Thanks Phineas! Great to have your point of view. And thanks for the complements, too. :)
At first I took yr comment to mean that a quantiser could replace the VCA, but I see what yr saying - I could go for a smaller hp quantiser and then free up some space for a bigger VCA. :)
Any recommendations for VCAs I should be looking at? Maybe something like this?
Or this?
Cheers!