What do you guys compress while tracking?

[Coco]

I never used to track anything with compression, but now I am getting a little more bold and a tad more care free in my compression whilst tracking methods.

I usually compress vocals lightly through an 1176 and limit the peaky vocalists.

I've been running keyboards through the 1176 as well while tracking and have been happy with the results and the fellow that mixes things for me hasn't been bitching at me yet.

For bass, I'd like to try it as well and drum room mics. I want to set up one room mic specifically for me to decimate with a compressor in lieu of mucking up other room mics by compressing too much and save the poor mixer from having to run overly squasghed tracks through an expander later down the line.

As my compressor arsenal slowly grows, so does my compulsion to compress while tracking.

Just curious here.

[Professor]

I'm probably in a significant minority here, so it's weird mine would be the first reply, but I don't compress anything on the way in.
I have a couple of outboard, front-end compressors who occasionally look up at me longingly, with big puppy dog eyes, asking, 'don't you love us anymore?'
And I do love and care for them, but the truth is that the recording system has so much dynamic range that I just don't like to lose any of it on the way in.

I guess when I think about it, it relates to my theory that good engineers are absolute pack-rats.
Consider it, we want to capture every sound, save every sound, and usually the disorder goes way beyond sound, and we save manuals, and broken mic clips, and original boxes, and little bits of wire, and all that other crap we build up into piles and piles in the back room. For me, I guess the audio is the same thing. I know that the real instrument I'm recording has a fantastic dynamic range, and that my recording system has the capacity to capture every last bit and nuance of the performance. So I set my microphone(s) and check levels by having the player play their expected loudest passage and set the preamp so I have about 12-18dB of headroom within the DAW. Every last bit of range is saved and my pack-rat lifestyle continues.

-Jeremy

[chovie d]

no compression on the way in for me either Professor, but Im a total newb and have neither fancy compressors nor the knowledge of how to use them.

[getreel]

better to not compress on the way in if you're not sure. If you destroy the transients, you can't get them back. You can always tame them later with a compressor at mix time. I track to analog so overs aren't an issue for me so much. DAW peeps may need gentle compression on the way in more.

[spacelabstudio]

Usually vocals only. Occasionally a guitar, but very lightly just to beef it up a bit. Watched an old pro in Nashville run just about everything through a 160a while tracking, and I stole his trick.

chris

[drumsound]

I will or won't compress while tracking depending on the source, players, and desired outcome. I try to get the entire band (with a scratch vox) during the basics. I often make my decision on wether to compress or not once I hear the players playing together. Fairly often I compress bass. Sometimes BD and SD hit a compressor. Every now and then I'll compress the room mics. Really strum-y acoustics guitars can benefit from some taming. I do like to compress vocals. A lot of times I use two comps in series on vocals. Sometimes I feel the need to send the singer an uncompressed signal in their phones.

[cgarges]

I almost always listen to a source without compression and if the need arises, I'll plug one in and listen to that. Vocals usually need it just to make them audible in the context of a band. Piano is similar. Bass often needs it. Kick drum on occasion and sometimes snare, too, just to make the levels and/or attack envelopes a little more predictable, if necessary. Acoustic string instruments sometimes benefit from something either for peak-limiting or for some sort of tube-esque character. Sometimes I'll compress room mics if I'm working in a smaller room and the room mics can be compressed to bring up ambience without sounding too compressed. (This goes for drums and/or other instruments, too.) Oftentimes, acoustic bass benefits from a good bit of compression, so I'll do a little bit on the way in and a little more during the mix (this is the way I go with much of my compression schemes). Horns almost never need it. Distorted electric guitars almost never need it. Congas usually benefit. Other percussion instruments vary wildly. Organ usually benefits from something gritty.

If it's a choice between something that might not work and not compressing, I'll pretty much always choose not compressing. But I ALWAYS listen to a source without compression first.

Chris Garges
Charlotte, NC

[amishsixstringer]

I squish the shit out of everything. I record mostly hard rock. I use compression more as a tool to make things punch than to make them leveled out. Slow attacks, fast release high ratios. CRUNCh MMMMM I love distortion and compression. I don't care what anyone says. SMASH THAT SHIT.

Neil

[doc]

I go through my phases fairly regularly from no compression on the way in to compressing everything. When I do compress on the front end I compress at very low ratios (no higher than 3:1) and try to keep it from more than 3 dB of gain reduction. Then I'll compress again during mixing with similar settings using the idea that it's better to make my compressors work less twice, than really hard once.

It entirely depends on what band/musicians are in front of me too. Every so often I have a band that screams out for heavy compression and other times a band that sounds amazing with none.

It helps that I have some really nice compressors (Crane Song STC-8, Demeter VTCL-2, Distressor) so that when I do use it on the front end at very low compression settings it just makes things sound better. I swear the Crane Song just makes things sound sweeter without compressing at all.

-Doc

[runrunrun]

lots of great comments so far!

does everyones opinions change on tracking with compression when its to analog instead of digital? or do you just track a little hotter and let the tape tame things down?

[JohnDavisNYC]

I don't have any 'rules' about compression on the way in, but generally I will compress only for flavor (like completely mangling a room mic on the way in) or dynamic control (rock singers who don't have good mic technique, for an example)... then there are other times when it's nice for the flavor or feel of the compressor, for instance, when I play bass DI I always like the feel of either a little 160a or 1176 on the way in, just so it feels a bit more squishy... and shitty rock bassists always get the squeeze, either with the 1176 or LA4.

As with every question, it is all about the players and the music. Jazz I generally NEVER compress anything, unless there is a guitarrist with poor dynamic control or something.

If it's going somewhere else to mix, I would only track compressors on things for fun (room mics, deliberately smashed vocals, etc.).. or serious dynamic control. I had a VERY VERY BAD experience yesterday mixing some rock tracks (recorded at a studio here in Brooklyn which shall remain nameless) that were tracked with some of the worst compression decisions I have ever heard.... Spaced pair OH's through (I'm assuming) distressors, NOT STEREO LINKED, totally smashing any depth and tone out of the drums... with that obnoxious leading edge 'tick' being the only thing coming through... so much for imaging, as the open hihats had a pretty awesome auto-pan across the stereo field as the comps released differently... so shitty. And then a super boring room mic sound with absolutely no compression.... um... yeah. So I got to smash that, which was fun, but unfortunately the most important pair of mics which should have defined the sound of the kit, were smashed to little useless bits of digital hash. not to mention the vocal which was constantly hitting digital full scale and had tons of clipped, square topped waveforms...

Ok. So, no that I've gotten that out of my system (and hopefully not pissed off the engineer who did theses things too much... please don't ever do that to basic tracks ever again, for the love of all things beautiful in the world)... yeah, only compress stuff either for fun or control, and do it right... or at least print a clean copy of the OH tracks if you really think your compression idea is pretty fresh, because the person who gets it next may like dynamics and stereo imaging.

John

[inverseroom]

I compress almost everything at about 3:1 or 4:1 going in, generally with the Pro VLA. I only record myself, though, and I do the mixing as well...

[JdJ]

I often compress Vox, Bass and and sometimes a drum room mic to tape. Vox and Bass are usually for level management, room mic is usually squashed for effect. Of course, as stated by others, it completely depends on the source, but it's also nice to have more outboard gear available come mixdown- especially when you don't have much.

-J

[DGoody]

I normally use limiting and compression as effect more than affect...... that being the case, I compress often...... I usually slam ambient mics quite a bit..... lightly limit the overhead(s), and vocals always get some..... bass gets it almost as a rule, as does guitar..... most people say it's unnecessary to compress distorted guitar, I disagree in a lot of scenarios..... distorted guitar can be incredibly dynamic, depending on the distortion generator....

I always limit the mix buss, sometimes barely.... these things for me are for flavor more often than dynamic control....[/i]

[leftofthedial]

I go directly from my mic pres into my digital recorder then monitor the recorder tape outs via my console. I can patch in a compressor if I want, but I find that if I target 0dbvu on my console for the nominal level of the tape returns, I never even get close to peaking out my digital recorder and have plenty of good signal to noise ratio when it comes time to mix.

Hence, I don't feel the need to print any compression. I will however, strap a compressor across the mix bus of the console or on a specific track or two during tracking if I feel it necessary to get a good headphone and cue mix. But none of that gets printed.