Compression post-recording

[garth04]

I've seen some recommendations to compress after instead of before recording.

If there happens to be loud part that clips then you can't remove the clipping afterwards, can you?

 

[mstudio1224@aol.com]

that's correct, it's best to do it afterwards,
or if you want to do it as your going in, do it moderately, dont hit the compressor hard cause then if you compress again it'll start pumping (sounding like it's going loud/soft/loud/soft)

 

[lykwydchykyn]

Usually i just set the compressor to limit when recording, though recently I just stopped using it because I'm going 24 bit and I have the headroom to burn. Compression during mixdown is a different animal from simple peak limiting.

 

[Massive Master]

'Sactly. If you just barely trim the peaks with limiting on the way in, it leaves the door open for more "normal" compression during mixdown.

If those lights are hitting hard though, it would probably be wise to back off a bit.