IS THE ART PRO VLA THE ULTIMATE CHEAP TUBE COMPRESSOR??

[GeekTherapyRadio]

I've had this comp for several years. I even bought better tubes...but never installed them. Didn't need to. You will also find this compressor in many, many expensive recording studios in the same rack as 1176's, 165's, etc. You'd be surprised how many word-class engineers love the Pro VLA 2.

[mlwsf]

I have 3 ART pieces, including an older version of the Pro VLA, and 20 years later they're all still working great.

[chinnarciso]

Fantastic. I absolutely love hearing you say that it sounds good to your ears. Other people forget that its not the specs sometimes, its the sound. Love your videos. Keep it up

[LondonSteveLee]

I love using mine as a two stage vocal tracking compressor - ie daily-chain the two channels unlinked both compressing gently - it's very transparent. Had mine 10 years - still perfect.

[ozzyml]

I've owned both the VLA and the MPA - this one is good, but the MPA is fabulous! The ability to go from subtle and smooth to 'harmonic definition' to full on distortion is so useful. Bit of a Swiss army knife. And...it's high voltage, not starved plate like this compressor :)

[drewbarefoot]

i bought this way back in the day and recorded a friend's EP. Still to this day says it's his favorite record and I know it's because the VLA made his acoustic sound perfect.

[GaragebandandBeyond]

I have always wondered what you thought about these! Can't wait to watch this one!

[stevefleth]

I have the Pro MPA II into the Pro VLA II as my DI's for bass and guitar. ART products are designed in my home town of Rochester, NY but the units are manufactured in China. I've swapped the tubes, 12AX7 in the MPA and 12AT7 in the VLA with EHX matched pairs. The input of the VLA is controlled by adjustable output of the MPA. Sweet sound and clean. Cheaper is bought online in the US.

[flarfadelic]

absolutely LOVE my PRO MPA II + PRO VLA II combo for a home studio! it really hits it out of the park for the applications I'm using them for.

[markpixley]

I've had the original Pro VLA (not version 2) for about 15 years...there's a lot of mods you can do on these, change out the opamp to a Burr Brown etc...some people add transformers, replace all the resistors and caps with better tolerances...but for me I look at its core design...its a starved plate tube design (meaning it simply adds some non-linear distortion into the amplifier path) going into a cheap vactrol for compression...
After considering how much work it would be to do the mods and the miniscule amount of change in color the mods would produce I've just left mine alone and use it for what it is, a really cheap vactrol compressor with a low noise floor...for that its excellent.

[JonnyKaine]

nice! I've had one of these for over 10 years and it still works fine, so I guess that says something as far as it being built well.

[beepboop]

Had this thing for years and really like it, even when running in bypass it does a nice thing of soaking up some of the muddy low end in tracks in a way that feels quite natural

[brookbilney]

This is exactly the video i needed.
Did you ever get around to doing the mods on that vla 2 ? Im curious to see what you did to it.

[robfernandez]

I did the Jensen transformer mod and switched to higher quality matched tubes. Fine compressor, had to learn how to not crush the signal. He’s right, the VUs don’t tell you what you need. The little LED meters below are better.

[ericvon]

A tad bit late on this video, but would really love to see if you ever did any modifications to this unit, and if so a video going over them! Or even possibly discussing ideas for it. This thing has the potential to be incredible, as if it’s not already at its price!

[robfernandez]

We also did the Jensen mod and upgraded tubes, and as the comment below reported, it really grabs. I’d have a hard time replicating an L2A with this thing. Currently using for parallel compression and after a lot of counter intuitive noodling found settings that wouldn’t crush the signal. Now I can say “good stuff”!

[TheIVaneysound]

I use it in the Insert master parallel compressor in my SSL Sigma. It adds glue and a little heat in the higher frequencies. I like its sound in this application.

[LarsTaylorMusic]

I love this thing. Brought 4 singles of mine in the radio with just a GAP PRE 73 (first version) and the ART PRO VLA II in the chain. If somebody can't make good tracks with this, then the problem lies somewhere else...

[lightafluident.]

I love mine. Im only using one channel as of now, and I only incorporate it into the signal when I want some added "grit/color". My main vocal chain is a WA12 MK2 black mic preamp from Warm Audio, followed by an LL2A compressor limiter from Little Labs. I'll usually chain the VLA after the LL2A when I feel like the vocal will benefit from both compressors going.

[trololo_zhirnota]

I got the ART MPA GOLD, it's really good for it's price and you can change the bulbs to get a better sound.