Art pro vla II and Axe Fx II

Yourboywreck

New member
Hi all.

I am super ignorant when it comes to gear. I just want things to plug in and work correctly lol (I’m sure I'm not alone). I needed something to be able to record vocals because the axe fx II isnt a mic preamp. I looked around and saw the Art Pro VLA II was a mic preamp with pretty good reviews so i bought one. Now is the problem. It seems pretty straight forward but everything i am trying doesnt work. I am using a macbook pro and logic pro x. I figured i needed to plug the art pro into the axe but im just not sure where to plug what in. If anyone could help, id really appreciate it. I've looked all over and it seems i might be the only person on the planet with this issue. If anyone could help, id be very thankful.

Thanks everyone!
 
Hi,
Most people using Axe FX and also wanting to recording from microphones seem to be using an audio interface (with built in mic preamps) after the axe, rather than a standlone preamp before.
Something like a focusrite 6i6 would be a good example. It would give two good enough quality mic preamps and a separate pair of line inputs for the AxeFX.

The interface then handles all of your ins and outs, so it would feed your headphones and/or monitors too.


I think you probably can take a 1/4" balanced cable and go from the Art output to the Axe rear input but I've no idea how well it's going to work, or how good it will sound.

Hope that's helpful. Welcome to HR. :)
 
Thanks for the insight! Thats what i was afraid of. I thought the art pro was an all in one vocal pre amp. Plug in and go.....i guess its not. Can you recommend a standard rack mount pre amp that i could use? I am kind of OCD when it comes to the layout of the rack gear lol.

Thanks!
 
The ART Pro VLA II is not a preamp. It is a 2-channel compressor that expects a line-level input. You'll need a preamp of some sort to raise your mic level to line level, then feed that signal into one of the channels of the VLA.

I agree that an audio interface is going to be your best bet. Heck, even the Behringer UMC204HD has inserts on both input channels, so you can loop in your compressor with an insert cable. Not a bad way to spend $125 USD towards your home studio, in my opinion.
 
Thanks for the insight! Thats what i was afraid of. I thought the art pro was an all in one vocal pre amp. Plug in and go.....i guess its not. Can you recommend a standard rack mount pre amp that i could use? I am kind of OCD when it comes to the layout of the rack gear lol.

Thanks!

If you like rack gear there are plenty of rackmount audio interfaces out there. I ran a motu 828mk2 on MacOS until quite recently.
That was an older mac with firewire, though. Newer ones would need an adapter. :(

If you're interface shopping, use the term 'interface' rather than 'preamp',
and make sure anything your considering has at least one preamp built in, with phantom power, and at least a pair of additional line inputs.
 
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The ART Pro VLA II is not a preamp. It is a 2-channel compressor that expects a line-level input. You'll need a preamp of some sort to raise your mic level to line level, then feed that signal into one of the channels of the VLA.

I agree that an audio interface is going to be your best bet. Heck, even the Behringer UMC204HD has inserts on both input channels, so you can loop in your compressor with an insert cable. Not a bad way to spend $125 USD towards your home studio, in my opinion.

That's what I was going to say. (The first part, anyway :) )

The mic preamp is the Art pro MPA
 
Thanks everyone for the insight. I just have to shake my head at myself. I cant believe i didn't realize that before I bought it lol. Ill be looking at getting a simple pre amp to loop through the art pro and then into the axe fx so its just one big happy family. If anyone here has used the art pro, is it good for screams? I am recording a deathcore album and I want to make sure the screams are as solid as possible. If there is something out in the gear universe you could suggest I look into for this, please let me know. I love playing and recording, I just hate getting the setup dialed in lol.

thanks!
 
I just purchased the Behringer Ultragain Pro MIC2200 to use as a preamp. I've read nothing but great reviews and I think it will do the trick. Ill run this into the art pro and then into the axe. Unless i am wrong, I believe that setup should work...........................? lol


EDIT: JK, i cancelled it because it seems like a total piece of junk. Still hunting for a good interface
 
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If you have recording aspirations and think you're ever likely to record live groups, drum kits, or anything more than a stereo setup,
I'd go with a 'proper' audio interface that covers your IO needs.

If you're just doing a vocal track and some guitar/bass then putting a preamp in front of your axe will probably suffice,
but my gut is telling me a dedicated audio interface is likely to be the better plan, looking to the future.

There are some great interface from Tascam for not a huge amount of money.
Motu have some good stuff too.

What sort of mac are you on? Do you have Firewire? Thunderbolt?
 
Ok cool thank you! I returned the art pro too. Now i am just looking for an all in one. I am using a nee macbook pro. Im not sure what you mean with fire wire or thunderbolt though lol. Can you explain it more? Thank you!
 
The available data ports on your macbook dictate what interfaces you can buy.
I think brand new ones probably only have USB-C/thunderbolt? Older ones would regular USB + maybe firewire too.
 
Sounds like all you have so far is the Axe and a computer.

First off, I like the Art pro vla comp, but it's not needed. Your daw will have in the box compression.

Now the Axe, doesn't that have almost every known to man guitar sound in it? You should have compression in there.

An interface, and a daw sounds like what you need at this point.

But you say you're doing a metal album?

Live drums? Whole band playing, laying each part down seperately? All things to consider

Probably gonna be getting more stuff.
:D
 
We are just using logic drums, laying down track by track for guitar and bass. Then there is no way to record vocals. Its super annoying lol.
 
So you already have logic on the computer? Check off DAW from the list then.
Interface, mic, somthing to monitor with.
 
Lol thats what im trying to do. I just dont know what to buy lol. Something i can plug my mic into and then plug the interface into my axe fx.
 
Lol thats what im trying to do. I just dont know what to buy lol. Something i can plug my mic into and then plug the interface into my axe fx.


It might be what you meant but just to clarify, an audio interface would be the central point through which all of your inputs and outputs pass.

So Mic -> Interface -> Computer
Axe -> Interface -> Computer
Computer -> Interface -> Monitors

Interface is always in the middle ^^.

I'm afraid I can't really make any specific suggestions 'cos I don't really know the thunderbolt/USB-C market, but hopefully someone does.
 
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