REALLY compressed

[solaris0031]

ok i have a DBX 266Xl compressor (is this a good one? i can still return it right now)

and i wanna try out getting really extreme compression, (like incubus maybe?) and since my compressor is 2 channel, i was wondering what would happen if i ran a mic into the first channel, and then plugged the 1st channel's output into the second channel's input, and sent the second channel's output to wherever (mixer, computer etc). would i get anything like a lot of noise or something? is there any reason not to do this?

[Adam P]

Go for it. I just used this technique on some growly death metal vocals this past weekend. I used the first channel of compression as a peak limiter...10:1 ratio, about 6-8dB of gain reduction and brought back up to about +6 with the makeup gain. Then out into the second channel of compression with about a 3:1 ratio and similar gain reduction, brought back up to around +3 with makeup gain. I was using a Behringer Composer Pro compressor, and an EV 635a mic, by the way. Unless your compressors are noisy on their own, or you squash the hell out of your signals and bring up the noise floor a whole lot, you shouldn't have any problems. Just make sure to disable the stereo compression option, if it has that, so that you're in dual mono mode.