Pre-amp and Compressor connection??

O

Obstacle1

New member
Hey, how can i route my compressor via insert on my pre? My compressor has an Audio In and Out XLR, 2 send 1/4 and a return 1/4. Which should I be using and what cables will I need? I was messing around with different routings but the only one which worked made everything really quiet, so much so that I had to turn the gain, level and fader to full just to make the recording audible, but as you can imagine everything was ridiculously distorted. As soon as i pulled out the insert cable my signal was back to normal.

Any help appreciated.

Thanks
 
Probably a couple things were going on. You were routing to the compressor, the compressor was on a high compression ratio, and you didn't turn up the makeup gain on the compressor. Those are the first things I'd look into.
 
hey, not to thread jack, but I have a similar problem. I had rented a compressor over the weekend and was trying to get it to work with my EMU card pre. I put the mic to the compressor, and then the out of the compressor to the pre on the EMU but couldnt get it to work except on BYPASS mode, which of course means it wasnt doing anything. It was a condensor mic, so I turned the phantom power on, but was sure if the phantom power goes to the mic with the compressor between it and the preamp.

I am thinking of buying a RNC, so I want to make sure it'll work just fine before I do, since I couldnt get that one to work.

But later that day I put the compressor in front of a SM58 to a small vocal amp and it worked fine BTW. Just couldnt get it to work on my recording set up
 
ikijapan said:
I put the mic to the compressor, and then the out of the compressor to the pre on the EMU
Click to expand...
again......preamp, THEN compressor.

in short, if your EMU doesn't have inserts, you won't be able to use a compressor with it.


cheers,
wade
 
SonicAlbert said:
Probably a couple things were going on. You were routing to the compressor, the compressor was on a high compression ratio, and you didn't turn up the makeup gain on the compressor. Those are the first things I'd look into.
Click to expand...

Thanks, but I'm sure it was something to do with connections because I played around with pretty much every setting scenario in order to find the right sound :)

Big Kenny said:
which pre and which compressor?
Click to expand...

A Peavey Pv-8 and Behringer Composer MDX2100

mrface2112 said:
does your preamp have an Insert connection?
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Yes - I have been using this connection. May it be the cable type i was using? I'm not too familiar with TRS and TS.

Thanks for everyones help
 
Obstacle1 said:
Thanks, but I'm sure it was something to do with connections because I played around with pretty much every setting scenario in order to find the right sound :)



A Peavey Pv-8 and Behringer Composer MDX2100



Yes - I have been using this connection. May it be the cable type i was using? I'm not too familiar with TRS and TS.

Thanks for everyones help
Click to expand...

You need a y splitter.... basically it will be a stereo (or trs <tip-ring-sleeve>) 1/4" male plug on one side, then it will split off into two plugs on the other side.... these plugs could be 1/4" TS <tip-sleeve> plugs or they could be two XLR plugs. Either way, one will be called tip and one will be called ring... one will be used to send from the preamp to the compressor and the other will be used to return the signal from the compressor to the preamp.

search for hosa TRS insert cables and you should find them.
 
An insert jack on most units (if there is only one, rather than separate jacks for I/O), is a "stereo"-style jack (three-ring type), but instead of using the three rings to send two different signals + ground, it send through either the tip or ring, and receives through the other. To break it up into input/output, you need to get a cable like the following:

http://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/STP202/

It essentially break the tip and ring up into two separate tip-sleeve 1/4" jacks, the tip-sleeve jack plugging into the input on, say, your compressor, while the ring-sleeve jack plugs into the output of the same piece of equipment.

For better explanation see google, enter such terms as "insert jack" :)
 
In general you cannot place a mic into compressor then into mic preamp. It will not work. Mic preamp first then to whatever. If compressor first too low signal to pass through..that is what a preamp does ......boost signal.
 
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