Recording with electronic instruments

[tamky]

Maybe I'm wrong but it seems to me that, whether you're using a drim machine, synthisizer, workstation or vst's, it's difficult to know whether the original sound coming from the machine already has been elctronically modified with compression, reverb, etc. The possibility always exists that you are compressing an already compressed (or otherwise modified) sound during recording/mixdown. I'm talking about the basic 'sound' from these machines that exist before you would apply any internal reverb or other modifications; the basic sampled sound. Don't you think the original sample was recorded with some sort of studio 'magic' already applied? If nothing else but to make the sample sound good and help 'sell' the product.

 

[LfO]

For one thing, a whole lot of sounds from electronic instruments aren't based on samples at all - any "analog synth" sounds are created totally within the circuits and logic of the instruments. Same for 808 drums and such. I've never encountered a compressor in a synth, though - if you can control the ADSR envelope, you don't really need one.

As far as instruments that DO rely on recorded samples, I don't know - I'm fairly certain that most loops, hits and one-shots on sampled CDs typcially come with enough processing to make them usable (as in, already compressed). I'd guess that the samples in a quality instrument are similarly set up.

When it comes down to it, if you can't tell if something needs compressing by listening to it, you shouldn't be using a compressor - you need to learn it before you use it. I'm not trying to pointing fingers - I'm certainly in the learning stage myself.