Compression going in.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Pleasurehead
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Pleasurehead

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Hi,
Can anyone tell me if there is a way to compress in cubase SX3 when going in? or is there a plugin that can do this for me?

Thanks
 
I am not sure if Cubase will let you compress through the software before the signal is actually recorded or not. However, unless you have an outboard compressor I can not see any possible reason why you would wnat to do this. In order for Cubase to compress the signal on the way in it seems that the compression would still have to be done after the A/D conversion. If you are compressing to tame peaks, then you really would not be gaining any benefit because the A/D converter will have already clipped. Basically, I can see several reasons to not do this, but no reasons to actually do it. What was your intent for doing this?
 
Yes of course you are dead right. I hadn't thought it out properly. The only way is .. out board. Thanks :)
 
You might as well not compress on the way in anyway. If you do, and you don't like what you've done, you can't undo it. Might aswell compress afterwards. It's not like you don't have a buttload of headroom to play with anyway with digital.

That said, sometimes vocals could be helped with light compression on the way in if you're expecting a reasonable dynamic performance.

My music being somewhat instrumental at this point, I think the only thing I ever compress on the way in is bass guitar, and that's only because my pre has a comp bult in, and even then that bass track is put quite low in the mix next to a track I didn't compress on the way in. And that's if I don't just throw it away, which I often do.
 
The bottom line as far as I am concerned, is the compression should be used for tone and timbre shaping on the way in and not for dynamics control. If you are using it to guard against a clip then you are only covering up a problem and not addressing the source of the problem. Proper gain staging and technique = never NEEDING to compress on the way in.
 
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