Here's a song I just recorded live with a channel of ART DUAL LEVELAR VLA comp and a Focusrite ISA One preamp on each mic. The VLA kept the channels in check as Nationals are very dynamic instruments.
Your VLA will probably sound better than my old Dual Levelar. Mine is the cheap but made in USA model without the meters, 2 knobs for threshold and output, and three switches. I have a few of these because they are pretty great for light compression and limiting!
Here's an old sound on sound review of the Dual Levelar VLA
https://web.archive.org/web/20150608...rtlevelar.html