The Art Pro VLA II is affordable and delivers great compression and leveling. It is a rackable unit that will take 2 rack spaces. It has 2 XLR inputs and 2 XLR outputs. There are input threshold, attack, ratio, release, and output controls on it. This 2 channel rack has a great sound and has worked its way into a main part of my studio. Being that the price was only 300 dollars I had major concerns because I was not sure if it was just going to be a piece of “budget” gear that would sound decent or if it could really work for me. So I decided to purchase it knowing that I could return it within 30 days if I didn’t like it. Immediately I fell in love with it. It is very easy to use and it does a great job of showing the input, outputs, reduction and gains so I can level both sides out easily.

UTILIZATION

I have only used this in the studio which is where I feel most comfortable with it at, but I have talked to other users that love using it live. Being that we don’t perform live a lot there really is not a need to take it live. But while in the studio there is not 1 negative thing that I can say about it, it has never gave me a single issue!

SOUND QUALITY

This rack makes many of our instruments and tracks sound rich and full with minimum effort. I have used it with Bass (electric) a lot and that is probably my favorite way to use it.

OVERALL OPINION

The VLA II's sound is just incredible and at this price I do not know why people pass on this or say that it is not very good but it is “cheap”. This unit is very clean and I recommend it to anyone with a studio.