Black Finger as a Compressor in the Studio

  • Thread starter Thread starter mattkw80
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Well, I did get a really great guitar sound, but I am afriad of over compressing.

In fact, I bought this thing mostly to get "old tube compression" on my vocals, but now, I'm not sure if I could ever play guitar again without this thing on in the signal chain.

It gives the guitar sound this 10% more fullness or body. I'm guessing other people wont notice, but as the guy who is playing the guitar, I can really hear it, and it sounds great. And the additional sustain is wicked - I can hold a note a very long time with this compressor.


I did get a setup tip from another site :

Select Lamp for a slower attack than LED
Select Normal mode - squash sounds too squashed for me

Start with Output gain at 12:00 and leave it for now.
Start with Pre-gain around 12:00 and dial it in to a good volume
Adjust Compression up until the red status light is bouncing on and off about where I expect, and then use the Output gain to match the bypassed volume to the effected volume.
 
mattkw80 said:
Is the Electro Harmonix Black Finger just for guitar?

Or, could I use it for general use on Vocals, Snare, Kick, etc?

The EH write up on it says.....

""the Black Finger uses the same professional-grade techniques that the most revered, vintage and mega-thousand dollar, high-end studio compressors use, except that it's in the form of an affordable, compact foot pedal!""

Does this mean, since I can't afford a $3000 LA-2A, that I can still get some pretty good vintage tube color out of this instead ?

Anybody else using this in the studio, but not as a guitar pedal ?
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There's a pretty well known engineer dude named Joel Hamilton who often sings the praises of the 12ay7 and Blackfinger on another message board, where both units also get a lot of love. Apparently some folks like these units so much that there was some push to try to develop a diy project to rack them and put transformers on the inputs and outputs.

IIRC, the Blackfinger apparently has some similarities to their pricey NY-2A compressor. Both are opto with multiple light sources you can choose from for different compression characteristics which is cool. IIRC the NY-2A has about 14 more tubes plus input/output transformers, obviously much higher components, better build quality, yadda yadda. I have had a few hardware compressors (RNC, DBX160x's, 3630's, Drawmer Tubestation, TFPro P38, Levelar, coupla Joe Meek units) and now have a couple of channels of opto compression in a Langevin DVC and a FET based Gyraf 1176, and I've come to really like opto compressors-- they're simple to use and generally sound good-- I even dug the ART Levelar which is kinda noisy, but sounds good-- I got one of those here recently in good shape for $17 shipped! IME they work well on vocals, bass, sometimes guitar, but tend to be a little bit slow, so they might now work well on things like drums or program material depending on the attack/release characteristics of their light sources.
 
Daisy said:
Just start twisting stuff and see what happens.

It's highly unlikely you'll damage anything.

.
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I just got the 12AY7 Preamp too - holy shit, this is soooooo hard! It is very difficult to not get room sound now! :D

I don't have any problems with the preamp buzzing, so far - but I did go from the headphone monitor out to the compressor - and it's very tubey. My drums are very loud now, and that is good, but it is also picking up the room sound on my RODE NT4. Strangely, my MXL 990, which is often heralded as crap, sounds much better than my RODE...strange...I'm awaiting my bass player to come work with me, to see if it gets rid of some of the extra roominess. His bass amp seems to block a lot of room noise. when we record together. So - time will tell.
 
Kirk Markarian said:
I just got the 12AY7 Preamp too - holy shit, this is soooooo hard! It is very difficult to not get room sound now! :D

I don't have any problems with the preamp buzzing, so far - but I did go from the headphone monitor out to the compressor - and it's very tubey. My drums are very loud now, and that is good, but it is also picking up the room sound on my RODE NT4. Strangely, my MXL 990, which is often heralded as crap, sounds much better than my RODE...strange...I'm awaiting my bass player to come work with me, to see if it gets rid of some of the extra roominess. His bass amp seems to block a lot of room noise. when we record together. So - time will tell.
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You've gotta watch for the little clip light. Sounds like you're hitting the pre hard and probably compressing/distorting the signal a bit. It can be used positively for a cool effect, especially with room mics, but if it's a problem, turn down the input gain and use the output gain for your overall level control. I usually adjust the input gain until the clip light starts barely flashing, then I"ll back it off a bit. I still use my 12ay7 occasionally, the TRS output is noisy as a mofo, so I'll usually go from the XLR out to a line input on my mixer.
 
When I use XLR out, the output knob does nothing.

Also, the signal is so hot, it's unusable.

I find, I have to use a guitar cable out from 1/4 inch.

(Should I be using a guitar cable, or TRS ?)


It does sound great though.
 
Yeah, the XLR output has no volume control. The only volume control is the input control at that point. I finally received my Female XLR to 1/4" Stereo Phone Plug adaptor today, so I will be trying it out as soon as I can (tonight).

I am compressing pretty hard, I do agree, but I am going for a very specific type of sound - "Lightning Bolt" style. I am recording a two-piece band - my bass player and myself.

I figured out why the stereo mic is giving me trouble - it's STEREO!!! Duh. I was getting phasing off of the cymbal closest to the NT4 because it is being captured by both capsules, and they are not both pointing exactly at the kit. They're 90º apart from each other.

So, I did end up using my MXL 990 a bit, and it sounds good. Not great. But now, I've seen some mods for it that are quite easy. First - remove the outer two layers of mesh from the THREE LAYER MESH!!! No wonder it sounds so dull!

Next, to take care of the ringing sound that mic famously produces - it's the body - it's resonant. It's annoying. A suggested fix without ruining the mic is to wrap rubber bands around the microphone's casing. Easy! It's been said that these two mods alone make a world of difference in the sound, and I'm willing to try anything.

So, my recording technique is very rough - one mic to record two sources. I've been able to do very well with this technique as long as I place the mic correctly and make sure the levels are set properly.

So, in recording with the 12AY7 and Blackfinger combo, I've noticed the Blackfinger is more of a leveler in the "SQSH" setting. If I use the compressor in the other setting, it let's more transients through than I am willing to deal with. I want less spikes when I record in this manner, because I only have one mic to deal with at any given time. For me, this is a great help. Many people might not like this technique, because a lot of accuracy is lost, and instead, a blend that shifts back and forth is achieved.

To explain myself further, my ears are damaged from years of loud music. I hear alright, but I can tell there are frequencies that I cannot hear well. So, in my unique position of having ears that are "equalized" for certain frequencies, I try to do the best I can to give an accurate representation of what I hear. These two devices get very very close to what I hear if I am standing in a loud situation. Not only that, but they keep the levels pretty much where I need them to be, with less fluctuation from soft to loud. Which is what they are supposed to do! Very warm, very round, and now with these two mods, I hope to get some more air into the mix.
 
mattkw80 said:
When I use XLR out, the output knob does nothing.

Also, the signal is so hot, it's unusable.

I find, I have to use a guitar cable out from 1/4 inch.

(Should I be using a guitar cable, or TRS ?)


It does sound great though.
Click to expand...


use the xlr output, and set your soundcard to +4
 
Kirk.... I hated the 990. Sold it asap.

Guess I should have looked up those mods..... but really, you can get an MXL v67 for that price now.


Giraffe....

Recording to an M-Audio Project Mix I/O, not a sound card.

Pre's turned all the way down.
 
Did a recording session for 6 hours yesterday....

...I took the Blackfinger out of the chain for now.


I've got my 'sweet spots' now for my various mics vs. the application for the 12AY7 preamp (which by the way, seems to have to have a TRS cable, or else it hums alot).

But the Blackfinger made the signal chain more complicated, and I didn't really know what I was doing when setting the Pre-Gain.
 
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