About compressor

[Nur Madi]

Hi everybody, I am glad to be hear, I started record my songs yesterday! but I have been reading and trying for months, I have red a lot about compressor and I know that I need it for my classical guitar rumba like rhythm, I feel the whole track sounds more consistent, I record at peak level of -6 DB, as I have only two tracks guitar and vocal, I record them separately, my question is if I choose the threshold of 12 and ratio of 3/1 does that mean that that the track should reach the nine DB level to be compressed or any amount that exceed the 12 DB threshold will be compressed by one to third?
want to know is it right what I do, my track reaches -6 db once and -9 db for times, is it good setting the choose 12 DB as a threshold?
If I have three or for tracks which if mixed them, they will clip, does reducing their volumes before mixing them work? or should I record everything again with lower levels?
How do I know If I need to compress my vocal and solo guitar, I am going to compress the rhythm as I mentioned and then after mixing compress the whole track by a little amount does that sound reasonable?
Thank you very much, I know a lot of question, but I hope you will help me?

 

[Crescendo]

Everything that exceeds -12dB will be compressed with that setting, yes. We can't decide for you if it's a good setting though, especially without any sound clips. It's your own ears that decide in the end.

 

[mixsit]

Everything that exceeds -12dB will be compressed with that setting, yes. We can't decide for you if it's a good setting though, especially without any sound clips. It's your own ears that decide in the end.

Well, kinda sorta- but then maybe not. (The first part..

If I have three or for tracks which if mixed them, they will clip, does reducing their volumes before mixing them work? or should I record everything again with lower levels?

Madi, nothing has been said -or accounted for- ATTACK time. These numbers are fine for sort of begining to talk about 'such and such will happen at a given level, threshold and ratio' That's fine for a 'static' example, but in a real situation we also have attack time -which is a rate of reduction to the final amount of gain reduction- if the signal is just 'sitting there' long enough.

The up shot is we will set up attack, and release, and ratio and threshold for a compromise (sometimes- not always) of settings that strike a balance of what makes the track set well- and sound good. To come full circle here, that also involves (often..) alowing some amount of the peaks to survive- so we don't kill the life of the tracks.
Thus, quite often we have some signal left in our tracks and mix that is above what 'the numbers on the dial' say.

And no rerecording isn't called for. Dial in the sounds (compressions etc) and adjust you levels.. that is mixing.


Brought to you by Don't let friends paint by numbers

 

[Crescendo]

Indeed, the faster the attack time, the less you're letting through any peaks/transients. It is crucial that OP understands what each parameter does.