May you make a video on how to connect it to the receiver

Yeo that’s actually smart.. i have always wondered

Great example. Movies ect... have all different dynamics.

I had a ART DST Eighty/Eighty for years. Smoked my first cabinet with that guy. :)

I still have an X-15 that I bought when they came out,late 1991 I think.

This makes me happy. I worked at ART here in Rochester, NY from 1990 to 1999. My first product was the X-15; I wrote the software. Looking back, I'd probably do some things a bit differently, and I would have pushed harder for a three-digit LED display. But ART was always about pragmatic products, and that's what I see in this review of the PRO VLA II: Do the best job you can for an affordable price and everyone is happy.

@@johnpassaniti4417 I'm from Rochester my uncle Matt Guarnere does a lot of live music engineering out there. And I asked him for Any studio gear he could spare and he sent me some art stuff and it's all great.

Solar Guitar Studio Wow, yeah I remember my dad's ART SGX-2000 effects rack from about 30 years ago.

Yeah I'm considering that now, even if for the time being I just run a plugin. I have trouble getting the pitch right with headphones on and I suspect more compressed dynamics on the way in might help a lot when hearing my voice back.

sonicwingnut Different singers need different things. Some need an 1176 into an LA2A while recording. Others just need reverb on the headphone mix. Others find reverb makes them make even more mistakes!

sonicwingnut oh a super tip for pitch problems whilst singing is that if the singer is singing too sharp turn down the music in headphones a bit and if she/he is singing too flat, turn the headphone music up a bit. The singer then pushes it a bit more or slacks off a bit. Great trick.

People have gotten too dependent on their mix engineers and are too afraid to commit to sounds in the studio. I’ve always loved processing in the studio and having as little done in the mix as possible. That’s how CLA said American Idiot was done and that’s the highest selling pop punk album of all time

Yes! I can run compression as a monitor-effect only, and the singers I've tracked have all been like..."Dude, my voice sounds like a record already", and it's so much more fun and engaging for them. The results follows.

Great performance, Mylady. Cheers from Germany.

Karsten TheBestFriend Thank you so very much :)

Great Vocals Rose, thanks for working with glen and doing a video for all us poor slobs in youtube land. much appreciated. oh, that might be the nicest daisy rock guitar i've seen. cool axe.

Thank you kindly. It's the Elite Venus model and it plays like a dream :)

You can't sing

Same, Mid/Side room mikes on drums. Both my MPA II ended up with an insane hum on one channel. When I opened them up I found some of the black diodes were microphonic on the PCB board. Tossed ‘em.

Even though it’s budget, it can make an album sound great and as enjoyable as another album with expensive gear. Just a a different flavor in sound.

I like Tungsol tubes in it.

Can u show a video on how u replaced them?

You are absolutely right! Know your gear, that's the best way to make it sound good!

I agree.

portallatro I use the leds for the GR and the Out Put volume. The VUs I use for input.

portallatro I have also read on a lot of forums the stock tubes are not that good. To me there are just fine. Sure i could get better ones but I’m just fine with stock.

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the LED's and the VU meters don't display the same information. LED's display tube drive and VU meters show output levels.

Micah Lindstrom The input or output levels of the Pro VLA II can be monitored by the analog VU meter. The VU METER switch selects the source of the audio for this meter. The ballistics characteristic of the meter provides an accurate indication of the average signal level. If you need peak level info (critical in digital systems) use the central stereo LED bargraph OUTPUT LEVEL meter.

because his theme song is amazing too

Espen Storø Totally. I think that’s what this video is trying to highlight

it not cheap, it's affordable

jmac2050 Semantics.

Ryan Wilson. Cheap is thought as low or bad quality, reasoning for a low price. Affordable is good quality at a fair price.

jmac2050 No shit Sherlock but there’s more than one way to skin a cat... I think of cheap as a perspective to what something costs compared to similar functioning pieces of gear. A $300 compressor is cheap compared to a $3,000 one. A $1,000 compressor is cheap compared to a $3,000. Both could also be considered affordable depending on budget. When I see something “cheap” in regards to what you said I call it for what it is: a piece of shit. Being “cheap” has nothing to do with what something’s retail price is. Just look at the vast selection of boutique pedal builders there are now charging astronomical prices for unoriginal shit gear you could build better yourself (I’m not talking about the big name guys). Again. Semantics. With a dash of perspective and pinch of subjectiveness.

mine are 4

People change bass strings?

I just use the green strings 😅

Mine are 20, but its fine cos I'm a drummer

Mine are 15+ and i love the sound.

GodOfChaos he did one on recording bass guitar with only a DI box and free amp sim software.

That's awesome and all, but what about for cheap basses, or good budget amps for practicing or to take on tour?

GodOfChaos for practice, almost anything at this point. As long as it's built for bass and not regular guitar. For touring, that's outside my knowledge. Lol.

A cheap bass that's set up well and in good condition kicks the nuts off a poorly set up/bad condition bass in the £1k bracket. I've just got an active pup'd Ibanez TMB100 for less than £200 and the preamp is very good. Great gigging and recording bass. If you're going for passive pups I'd recommend a Sansamp Bass Driver Deluxe pedal - 100% analogue preamp, great studio and live tool (if you have good monitors). If you're gigging shitty PAs in smaller venues, my Trace Elliot Commando 12" 100W has been unbelievably reliable and versatile in that circuit. Best of luck fellow bassist.

GodOfChaos there’s certain years that the $299 - $350 Squires are really good. ESP if they have the Duncan design pickups. It’s a bit of work, but if you wanna find the awesome cheap stuff scour the msg boards Talkbass and other sites. Good fast cheap...well, to be cheap and good, it’s gonna take time 🍻

Thanks mate

Ps: try one on acoustic guitar - I've had some really natural sounding acoustic through these. Also Glenn said it's a good 'first' compressor - well maybe but honestly the vla is much more capable than you might expect from that statement. I know for 299.00 you probably wouldn't expect too much, but you might just be surprised :)

Why tf do you have 4 if they're not your go-to? You sell them all and get 1 great compressor.

The recording wasn't bad. The mix? Meh. I'm not a mixing engineer or any kind of engineer really. I know what I like though.

I don't mean to sound like an idiot but those drums sound like plastic.

@@RS-pp7ng yes could use samples lol

@@RS-pp7ng they were room mics. andit did sound a bit trash

@Slater Slater Her voice sounds horrible imo lol

I really can't figure out what those lyrics are supposed to be

I feel like I am having a stroke listening to it. I get the "I have difficul tay" part but then it's like "bray thay bagel" or something. Then it's like "I can feel my heart" ok but "bay day eggle" or something. I've repeated the parts like a dozen times each and I literally can't figure out what it is supposed to be. I don't have a problem with her singing ability, but either her enunciation is bad or her choices in where to break up the syllables were just not good.

I heard "I have to f*ck off ...."

the way whoever was responsible for layering those vocals went about it makes me fucking twitch as a producer. why is the little " iiIIIiiiIIIII " part not the main harmony part?? it has such an unnatural flow

me too. i was actually pretty confused because my brain assumed mellow, but i couldn't think of anything mellow that would sound good with the vocals. even thought the vocals were awesome. so glad he played the whole mix. would have driven me crazy wondering what the song sounded like!

Bro these used to be 200 bucks now they're 450 lol

CatPick Studios we have these in our studio and love them

Electric Cat Studios Sounds like I need to start putting few bucks aside. Cool channel name btw ;)

Same here! Thanks.

you can probably spend the same on a better quality plugin

maybe entry but maybe DBX 166 or 266 ? whatever it circuit model not tube but really good

i've found some of the random little gear they make comes in quite handy in a pinch.

Long & McQuade Musical Instruments black market

Hey L&M. Fire your entire sales staff at your Windsor location. I was going to drop $2500 on a new guitar. Hung around for half an hour looking at guitars. NO ONE even bothered to ask if I needed help or even glanced in my direction. Albeit I had just got off work and looked a bit scruffy, it shouldn't matter. Especially when the scruff may have $2500 burning a hole in his pocket. Walked out and probably won't be back. Just thought you should know your aloof sales staff is costing you money.

p0llenp0ny why wouldn’t you just ask for help dickwad. No no, they should all be FIRED 😂 are you afraid to talk to people?

yourmanwatson can’t say anything about this store, but Sweetwater has just the best customer service. I bought a pickguard and they still call, text, email, and mail to make sure I’m doing fine and don’t need anything.

LOL

Thank you! It's a great guitar that I've had for years and Glenn is masterful in the studio

Hey Adam! Thanks for the essay!

Jesus, didn't know I'd caught you at a bad time, go ahead and ....... uh ........ finish . . . .

Adam Rainstopper Incorrect. That old classic tube sound from the 60's came from badly designed tube circuits. And they were all tube. Most of that tubby classic tube sound comes from the massive transformers not the tubes themselves. Modern tube circuits won't get you that classic tube sound. Not an ART mike Preamp with ONE TUBE AT THE OUTPUT STAGE. All cheap so called tube equipment today are not tubes. They are hybrid tube/transistor compressors or mike Preamp. You want that classic tube sound? By a FAIRCHILD LIMITER. IT WILL NOT BE $300.

Uh, first, welcome to 2018, second .......... no one who is even CONSIDERING buying one of these is just going back and forth trying to make up their mind whether to get this or *a Fairchild 670 limiter* . . . . . some of this stuff really should be self-evident . . . . . third, at what point in my comment did I say ANYTHING about "getting that classic tube sound" ( and while you're at it, measure "classic tube sound" for me, quantify it) with any of this shit? Finally, I use what sounds good in specific applications, and I am NOT looking for anything even approaching the sound of a 60's recording, nor would I be in any position to be a "gotta have ALLL TOOOOOBE" snob for the entirety of the signal path between her lips and his ears on a recording that is going to end up on someone's ipod, being amplified through a 12 volt solid state car stereo. You have presented a false-dichotomy, along with assuming that I want a sound from the 60's, so a strawman too, and you BEGAN your comment with "incorrect." Sorry, what was the factual assertion I made that could even BE "correct" or "incorrect"? I said I like the all in one channel-strip versions of this thing, specifically the compression for specifically drums. "So called tube equipment"? Yeah, I already KNOW which message board you have gotten the majority of your talking-points from, and even the snobs on that board would probably acknowledge that there is a MAJOR difference between the cheap little DI box sized "Tube MP" or the similar thing Behringer makes (all running half a tube at STARVED PLATE) and THESE preamps, compressors, channel strips, from this series. No one expects a fucking Fairchild for 300 bucks. I mean, is it Fairchild or nothing? Like, are the sub-$1k Warm Audio LA2A's and LA3A's also "so-called tube equipment"? Why AM I even asking you? You don't seem to know what you're talking about, you should really work on that.

"Sarcasm runs in my blood and I can recognize it a mile away" Then how did you miss it? Anyway, I know Glenn likes me, he gave me a massage once. As for the setting on the MPA, it depends on A) What "tubey" means to you. Are you looking to push it over the edge? I've only used the 3-in-one version so far, but it takes a bit to hit the input hard. The gain control will obviously get you some distortion later in the signal path, but a big part of how the preamp reacts is how much signal it gets on the input. So that leads me to B) the hotter condenser mics will push it harder. This kind of equipment has a somewhat dark sound, when used on a kit, it will round out the OHs and snare mic a bit, good for taming the harshness of bright cymbals and snare attack. Also, play around with the input impedance a bit. You want to - usually - closely match the impedance of the mic you're using, but you can actually go a little bit in either direction and get different high-frequency response. I will, however, advise against one thing, and that is overusing the "low voltage" setting. It will sound cool on some stuff, like a DI bass, but it does decrease the plate voltage to something ridiculous like 80VDC or lower, and that will suck a lot of the gain out, and it'll clip in a way that sounds kinda weird on most sources. Experiment with it, but just keep an ear out for loss of attack and dynamics and high frequencies.

Hey Chuck! Thanks for commenting.. I'm finding it pretty damn useful

Please give an update on the video if you end up changing any of the tubes out. Mine sounds good enough with the (what I believe to be) stock Chinese tubes that I just left them in there. Considering a tube change in the future though, when money and time permit.

glad you're liking it, Troy!

outboard*

Merci :)

With out compression audio 10 times outa 10 sounds more dynamic... Yes sir.. U r correct there...

Will try one!

FMR is crap !!!!!

The FMR is great, especially running it in series after a tube compressor like this... everything comes out tame and smooth. It’s literally how I’ve been able to get my best mixes to date.. change the tubes for Gold Lion, Mullard or Telefunken tho 💪🏾

+Zak Barlow He's said it in one of hiw DAW videos and when he explained it helped his mild colour blindness.

I don't remember the full name but it has fusion in the title

Dare I ask what it is you think I was singing? (lyrics-wise that is)

LMAO! I have no idea who that is but I assure you the lyrics are as follows, "I have difficulty breathing. I can't hear my heart beating. I have numbed all my insides cause I don't wanna be lost on the outside."

I swear on all that is both holy and unholy that it sounded to me like you were singing "I have to fuck hard…," and I couldn't make out what came right after. Now that you wrote the proper lyric out, and I listen again, it sounds like what you say it is. It's the way you measured out the syllables that threw me off. Wouldn't be the first time I misheard a lyric. "Sooch a nice, pretty goil, mit sooch a nice, pretty woice, but mit sooch doity mout'! Mit soap dey shoult vash it out!"

Adam Fox Well on all that is both holy and unholy I'm bloody glad I clarified :) The song is called "Lost (On the Outside)" in case you're curious. I wrote it many moons ago when I was fronting a rock project called Anti-Hero.

Sounds good, but maybe you shouldn't clarify. Controversy = publicity. "Louie Louie" became a classic after everybody mistakenly thought The Kingsmen were singing about something dirty.

Those were some pretty serious level changes

I guess I'm talking more along the lines of whisper quiet parts and full on screaming, those kinds of dynamic changes in a vocal performance. I meant no offense.

@@hamonthecob For that kind of thing you are better off having separate tracks for the different styles, the same way you might have a track for verse vocals or Chorus vocals if you want to process them differently.

@@peterbull3955 I'm not talking about different parts of a song. I'm talking about Mike Patton type dynamic changes right in the middle of a part. It's not the end of the world. Thanks anyway for the suggestion.

Dood, it's a $300 rack mount tube compressor, what do you expect? Of course they cut corners, but the results aren't as bad as you are painting them. I'd bet a full paycheck that you couldn't differentiate between samples mixed using this compressor and the same samples mixed using a compressor that cost 2X as much. I mean, you probably think you can, but it would be a guessing game for you (and I'm talking about full mixed samples, not just a simple guitar riff).

Steve Synan I wouldn't worry about people like this. They are just rich elitists who have awful mixes and worry too much about image vs the sound.

@@codylujan I didn't offended anyone Cody, why are you triying to offend me? Do we know each other? Did you listened to one of my works? I suppose not. I just reported what's inside that compressor. My dayjob is the electronics engineer and designer, so please, would you just let me to share my techincal experience without being offended by my observations?! It's ok if you like it, nobody said the opposite, nobody is attacking your perception of sound! BUT, that doesn't change the acutal FACT that it is a terrible design (read again the previous post before replying please) Thank you.

@@stevesynan3910That doesn't change the fact that tubes are put there just for tricking you into believing "it's a tube compressor". As I wrote you can't run a tube at 40V hoping the sound to become better, the design would be better without it. Yes! I would be very interested to do a blind test actually! Sadly I didn't took any before/after sample. The one that I modified has been redone for mastering purposes, now it extremely neutral/clear and precise when it is not compressing, when compressing it kept the character of the compression as the circuit driving the vactrol is more or less the same.

Ok great aendrea, you made me want this unit that much more... I new there was a catch... I thought why does this 300 dollar device dound so great... Oh.. (Slap my knee) the DESIGN sucks..... Im just glad the sound doesn't and neither does the look of it.. Thank you aundrea!! :)

Merci :)

Thank You for sharing your talents with all of us!

I'm thankful I got to be a part of Glenn's magic in the studio :)

its never gonna happen bro

Nathan Hassall excellent

TimmyScandi Are you sure? Have you watched it?

But baritones only have 6 strings, how can they be metal?!

Robin Flick of course!

Robin Flick of course!

Yeah definitely a parody lol

Well, if the sound of robots humping is your thing, that’s fine. Get well soon!

@@SpectreSoundStudios 😂😂😂😂😂😂

@@SpectreSoundStudios You don't need to sound like a robot with autotune... The singer is quite out of tune, he's just suggesting a little tuning. Don't be a dick, man.