A signal flow diagram

J

jamesl8

New member
Here's a diagram of what I've been thinking about and researching for the past few weeks.

-If I use inserts as shown on channel 4 for, say, compression on that channel, does a patchbay's settings allow bidirectional signal from the one TRS plugged into the ch 4 insert? i.e. can an in and out on the back of the patchbay going to and from the compressor return signal back to the in on the front of the patchbay and back to the insert?

-and with hardware compressors, if i want to add different levels of compression to each track, do i need to have as many compressors as i have channels?

View attachment Signal Flow.pdf
 
First question:
If I understand your question correctly, yes, it can pass the signal both ways through one plug. That is, as long as your patchbay is balanced. (Unbalanced patchbays are becoming more rare. Most today are balanced meaning they use three conductor jacks.) Insert points make use of those three conductors by way of the in and out sharing a common ground conductor.

Second question:
Yes, if you want the channels to each have different levels of compression, they must be kept separate. Keep in mind that some compressors are stereo and can function as two separate channels if unlinked.

You could also create a sort of parallel compression loop using aux sends and a single compressor. The amount of send level could be different for each channel. After re-blending the returned compression with the original channels, you may have fairly good results.

An alternative would be to subgroup several mixer channels together and then insert only one compressor into the group channel. But then, all channels would be getting the same level of compression because it is shared.
 
Last edited:
Thanks for the reply. That's great to know that a balanced patchbay is what i need for my inserts to work the way i want to use them. I'm close to buying my first analogue mixer, and I'm getting a much clearer view now of how all this hardware works together.

Thanks again.
 
Are you certain that you will need a compressor on every channel? While tracking, compressors should only be used for correcting dynamics issues. I typically track raw and only compress tracks (that need it) later prior to mixing. That usually ends up being only bass, snare, and vocals, but occasionally other things, depending on the song and how it was played.
 
I certainly do track raw. But when mixing, I've worked inside the DAW for so long that It's easy to just select a track and apply whatever insert i want from a full rack of software options. I just used compression as an example. I'm just wrapping my mind around what hardware I would need to get close to how i'm used to working with software. Man, i love this stuff. This hobby is going to break me, though. I need a 2nd job.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top