Compressing only PART of a program file.

[Richard King]

I'm trying to do a sweetening of an old radio program (vintage 1956). The program is part narration and part music. I would like to compress the music part, but not the narration part. Is there a simple way to use the automation to do this (bypass the compressor until I reach the right part of the program)? I'm using "Classic Compressor". I know there has to be a way, I just haven't found it yet.

[scrubs]

The simplest way, imo, would be to split the file into pieces and drag the parts you want compressed to a separate track and apply the compressor only to that track. Automation would work, too, but would probably take longer to set up properly.

[lifelyrics]

Recently, hubby and I listened to IHR podcast #64, where there is an amazing section on compression. He plays a recording of big band w/ scat singer, and then the scat singer's voice disappears in the mix. He explains the settings he used, and it totally brought out the parts of the singing that were buried.

We also subscribe to some old radio show podcasts, and I was left wishing the person who puts out the "case closed" series knew how to apply compression to those old shows. We were listening to a Sam Spade episode, and the music just buries his voice, right at the climax of the story! (what a shame) Also, there was a part with an elderly woman's voice in the scene, and the pitches were so high and inconsistent, it was very difficult to make out her words.

I don't know if a lot of people already know about the IHR podcasts, but I'm really glad for them. Just wanted to share about that.

Good luck on your project!

[Richard King]

Originally Posted by scrubs

The simplest way, imo, would be to split the file into pieces and drag the parts you want compressed to a separate track and apply the compressor only to that track.

That did the trick. Thanks for the suggestion.

[Richard King]

Originally Posted by lifelyrics

Recently, hubby and I listened to IHR podcast #64, where there is an amazing section on compression. He plays a recording of big band w/ scat singer, and then the scat singer's voice disappears in the mix. He explains the settings he used, and it totally brought out the parts of the singing that were buried.

We also subscribe to some old radio show podcasts, and I was left wishing the person who puts out the "case closed" series knew how to apply compression to those old shows. We were listening to a Sam Spade episode, and the music just buries his voice, right at the climax of the story! (what a shame) Also, there was a part with an elderly woman's voice in the scene, and the pitches were so high and inconsistent, it was very difficult to make out her words.

I don't know if a lot of people already know about the IHR podcasts, but I'm really glad for them. Just wanted to share about that.

Good luck on your project!

I was not at all familiar with IHR until you mentioned it. It can be found here: http://www.insidehomerecording.com/ and, when I get some time, I'll be digging in. Thanks

[hazerlazer]

You should be able to write in the bypass just the same as you would a volume fade.

[pipelineaudio]

you can, and in case the plugin does not have bypass as a parameter, you can actually bypass the plug container itself in reaper

[Richard King]

I appreciate the comments. I got it done for the project I was working on. I copied and pasted the whole song and made if into a 4 track rather than a two track song. I then programed a cross fade between tracks 1/2 and 3/4, compressing the portion that I needed to on tracks 3/4. I'll have to play around a bit more to figure out the other methods one of these days, when I get the time.