Recording Levels...

JKestle

JKestle

New member
Rock and Roll Music, 24bit, 44.1:

How much of an impact do you think compressing to hard disk has on the overall level (RMS) of the recording after all is said and done? (percussion especially)

Would you say it is absolutely necessary (in the long run) to learn compression well enough to compress while recording?

OR

Would you say it really makes no difference compressing before or after tracking, as long as the equipment/plug-in is up to par?
 
All things being equal, I don't think it makes a big difference. On drums, compression can make the transient bigger compared to the decay of the hit.
If you know where you are going with your sound, go ahead and compress. If you don't, save it for later.
 
compressing drums at tracking no matter what the medium tends to make them smaller while accentuating all the noise and crappy artifacts present in the room...

bang the shit out of the meters...if its digital make it get square and back it off a touch......or put on a brickwall limiter...but not compression...
 
Actually compression can make things sound bigger or thinner, or leave them sounding almost the same depending on WHAT compressor you are using, the material you recorded, and HOW you set the compressor.

Although Alan Parson would approve of the above statement I don't think that it is 100% true, seeing as I compress the hell out of drums and get a pretty big sound--certainly a bigger sound than what came in.

The funny thing is Alan Parson has, in my opinion, some pretty thin drums going on in a lot of his work, notably Dark Side of the Moon. Those drums aren't big! (Maybe back then... not now.)
 
Thanks for replying guys, I appreciate it.

In term of gain reduction, at what point do you find compressing drums makes them seem weaker?

It still seems logical to me that by controling transients and raising RMS by compressing to tape would make it easier to get the perception of a louder mix (in rock music specifically).

Understand I'm saying you need to know your compression and which instruments need it to do this well, and if you do you would not allow a weaker signal to be recorded.

What is the general practice in big league studios?
 
JKestle said:
In term of gain reduction, at what point do you find compressing drums makes them seem weaker?
Click to expand...
At the point where impact is sacrificed for the sake of loudness?

It still seems logical to me that by controling transients and raising RMS by compressing to tape would make it easier to get the perception of a louder mix (in rock music specifically).
Click to expand...
We can do that from either end, so the choice might better come down to our skill level and which tools we have to get there.
Wayne
 
mixsit said:
At the point where impact is sacrificed for the sake of loudness?
Click to expand...


Clarification, I was looking for a gain reduction decible level for compressing drums, i.e. 6db

but that's ok, I get your point.
Thanks a lot for replying mixit :D
 
If I understand your question, that's going to be a moving target, one of those 'it depends'.
You can do some peak limiting that knocks off several db and sound very neutral sometimes, or do other styles of compression that might be considered making drums sound 'stronger' by some terms.
Another generalization you could make is that you start loosing impact when you taking away too much of the attack. (Puts a lid somewhat on the peak limit route) From my experiences, there are some nice healthy (as in on the more natural sounding) snare tones for example that it seems you can pretty much kiss goodbye as an option once you get very far into the 'loud-levels' thing.
Yes? :D
Wayne
 
yes, I understand and agree

The point of this post was for me to look into professional technique.

I know a lot of posters here recomend to "record dry, no eq, compression, effects, etc."

I also know that this recomendation is based on people just starting out who need to save that stuff for mixing because they don't have the knowledge to make those decisions in the tracking stage.

But assuming that you are experienced with your compressor (in every sense of the term), when would you compress the stuff that always needs compression in Rock music. Before or after getting to tape.
 
One of the big reasons in the past for compressing or eqing to tape, was due to limited resorces. You only had so many compressors of a certain type. If you wanted to compress more tracks than you had compressors, you had to do some on the way in. This isn't a big problem with plugins. Eq ing on the way in would affect how the tape saturated. It was also a good idea to add highs (if you knew it was called for) on the way in. That way you weren't turning up the tape hiss by adding highs at mixdown.
 
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