Hi SouthSide Glen
I am experimenting with it to try and get a better sound because I am never satisfied with what I have. I use an MPA Gold preamp and am very happy with it but as I said not sure about the PRO VLA compressor.
Rex
Again, when you say you are trying to get a "better sound", what is your reason for choosing a compressor as your tool of choice to accomplish that?
What is the problem you're trying to solve? What doesn't sound good enough with the tracks you're capturing now?
There's no reason IMHO why your current ART gear should
keep you from getting a good sound, but if you're looking for it to
create a good sound for you, I'd say that you might want to look elsewhere first, such as the start of the chain. Mainly, what mic are you using, how are you miking the accordian, and what are the acoustic properties of the room in which you're recording. Getting that right is priority #1, everything else after that, while important, is secondary.
Also, are you feeding it more tradional Eastern European polka/waltz type stuff or more in a Cajun zydeco or British skipple vein?
Gentlemen, this has been Xtremely fascinating reading. Compression is a huge issue 4 me on the 'Need to understand it better end'. Instead of participating in the mathematical equations of how Compression works, although I'm sure I'll need to get that down someday. Can I ask this question from a Lyman's viewpoint?
...
How can you tell if you need compression or not when there are so many variables in how you monitor your Mix? I read somewhere that compression should be applied in small measure to the entire mix rather than individual tracks. But I can't get my head around that concept because what if I think an instrument(s) sound good the way it already is?
Lastly, some of the very best recordings I've ever gotten where with a sequencing software going straight out to record during playback. The spread was excellent. Every instrument was distinguishable from the next and now that I have analog recording capabilities, I often get a muddy feel from the rhythm instruments if/when I apply compression and/or reverb across the board.
Sorry if I interrupted the flow of this conversation ..
No problem, we can multi-task; the flow has already swirled and eddied a couple of times anyway

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Blu, maybe you might want to start with a basic tutorial on compression. If you haven't already done so, skipple on over to
www.independentrecording.net and click on the "Compression Uncompressed" logo in the lower right corner. That should do a fair job of covering the basics of why, when and how to use basic compression fairly well.
G.