Compressor and gate recording Q

[Nico2112]

Below is my recording layout. I would like to add some compression and gating to my signal.
1) Can I use "stomp box" individual guitar pedals for this? (I've found single pedals as compressors and gates)
2) Where in the setup should I plug them? (see the color coded arrows)
Give me a hand guys.
All your input is greatly appreciated.
Cheers!

 

[Nico2112]

Bump.
Anyone??

 

[SouthSIDE Glen]

My first question is which signal do you wish to apply the compgate to? The answer to that should narrow down where they would go. If you're looking to process just one instrument/line, then you'd want to do that before the lines get mixed/submixed. If you wanted to process the whole submix, then you'd want to put the processors after the mixing.

Stomp boxes can sometimes work, but not always. And when they do work, they are not ideal.

First, they are not the cleanest devices in the world, by a long shot, they'll add noise and distortion to your signal. If you want that 'stomp box sound' like that, then fine. But if you're looking for clean processing, they are not the best way to do.

Second, it depends upon the in/out specs of the box and on where in the signal path you wish to put it. Nost stomp boxes are designed to handle instrument-level signals (pre-mixer, pre-preamp). If you want to apply your processing on the line-level signals coming out of the mixers, a stomp box is not really the right device to use there.

HTH,

G.

 

[Nico2112]

Thanks for your response Glen.
I should've said that this setup is used to record drums. I use the 7 signals (kick, snare, hats, 3 toms and one overhead), so I would like all the mics to be processed. I guess, after your answer, I can:
a)get an 8 input/8 output compressor/gate and plug all the mics before getting mixed or
b)get a 2 input/2 output compressor/gate and plug the Tascam's 414 L & R line outs to the processor, and then to the DP01.
Which of these two setups do you recommend, A or B?
Do you recommend processing all of the drums mics, or just some of them?
Again, thanks for answering.
Cheers!

 

[Halion]

The question about wheither to proccess all or just one indicated you don't really know what your doing with the compressor. Might sound harsh, but it might be smarter to figure out if you really need compression and gating. There are plenty of great drum tracks out there that are completely void of compression or gating. Then again, many are compressed and gated to some extend. That's a while education on it's own.

As far as the signal chain is concerned, getting 2 channel compgate and putting that on the main bus will compress everything, which might be what you want, but I doubt it.

An 8 channel compgate (or more likely multiple units) will help in that case, but it's gonna cost you. Use them as inserts if you go this way.

Do NOT go the stompbox route, belief me. Stompboxes are guitar tools, and that's pretty much what they are good at, and not much more. I could explain this, but it would be a loooooooong post

 

[Nico2112]

The question about wheither to proccess all or just one indicated you don't really know what your doing with the compressor. Might sound harsh, but it might be smarter to figure out if you really need compression and gating. There are plenty of great drum tracks out there that are completely void of compression or gating. Then again, many are compressed and gated to some extend. That's a while education on it's own.

As far as the signal chain is concerned, getting 2 channel compgate and putting that on the main bus will compress everything, which might be what you want, but I doubt it.

An 8 channel compgate (or more likely multiple units) will help in that case, but it's gonna cost you. Use them as inserts if you go this way.

Do NOT go the stompbox route, belief me. Stompboxes are guitar tools, and that's pretty much what they are good at, and not much more. I could explain this, but it would be a loooooooong post

Thanks Halion. You got that right, I really never experimented with comp/gating. That's why I want to learn about it.
Somewhere I read, that compression gives all mics a steady sound level for drums, which explains why all pro recordings sound very consistent; also I read that compressing adds a lot of noise, so I was thinking, that if I compressed, then I also needed to gate.
Please, I want to learn. If you have the time and will, enlight me on the topic. I really don't know what compression will do to a drum track.
Cheers!

 

[Halion]

Ok, I guess I can make a start

What you heard is right, but is about 0.5% of the full story. What compression does is reduce the volume of a track when it reaches a sertain level. What this means is not just flattening out the sound levels. A compressor can be used to reduce only a part of a sertain sound, like the initial attack of a snare, effectively turning everything after the TWACK! up, creating more rattle but less punch. However, you can also use that same compressor to compress the part AFTER the twack, to increase the difference between the attack and the snare rattle, adding punch. If you have a singer that sings too soft at moments, and compressor can be used to bring up the softer parts by reducing the volume on the loud parts (although you are compromising when you do this, it might not sound better at all). There are many more uses for a compressor. If you are increasing the volume of a sertain part (the quite part that the singer sang), you are also increasing the noise, but probalby only by a small part. If you compress really hard and your source is already pretty noise, you could get problems.

A gate will not help you get rid of the noise this way. A gate listens to the audio signal, and when it gets too soft, it mutes the track. That means that ONLY when the singer is not singing the noise is removed, but when he is singing, the noise is there, behind his vocals. This you can't remove with a normal gate.

So there, I just ruined your hopes for better recording quality didn't I I hope not, but either way, good luck!

 

[Nico2112]

Thanks Halion for your time answering. It really helps me understand better. One thing that is very clear now is that compression and gating should be done to individual channels. As you said, comp/gating the whole mix would be a huge mistake.
I gave it a shot last night, recording and using my stomp box compressor, and the results were awful. I just tried with my snare.
I record just for pleasure. I don't make a living out of music. All the gear I have been buying since long ago is just to have my peace of mind. I wanted to "cheaply" raise the quality of my songs, but I see there's no shortcut here, for a quality recording you need pro gear. Compressors and gates for 8 mics is a pretty expensive setup, and as you said, maybe and most probably, I don't need them.

Don't worry, this won't dissapoint me at all, on the contrary, it will help develop my recording skills without any processing, as to get the most "near" perfect clean track, so I can maybe start learning to use a PC based editing software.
Again, thanks for your time.
Cheers!