compressor or limiter?
-
- audio school graduate
- Posts: 12
- Joined: Mon May 24, 2004 1:20 am
- Location: downingtown,pa.
- Contact:
compressor or limiter?
hello all,
the situation is that i self record my music in an analog home studio. it's sort of singer songwriter-esque and is primarily voice and acoustic guitar. the problem is that i prefer to record live (2 mics- vox/guitar) and my songs tend have somewhat dramatic dynamic changes in them which i would prefer to be more rather than less extreme. this means that in order to not peak out the machine during the loud parts, i end up with a couple pounds of hiss on the really really soft parts. i don't mind some hiss obviously, but right now, there is simply too much. i thought maybe a good piece of gear to get to help,if not seriously come to close remedying, the problem would be a good limiter. am i barking up the wrong tree? is a limiter what i want?
my chain is pretty solid, i use an RE-20 and a AT4050 going to 2 bellari mic pre's going directly to an Otari 1 inch. everything is set to max out but not clip at the loudest parts of the songs.
i've tried using compression (a RNC and a behringer multi-com) but i just seem to hear the compression breathing too much because there's not too much instrumentation besides the vox&guitar to cover it up.
is a good limiter what i'm looking for?
or am i needing a compressor?
or am i needing a monkey with a mic tied to it's tail that moves forward and away during the different parts?
for some reason, compressor intimidate me and limiters don't. i'm not looking to alter the tone necessarily, just to keep it within a reasonable dynamic range so i can focus less on worrying about peaking out the machine and more on just performing the song. i am a musician first, engineer second. sort of like when i see a great acoustic performer live. it's all equally audible and i don't hear breathing.
what would you fine folks recommend for my needs in a price range (used) of about $400-$500. it would need to be stereo, preferably independent stereo. someone mentioned "gates" i believe as the name of a company that used to make great limiters back in the day and aren't crazy expensive today?
any suggestions, recommendations or corrections perhaps in what it is i need to do to better my sound would be greatly appreciated,
take care
the situation is that i self record my music in an analog home studio. it's sort of singer songwriter-esque and is primarily voice and acoustic guitar. the problem is that i prefer to record live (2 mics- vox/guitar) and my songs tend have somewhat dramatic dynamic changes in them which i would prefer to be more rather than less extreme. this means that in order to not peak out the machine during the loud parts, i end up with a couple pounds of hiss on the really really soft parts. i don't mind some hiss obviously, but right now, there is simply too much. i thought maybe a good piece of gear to get to help,if not seriously come to close remedying, the problem would be a good limiter. am i barking up the wrong tree? is a limiter what i want?
my chain is pretty solid, i use an RE-20 and a AT4050 going to 2 bellari mic pre's going directly to an Otari 1 inch. everything is set to max out but not clip at the loudest parts of the songs.
i've tried using compression (a RNC and a behringer multi-com) but i just seem to hear the compression breathing too much because there's not too much instrumentation besides the vox&guitar to cover it up.
is a good limiter what i'm looking for?
or am i needing a compressor?
or am i needing a monkey with a mic tied to it's tail that moves forward and away during the different parts?
for some reason, compressor intimidate me and limiters don't. i'm not looking to alter the tone necessarily, just to keep it within a reasonable dynamic range so i can focus less on worrying about peaking out the machine and more on just performing the song. i am a musician first, engineer second. sort of like when i see a great acoustic performer live. it's all equally audible and i don't hear breathing.
what would you fine folks recommend for my needs in a price range (used) of about $400-$500. it would need to be stereo, preferably independent stereo. someone mentioned "gates" i believe as the name of a company that used to make great limiters back in the day and aren't crazy expensive today?
any suggestions, recommendations or corrections perhaps in what it is i need to do to better my sound would be greatly appreciated,
take care
eli
- MASSIVE Mastering
- buyin' a studio
- Posts: 852
- Joined: Mon Aug 23, 2004 6:09 pm
- Location: Chicago (Schaumburg / Hoffman Est.) IL
- Contact:
Re: compressor or limiter?
Most compressors can be used as limiters... There are about a million of them in that price range. DBX, ART...
If you're hearing too much pumping, make some adjustments to the attack and release.
If you're hearing too much pumping, make some adjustments to the attack and release.
John Scrip - MASSIVE Mastering
Re: compressor or limiter?
you can probably find a urei la-4 in that price range. It's a single-channel unit, but they're solid and relatively 'transparent', and if you're hitting the tape that hard you might just notice a difference with the vocals as opposed to if you compressed both guit and vox.
-
- george martin
- Posts: 1296
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:00 pm
- Location: philly
Re: compressor or limiter?
compression will make the changes less extreme. limiting is compression with a ratio higher than 20:1 (generally). rather than playing extremely dynamically and compressing (which again, will lessen the extremity of the changes anyway), why not just play with slightly less dramatic changes? you wont get any pumping and breathing that way.the problem is that i prefer to record live (2 mics- vox/guitar) and my songs tend have somewhat dramatic dynamic changes in them which i would prefer to be more rather than less extreme.
dont get me wrong, it is a very very common practice to compress/limit like your talking about. just dont overlook the most obvious, natural choices before running for more gear.
Re: compressor or limiter?
Awe, you're taking away all our fun.thethingwiththestuff wrote: just dont overlook the most obvious, natural choices before running for more gear.
Well, a lot of it.
- andyg666
- re-cappin' neve
- Posts: 669
- Joined: Tue Jun 17, 2003 9:25 am
- Location: Witchtown, MA
- Contact:
Re: compressor or limiter?
thethingwiththestuff wrote: dont get me wrong, it is a very very common practice to compress/limit like your (sic) talking about.
THE MILLITANT GRAMMARIAN STRIKES AGAIN!!!!!!
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=24295
:ar15: <img src="http://www.doctorandphilip.com/hihatavatar.jpg">
- Mr. Dipity
- carpal tunnel
- Posts: 1528
- Joined: Mon Jun 16, 2003 11:29 am
Re: compressor or limiter?
If you compres/limit, the noise floor comes up with the compression/limiting. It sounds like your gain structure is out a bit at the Balari side of things. Nothing worse than pulling up noise with comp/limiting. Have you thought about de-noising in PT or the new software?
-
- george martin
- Posts: 1296
- Joined: Mon Mar 22, 2004 9:00 pm
- Location: philly
Re: compressor or limiter?
oh no!!!!!!!!!
Re: compressor or limiter?
millitant?andyg666 wrote:thethingwiththestuff wrote: dont get me wrong, it is a very very common practice to compress/limit like your (sic) talking about.
THE MILLITANT GRAMMARIAN STRIKES AGAIN!!!!!!
http://messageboard.tapeop.com/viewtopic.php?t=24295
:ar15: <img src="http://www.doctorandphilip.com/hihatavatar.jpg">
- joelpatterson
- carpal tunnel
- Posts: 1732
- Joined: Tue Jun 10, 2003 5:20 pm
- Location: Albany, New York
Re: compressor or limiter?
Militant grammarian, you got your WORK CUT OUT FOR YOU.
Hope you don't care about spelling.
Hope you don't care about spelling.
Who is online
Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 23 guests