ART ProVLA II

Reviews | ART ProVLA II
88
T
he ART ProVLA has been
tucked away in the sub-£300
price bracket for many years
without ever being shouted
about, but a quick scan of the many
user reviews show they are very much
loved. In recognition of this overlooked
status, ART have given it a new shiny,
gently-curved black front and have
expanded the metering and controls.
I have used the original model for
years and often take advantage of its
reliably transparent qualities for
anything from drum overheads to bass
DI processing to vocal tracking. So now
it’s A/B time for the mark II.
Rugged and handsome
This is a well built unit and the
cosmetic changes make it feel even
sturdier than its predecessor. If the
reliability is in any way similar, then this
is one dependable compressor (my old
faithful has given faultless service for
over 10 years). At the front, the two
large VU meters remain and have been
enhanced with individual trimmers for
calibration. These switchable meters
(between input and output levels) are
separated by the addition of two rows of
eight LEDs for output level, thus
providing peak level feedback as well as
the RMS scale of the VUs.
The two horizontal rows of LEDs
(10) beneath the VUs continue to
provide gain reduction metering down to
-30dB, which is the unit’s electronic
limit. Each channel now has rotary
controls for attack and release settings,
whereas the old version only had a
switch between ‘Fast’ and ‘Auto’ for
each parameter. The attack ranges from
a nippy 0.25 milliseconds to a nice
easy going 50 milliseconds. Release
ranges from 0.15 seconds to 3 seconds.
Though the original two settings worked
well over many sources I always
hankered for more hands-on control of
the time constants, so this is a tick in
the ‘improvement’ box.
Apart from the use of lit buttons for
VU meter source and bypass switching,
the only other change is that of the
stereo linked output gain control.
Instead of both channels having
independent level controls in stereo
linked operation, the channel 1 knob is
assigned to overall gain while channel 2
looks after stereo balance. Though this
unit is not prone to tilted stereo images,
this is nonetheless a better approach to
ART
ProVLA II | £249
The ART ProVLA compressor gets a new shiny
facelift and an expanded control set. Robbie Stamp
puts it up against the original to see who’s best
WHAT IS IT?
2-channel Vactrol
(opto-isolator) valve
limiting amplifi er
(compressor)
CONTACT
Who: Sonic8
Tel: [phone]
Web: artproaudio.com
HIGHLIGHTS
1 Pleasantly transparent
dynamic control
2 Well built for the price
3 Well implemented
metering and leveling
ON THE DVD
Compressor/limiter
detection circuits come in
many fl avours: Optical,
VCA, FET, Vari-Mu valve
and diode bridge. The
latter three are less
widespread than the two
under consideration here,
and in the case of Vari-Mu
valve, prohibitively more
expensive for mass
production.
So what’s the
difference? Broadly
speaking VCA designs are
known for their precision
and excellent electronic
linearity/predictability.
They excel at creating a
fast, punchy and hard
edged response to
incoming signals,
particularly favoured for
drum mixes and clamping
down a mix-buss. This is
not to say a VCA design
cannot display smooth
characteristics, but this is
where the optical detector
topology has earned its
reputation. The
opto-isolator consists of a
light emitting diode (LED)
and a photocell in a
sealed unit, with the latter
tracking the former as it
increases/decreases
brightness with the
incoming signal. Due to
the nature of light
emission and the time
response curves of a
photocell, attack and
release are generally
slower and tend towards a
curved response plot. For
this reason optical
compressors are often
favoured for acoustic
instruments, bass guitars
and vocals.
Optical vs VCA Compression
FMU209.rev_art 88 8/12/08 6:05:31 pm