Sometimes cheap gear can work out better than you think when it comes to recording music. Other times, you can get a piece of equipment for cheap and it is cheap period. The cheap gear I’m referring to is the Art Vla Pro II. If you want a hardware compressor then avoid this gear with the quickness. Its not worth the metal its its encased in. For one, it swallows up the low and high frequencies of a signal. Every sound I run thru it sounds worst than the original. Art need their ass kick for this crappy chinese assembly line junk. Why should I complain? After all, I bought a cheap piece of equipment so why expect pro results. Look, anybody starting out at recording should avoid this thing with a passion. Don’t buy this reading reviews online because its misleading. Review after review praise the compressor as best bang for buck. What complete lies. I think either some of those reviews were written by Art or some lame that doesn’t know the difference from a flash light and a light bulb. Save up for a real compressor or stick with plugins if you have a daw.
Ok, now that I have ranted on how bad this compressor is, Art does make a great Preamp. Its called the Art MPA Gold. This preamp is the shit. I’ve bought cheap gear but this thing can hold its own against more expensive preamps. Art really out did themselves on this thing. Anybody on a budget should pick this up. Change out the tubes and you will be blown away with the difference in sound. Maybe one day I will buy a more expensive channel strip but since cats give away my music for free and clubs fronting on me to pay, this is what I’m stuck with. There are other ways to get paid in this industry and maybe I will start doing that but I love rocking shows and giving the masses that real shit so who knows.
