alesis 3630 compressor on mixdown

  • Thread starter Thread starter floz26
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floz26

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i know, not a very good compressor, my recorder is not that great either, my recorder is a tascam 8-track, 8-track TAPE recorder that is, not digital. anyways, what i usually do is just plug it into the back of my computer, and mixdown onto the computer. heres my million dollar question: how do i fit my compressor into this??????? my recorder has a mixdown station on it because its a portastudio. how do i plug in my compressor to all this to be able to change vocals on specific tracks and such?? thanks
 
Ive never owned a 3630, but from what Ive read, I think you are better off not knowing how to plug it in. However, since I would like the $1M for this question...if the Tascam has an insert - plug it there.
 
Given a choice between using no-compression or only having a 3630, I would choose no-compression...........
 
Youd be better off downloading a free compressor off the internet (im talking free-ware, not pirated) and loading the song on to the computer. Might be a little more complicated but more worth it i bet.

Wrd

Danny
 
floz26 said:
i know, not a very good compressor, my recorder is not that great either, my recorder is a tascam 8-track, 8-track TAPE recorder that is, not digital. anyways, what i usually do is just plug it into the back of my computer, and mixdown onto the computer. heres my million dollar question: how do i fit my compressor into this??????? my recorder has a mixdown station on it because its a portastudio. how do i plug in my compressor to all this to be able to change vocals on specific tracks and such?? thanks
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Well, I guess you could use the effect send/return on the Tascam to add more or less compression to each individual track. Do you have any open tracks? I'd suggest bouncing the tracks you want to compress, I guess. Really, there's not a lot of really great options to compress already recorded tracks besides these. Despite what others have posted, a plug-in will not work.

If you are wanting to compress the entire mix as you go into your computer, just send the main outs on the Tascam into the 3630 and then out from there into your computer. Be light with it, as you can't undo it! .... well, nless you do it all over again!
 
Only incorporate the 3630's gates to control the inherent "hiss" usually found in taped-based recorders, otherwise you'll introduce unwanted noise artifacts to yoursignal.
 
MISTERQCUE said:
Only incorporate the 3630's gates to control the inherent "hiss" usually found in taped-based recorders, otherwise you'll introduce unwanted noise artifacts to yoursignal.
Click to expand...

The gates on the 3630 suck worse than the compressor.
 
dirtythermos said:
The gates on the 3630 suck worse than the compressor.
Click to expand...

Nope!

The 3630's gates, when used sparingly, will afford some degree of "hiss" control on certain tape-based recording mediums (& I'm not referring to 2" Otari's and the like) such as Tascam cassette recorders & quad-channel R-2-R's. Mind you I'm not recommending unit for levelling, normalizing or even the most basics of dynamic processing for 2-track mixdowns, but the 3630 gates
offer some usefulness is certain situations. It's clips ssssiblance tails off the most nortorious "hiss" producer of them all; drums machines along with "hiss" ctl of analog tapes. Other than that, the 3630 is a useless noise introducing
unit.

Yo' floz26, some basic advice. It's best to insure that during tracking, your levels have been properly set inserting processor to control dynamics & freqy's (be it via eq or comp). The idea is to track the perf as best as you can to avoid running your 2-track mix thru a processor. Of course there will be instances where levelling is needed during mixdown, but overall the 3630 is NOT recommended for this (or for that matter) most processing needs. If you can, invest in a RNC! It'll be well worth your while!!!
Peace
Q.rM
 
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