Using two compressors, yes or no

[Dusty Ol' Bones]

Hello, I have a simple question about compression in the signal chain. I recently had to upgrade PCs because my 2008 model running XP just wasn't cutting it anymore. With that, I had to upgrade interfaces because my new machine does not have firewire.

My new interface is the Universal Audio Volt 476P. UAs Volt line of interfaces, at least my model, has a built in compressor that you can engage during recording. The only settings it has are Vocals, Guitar, and Fast (for drums I believe). I know it is very basic but I am somewhat a newbie to mixing, in fact I normally record and outsource the mixing. Recently I have been slowly increasing my mixing knowledge and experimenting with mixing my own stuff.

My question is, if I use the vocal compressor at the front end, is adding a compressor plugin after EQ a bad idea? I have a Universal Audio LA2A plugin that is more adjustable and I would like to use it but have already recorded a handful of songs with the front end compressor engaged. Is having two compressions overkill?

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Huge subject, lol.

There is nothing inherently wrong with using two compressors. Sometimes, it's better to use two different compressors doing two different things (say, one with a high threshold and high ratio to lop off just the very transients, and then a lower ratio/lower threshold for actual dynamic control once the errant peaks are dealt with) than a single compressor.

Should you use the compressor in your interface while tracking and then another one in the mix...? Eh, harder to say. The challenge here is it's kind of hard to "hear" compression when you're also in the room with the source sound. If you're monitoring through headphones, and recording an acoustic guitar with a compressor in line, then in your headphones if you're monitoring the acoustic guitar, you're hearing the (compressed) acoustic... but you're also hearing a little unprocessed acoustic bleeding thrpough as well, and that van really screw with your ability to assed what's going on with the dynamics. Doubly true if you're singing, and listening to yourself through your headphones, bit also "hearing" your voice resonate in your head.

IT can absolutely make sense to compress a bit on input, but 1) I'd be pretty conservative and not get too aggressive, and 2) this is definitely one of those things where you dial everything in the way you think you want it, check your meters and make sure you're not smashing anything more than you mean to, and then go and record a test run of your part fully expecting that when you listen back it may sound more compressed than you mean to, and you may have to back it off.

I'll use some light compression while tracking acoustics, but you do have this feeling of, when you're self recording yourself, and you're holding the guirar you're strumming while spinning knobs on the compressor, that you're playing with fire, a little.

 

[rob aylestone]

I've had people in my studio who insist on compressing the input, before recording. I absolutely hate it, because it limits decisions later on - so what I do is set it up so in their headphones they hear the mic compressed, but I record a clean version AND the compressed version. That's a bit of a pain, but with people who insist it's essential, it keeps them happy like reverb. Their phones have reverb and compression and they're happy. I'm happy later on when I'm putting a mix together. Very rarely is the final compression the one I used during the vocal session.

 

[Papanate]

Like @rob aylestone I’m not using compressors as much anymore - but I've double compressed on the same track before - and then again on the two buss master - it’s a choice thing and depends on what sound you are going for.

 

[Dusty Ol' Bones]

Huge subject, lol.

There is nothing inherently wrong with using two compressors. Sometimes, it's better to use two different compressors doing two different things (say, one with a high threshold and high ratio to lop off just the very transients, and then a lower ratio/lower threshold for actual dynamic control once the errant peaks are dealt with) than a single compressor.

Should you use the compressor in your interface while tracking and then another one in the mix...? Eh, harder to say. The challenge here is it's kind of hard to "hear" compression when you're also in the room with the source sound. If you're monitoring through headphones, and recording an acoustic guitar with a compressor in line, then in your headphones if you're monitoring the acoustic guitar, you're hearing the (compressed) acoustic... but you're also hearing a little unprocessed acoustic bleeding thrpough as well, and that van really screw with your ability to assed what's going on with the dynamics. Doubly true if you're singing, and listening to yourself through your headphones, bit also "hearing" your voice resonate in your head.

IT can absolutely make sense to compress a bit on input, but 1) I'd be pretty conservative and not get too aggressive, and 2) this is definitely one of those things where you dial everything in the way you think you want it, check your meters and make sure you're not smashing anything more than you mean to, and then go and record a test run of your part fully expecting that when you listen back it may sound more compressed than you mean to, and you may have to back it off.

I'll use some light compression while tracking acoustics, but you do have this feeling of, when you're self recording yourself, and you're holding the guirar you're strumming while spinning knobs on the compressor, that you're playing with fire, a little.

Thank you for your input. Yeah, I think I'm playing with fire a little. Due to the setup of the compressor on my interface, there is no way to control whether I am being conservative or aggressive. Like I said above, the compressor only has three settings per input with no adjustment: Vocals, Guitar, or Drums. An important thing I'm worried about is that doing it on the front end is permanent whereas adding it during mixing, I can go back and tweak as needed.

 

[Dusty Ol' Bones]

I've had people in my studio who insist on compressing the input, before recording. I absolutely hate it, because it limits decisions later on - so what I do is set it up so in their headphones they hear the mic compressed, but I record a clean version AND the compressed version. That's a bit of a pain, but with people who insist it's essential, it keeps them happy like reverb. Their phones have reverb and compression and they're happy. I'm happy later on when I'm putting a mix together. Very rarely is the final compression the one I used during the vocal session.

Thank you. I'm not really insistent on anything, hence creating this thread. It's more a factor of, my interface gave me a button, should I push it or not? Like when you have a hammer and everything starts looking like a nail.

 

[Dusty Ol' Bones]

Like @rob aylestone I’m not using compressors as much anymore - but I've double compressed on the same track before - and then again on the two buss master - it’s a choice thing and depends on what sound you are going for.

Good point. There is no rule book stating it is forbidden to use more than one compressor. I like the LA2A because it doesn't seem to have as many parameters and doesn't look as intimidating as some other compression plugins. The more knobs to turn and buttons to push, the more I feel this mixing noob will screw something up.

 

[Farview]

I would nearly always comress on the way in. If it needed to be aggressive, I would beat the peaks back with an LA3 and run that into a slower compressor.

Then in the mix, I would always have a compressor on the vocal bus, but could have compressors on the individual vocal channels as well.

Some of it is genre dependant. I wouldn't compress that much if it was just vocal and acoustic guitar, but when the vocals have to compete with a wall of electric guitars, compression helps.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I do multiple stages of compression all the time, but with a band I know very well. And I compress very lightly on the input. There's nothing worse than overcompressing on the way in and not being able to undo it. For anything I don't know well, I would cautious about compressing during tracking.

 

[Papanate]

Good point. There is no rule book stating it is forbidden to use more than one compressor. I like the LA2A because it doesn't seem to have as many parameters and doesn't look as intimidating as some other compression plugins. The more knobs to turn and buttons to push, the more I feel this mixing noob will screw something up.

Mine is the Logic Compressor - it sounds in one interation just like a LA2A of old.

 

[Dusty Ol' Bones]

I would nearly always comress on the way in. If it needed to be aggressive, I would beat the peaks back with an LA3 and run that into a slower compressor.

Then in the mix, I would always have a compressor on the vocal bus, but could have compressors on the individual vocal channels as well.

Some of it is genre dependant. I wouldn't compress that much if it was just vocal and acoustic guitar, but when the vocals have to compete with a wall of electric guitars, compression helps.

It probably would have helped earlier on in the thread if I had mentioned what I record. The majority of what I do is solo acoustic + vocals.

Sometimes I will have a friend add some acoustic or electric overdubs because he plays guitar much better than me. No bass, drums, or anything else. Of course, there have been a time or two where I will have my friend overdub two or three electric tracks and I will use mute envelopes to carve out where I want the individual tracks to come in and out. Not quite a 'wall' of electric guitars but definitely more to compete with the vocals.

And thanks to advice from this forum several months ago, I have been working on recording my guitar performance first then overdubbing the vocals. Much easier to EQ and mix that way lol.

 

[Dusty Ol' Bones]

In light of the great advice I've gotten in this thread, I posted a song in the Mixing Clinic. This is one where I had the vocal compressor engaged during tracking, then added a light compression from the LA2A after EQ. Thanks everyone!

Thread 'Journey of Old, original song'

May 31, 2025

I posted a song last year and got really good comments, most on my performance though. So I've been working on laying down a guitar track and overdubbing vocals, as opposed to recording everything live. I was surprised how much easier it is to sing when I'm not beating on my guitar at the same time.

This song was recorded by overdubbing my vocals on top of my guitar performance then having a friend overdub his acoustic part and some electric as well. He wrote the chords and I added words. It's a little more complex than the last one I posted.

I would post the lyrics but I want to see if...

• Dusty Ol' Bones
• Replies: 19
• Forum: MP3 Mixing Clinic

• 

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Acoustic music doesn't generally need a lot of compression to sound good, but to get it to "standard" commercial release levels may take substantial amounts of compression.

 

[GONZO-X]

Hello, I have a simple question about compression in the signal chain.

A good technique to learn is parallel compression.

 

[paperhatrecords]

I have never understood why interfaces like this with built in compression setting don't allow you the ability to send both the compressed and dry versions. I know that is extra hardware and software but otherwise I am skeptical if the built in compression is not a waste.

There is something to be said for committing to what sounds good, but honestly you never know until it is all said and done that it is too compressed. You can always compress more but decompression is harder to do well.

 

[Papanate]

Good point. There is no rule book stating it is forbidden to use more than one compressor. I like the LA2A because it doesn't seem to have as many parameters and doesn't look as intimidating as some other compression plugins. The more knobs to turn and buttons to push, the more I feel this mixing noob will screw something up.

I use two Logic compressor - The Studio Fet @ 1.4/1 and the Vintage Opto also @ 1.4/1 - The Studio Fet is an emulation of a Urei 1176LN Blackface while the Vintage Opto is based on the Teletronix LA-2A - they are really neat and musical in combination - and barely touching the signal - but it adds enough.

 

[shmaller]

Reading this thread, maybe I'm using too many compressors...

When tracking I run a lot of stuff through a 1073 into a WA-2A and then into my 2i2 interface. Usually the sound that will be predominant; like, for an acoustic guitar, the close mic will go through this chain, but the room mic will just go to the 2i2. (Anything DI I split the signal at my tuner pedal and send a completely dry signal to the interface as well.) I play with the knobs on the 1073 until I'm happy with the sound and it consistently pushes the WA-2A to about 1-3 dB of gain reduction, maybe 5 dB at the loudest point. Usually I'm in "Compress" mode, but for vocals I will sometimes switch to "Limit" mode, because I like the way it sounds and the texture of the limiting. Situational though.

Then, once a track is in Reaper, I'm pretty liberal with the uses for the UA 1176 plugin which I nabbed during a free giveaway. Vocals, acoustic guitars, bass limiters, anything that I just want louder. I like the way it sounds. In the same way, I'll dial it in to about 1-3 dB of consistent gain reduction. Usually I use a pretty slow attack and deal with harsh transients with Reaper's built-in limiter / clipper but depends what the signal needs.

For drums I also really like Tone Empire's Loc Ness plugin for compression / distortion / saturation. At times on my last album I had this plugin on the kick, snare, toms, overheads, and then again on the drum bus itself. Was that overkill? My laptop's CPU would say yes, but my ears at the time liked it.

I also frequently use Analog Obsession's free COMPER plugin for sidechain compression. I often put a compressor on the bass triggered by the kick drum with a super fast attack and release. I'll also usually put all the instruments into one big bus and all the vocals into another, and compress the instrument track slightly when the vocals come in; or maybe just a few instruments, again it's situational.

Then on the mix bus I'm slapping that 1176 on there one more time for loudness and glue.

So that signal chain for a single track might look like mic WA-2A -> track 1176 -> bus COMPER -> mix 1176.

9 times out of 10 I'm EQing before I compress, but maybe also after -- something like, duck the nasty frequencies away first using Reaper's built-in EQ (super transparent), so that the compressor isn't wasting its juice on them, then a more colorful EQ aftewards for sound shaping / saturation / etc (usually Sie-Q by SoundToys).

But my music is big and loud as hell. If I was tracking a classical guitar performance I'd strip a lot of this out.

 

[Papanate]

Reading this thread, maybe I'm using too many compressors...

But my music is big and loud as hell. If I was tracking a classical guitar performance I'd strip a lot of this out.

You are running a Mic PreAmp into a Compressor into a 2i2 Mic Preamp? Would you post a clip of this signal chain in action?