compressor volume/gain

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magritte
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compressor volume/gain

Post by magritte » Thu Jul 31, 2003 10:59 am

i am running the compressor through my board using the effects in/out so i dont have to run every instrument through it. i was wondering what level i should make the volume/compression on the actual compressor? half way? or should i bump it all the way up?

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joeysimms
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Re: compressor volume/gain

Post by joeysimms » Thu Jul 31, 2003 11:44 am

Try experimenting and hear what happens. Probably with the more expensive boxes, people will do 1.5:1 or even 1:1 and use more makeup gain because they like the sound, but a cheaper compressor will generally add more noise if you crank the makeup gain. I pretty much keep my rnc at unity, maybe a little boost if it's bass.

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magritte
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Re: compressor volume/gain

Post by magritte » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:33 pm

joeysimms wrote:Try experimenting and hear what happens. Probably with the more expensive boxes, people will do 1.5:1 or even 1:1 and use more makeup gain because they like the sound, but a cheaper compressor will generally add more noise if you crank the makeup gain. I pretty much keep my rnc at unity, maybe a little boost if it's bass.
what do you mean 1.5:1? i'm not good with this stuff really.

the unit i got is a dbx 160x. not sure if that is considered 'good' or not.

give me a starting point to get a good sound from it if you would. thanks.

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joeysimms
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Re: compressor volume/gain

Post by joeysimms » Thu Jul 31, 2003 1:46 pm

I was referring to ratio's. 1.5 to 1 is barely compressing at all. The 160x is definitely good, but I meant more like an La2a, or an 1176. Neither of which do I own, but I've read here and there that people like the sound if these boxes so much, that they'll have it running but barely compressing at all, just for the sound of the box itself.

As far as a starting point, I'm a beginner too. Your settings will be dependant upon what it is you're compressing, as well as what you want out of it. Start twiddling the knobs so you can hear what happens to the sound. Threshold sets at what level you want the compressor to begin "working". Ratio is the degree of compressing you want. Attack is how soon after reaching the threshold do you want the compressor to start. Release is how long to hold the compressed sound before it lets go.

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Al
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Re: compressor volume/gain

Post by Al » Thu Jul 31, 2003 4:49 pm

Are you using the "Invisible compression" method. I gather you are if your going through your effects sends,then turn the compression ratio up full,and then when you bring this back through your auxes listen,too much,back of the ratio control a touch.

I find that this is the best method,as you can really hear what it's doing through your aux bus.

A very cool method which i use a lot too, a lot more subtle than using your insert sends,and more scope to compress things individually.

AL

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Re: compressor volume/gain

Post by The Gibbon » Fri Aug 01, 2003 8:33 am

I guess I'm just a bit confused as to why you would be putting your compressor on the FX send......to use compression you need to process the whole signal, not just part of it. Keep it on your channel insert. Unless you can give me a good reason to send the signal on the FX send.

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wenzel.hellgren
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Re: compressor volume/gain

Post by wenzel.hellgren » Fri Aug 01, 2003 9:04 am

Sometimes (especially with drums) it can sound better to compress the f*ck out of it, and mix the squashed signal in with the original. gives it a good compression kick but doesn't make the whole thing sound too squashed.

this is when putting the comp. on a send would work well.

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Re: compressor volume/gain

Post by tenaciousjay » Fri Aug 01, 2003 11:42 am

I've always automatically used compressors on the inserts, but with all the talk I've seen recently of "multing" a track and compressing that and bringing it back underneath I never even thought of just running it from a send. It seems like that would work just as well and could give someone with a small mixing board more options at mixtime. It's nice to have a fader for fine control of the level, but if you've run out of tracks I don't see why that way wouldn't be an option.

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Re: compressor volume/gain

Post by Kyle » Fri Aug 01, 2003 12:53 pm

Al
Would you mind going into a litle more detail on the "invisible comp" method? It sound interesting, how do you use it?

Thanks
Kyle

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