has surprisingly good warranty coverage. | | | | | | Sound Quality | | 4 | | Ease of use | | 4 | | Features | | 5 | | Bang for buck | | 5 | |
Overall: 4.5 | | Hello, I was in the market for a decent yet inexpensive tracking compressor, and settled on the ART Pro VLA II based on it's generally highly-regarded status as a bang-for-the-buck low-end unit, and my initial impressions have been very positive. Some general impressions:
Love it as a vocal tracking compressor -- this is why I bought it, and it's been great for it, just a little bit on the way in makes the monitoring much nicer, and makes the tracks sound a lot more finished from the get go. I usually keep it under 5 dB of GR, anything more than that starts getting noticeable and potentially annoying, I usually keep attack about 1/2 way and release pretty fast.
Bass DI - sounds pretty sweet for this as well, I've noticed bass DI has a tendency to be VERY dynamic, so this makes it a lot easier to get good tracks, tames those peaks nicely on the way in.
Not loving much on drums, seems like it's always all or nothing with hard transient sounds, not fast enough for most of what I've tried, my dbx 160xt works better for that.
Overall, a great unit to have around and very enjoyable to play with. Very transparent for the price, exactly what I was looking for, should do me fine till I build a DIY dual LA-2 clone here pretty soon. | | | | | | Sound Quality | | 4 | | Ease of use | | 4 | | Features | | 4 | | Bang for buck | | 5 | |
Overall: 4.25 | | Cheap sounds you can't get from your DAW
The ART Pro VLA II was my first outboard compressor (not counting guitar pedals and a brief stint with the RNC before I had any idea how to use compression). It's not too hard to make this box sound like crap, but it's not impossible to make it sound amazing if you use it in the right context.
Sound
The compressor is fairly transparent, although it seems to have a subtle phase distortion of whatever you put through it (when it's not in true bypass). Things sound a little softer on the other side. You can get the unit to make noticeable pumping and popping artifacts, but it actually takes some pretty extreme settings to get the compression to be intrusive. I find that the compressor doesn't pass extreme highs or lows pristinely, but is good for use on bass guitar, guitar cabs, acoustic guitar and some vocals without any trickery. I don't think I like the sound of the vla on really high fi drums when it is undiluted, but I've had great experiences using Reaper's ability to mix in any effect (including outboard) in parallel with an unaffected track and letting the VLA shape the perceived volume envelope without messing up the frequency spectrum in a bothersome way. When used in this fashion, I've gotten amazingly punchy kick and snare tones by using the compressors slow attack to emphasize the initial transients. Really great stuff. Overall, I think the VLA has a definite sound to it (or a myriad of different sounds) that you can't really get with plug ins, or probably even with other hardware units. It's a cool tool.
Ease of Use
I find the VLA easier to use than my overstayer fet compressor, which is a bit more esoteric. In general, the only tricks to using the VLA are mixing it in parallel on sources where you don't want to lose any extreme frequencies and watching out that you don't overdrive the input too badly. The input opamp overdrives fairly easily, and while the sound is not completely unusable when this happens, my gut feeling is that it is undesirable in most cases. This is a situation where a passive attenuation device, like the SM Pro Audio Nano Patch (I think I remembered the name incorrectly in another review here... Whoops!) can really help you keep things under control.
Features
While being cheap and feature rich are not always the signs of a reliably good product, I think the VLA has a well executed feature set. The meters are useful for making sure you don't overdrive any of the components if you don't want to, stereo linking works well enough in my experience (and you can use one of the knobs on the right hand side to control the panning if you find the image shifts), the attack and release controls cover useful ranges (although there is nothing you can do with these to make this a fast compressor), the make up gain can be used to color the signal, and adjustable ratio and threshold are always useful. It's nice to have the option for 1/4" and XLR ins and outs on the back as well.
Bang for the Buck
Like I said before, this is a useful tool with a very unique sound. I got it for about 200 bucks, and at that price, or even at 300, two channels of compression with this much usability and character is a very good deal. There are things this compressor can't do that my faster plugins or my overstayer can, but nothing that I've used can pump up the attack quite like this one either. Recommended! | | |
By
Dot.
on
14th August 2012
| | Sound Quality | | 3 | | Ease of use | | 4 | | Features | | 5 | | Bang for buck | | 5 | |
Overall: 4.25 | | Good compressor but...
Art Vla, not bad as for the price, however i feel people overhype, or rather over boost this compressor.
It's nice and transparent, when not pushed hard, but ones you push it then the sound gets just "bleeeeh" Obviously its 300$ so we're looking at 150$ per channel for that price you can't go wrong with it.
Visually it's a great unit, looks like expensive piece of gear, big VU meters which work great, gain reduction led lights also very nice, and easy to read. nice knobs etc, that side of the compressor is actually the strongest part of it. It's not Manley but hey for that price it really looks good.
Sound wise, well i'll say i was a bit disappointed with the sonic side of it. All the hype reviews i read about i really expected more... much more, but again... 300$
I used it on vocals and electric guitar only so i'll take a reference from there.
Vocals: sound ok, neutral, no actual coloring even tho it's a tube compressor.
It does something to sibilants tho, they stand up way more than without compressor. It can be fixed with the de-esser but i dont really like what ART VLA does with them.
I also hoped it would be more smooth but it's not really doing it the way i pictured.
Guitar: I actually feel it works better on guitars than vocals, obviously it has to be set correctly but it makes the guitar POP.
DISTORTION: push it a little bit harder and distortion is guaranteed, and it's not this pleasing to the ear distortion. It's more of i dont want that distortion, at least not at this point.
OVERALL it's a ok compressor, good for tracking if used correctly. over hyped? yes i think so. over priced? NO NOT AT ALL. for 300$ or even less its a great piece of gear, useful, but not irreplaceable.
i never switched tubes so i don't know how it sounds modded, apparently it makes wonders to the sound. well i can't confirm or deny it.
I recommend it if you're looking for cheap and decent tracking compressor. | | | |
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