Compressors and Gates, Why so many?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeroth
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Jeroth

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Hey, ive just done about 2 hours of reading about compressors and gates and what they do and how they do what they do. Anyway, i went on to a couple of studios sites to see what compressors and gates they use and noticed that most studios have more than one, and sometimes they are all different brands. My question is, do i need a compressor for each instramen, such as one for bass, one for drums, one for guitsr etc etc, or is it just that certain compressors and gates are used to get different sounding results, or is it just because its easier to have one for each instrament so you dont have to keep on plugging and unplugging stuff.

Thanks in advance!
 
Imagine you have a mixer in front of you and you have 32 tracks layed out. How would you manage with a single compressor when you probably need at average 5 compressors.
Kick
Snare
OH's
Bass
Vocals
Backing Vocals
Guitar (2) ?
Keyboards
etc...
etc..
Not every thing might need compression but 1 compressor isnt going to get the job done.

Different compressors effect the sound. From changing the Freq content to those that yank down harder and faster and so on.
Properly applied, You set the compressor to the part and don't just plug in the first you see.

The needs of a working studio for a large amount of clients with bands arent always the need of a home user so don't go out now and spend $15,000 on compressors. What are your needs? are you just tracking? Are you using a DAW? Are you set up for mixing?...Are you recording yourself playing the Kazzo ?
 
Well i havent got anything yet, but i wanna know this kind of stuff for when i open my own recording studio. Its not going to be as a hobbie, its what job i wanna have, so i obviously then need to think about the main instraments that are gonna be used and get compresses to support that amount of instraments. So are certain compressors better for one instrament than others, i understand how they work and what all the knobs do and everything, but just wanna know y proffesional recording studios have so many and y they dont just stick to one brand and model
 
It's cool you want to make it your profession but I gather from your post that you arent opening one tommorow.........

I already wrote to you in my post above that different compressors react and sound differently. You wouldnt think of recording every single instrument in your "future" studio with a single mic right? Imagine the same sound on every track...single dimension....

Understand one basic rule....No such thing as sound going through any circuit with out a change in the sound be it minimal noise or vast color changes.
 
Jeroth said:
Hey, ive just done about 2 hours of reading about compressors and gates and what they do and how they do what they do. Anyway, i went on to a couple of studios sites to see what compressors and gates they use and noticed that most studios have more than one, and sometimes they are all different brands.
Click to expand...

2 hours of reading is nice, but two months or so of hands-on experience will be much better. It's like anything else when you buy something for the first time: first car, first computer, first pair of skis, first mic, first compressor... you get something that you think will fit your needs and use it for a while. Only after a reasonable amount of personal experience will you come to understand what it's strengths and weaknesses are, and whether you need to trade up to something better or acquire additional units to do what you need to do.

Meanwhile, since you are spending so much time in pro studios, you could always ask those engineers why they chose the specific equipment that they currently own...

My first compressor was a dbx 266 many years ago. I learned how to use a compressor by playing with it for a long time. I no longer own it, as it no longer fits my needs, but it was a good starting point for me at the time.

Nowadays the RNC is the acknowledged king of inexpensive comps. But whatever you get, make sure you avoid the Alesis 3630, no matter how low the price. You will not learn much about compression trying to use that unit. Also, there are some units out there that rely primarily on fixed presets for different instruments. Whether they are any good is another issue, but if you are trying to learn about compression, avoid them.
 
Thanks, i did some reading and found out that there are two types(maybe more, but these are the ones i remember)peak detection and rms detection, and that peak detection is better for pecussive sounds, what are your thoughts on this?
 
Jeroth - Are you recording on a computer? If so, you have the luxury of being able to open several instances of any compressor plugin, or several different ones, and not commit to compression during recording. Once you compress a signal, it's next to impossible to correct it if you use too much compression. What sounds good while tracking may not neccessarily sound good as the mix develops. So, a bunch of outboard compressors is fun to have around, but not essential, particularly with a computer DAW. Having a few though, is nice, especially when tracking less experienced players who don't have any control of their dynamics, and recording them without a limiter is problematic.
Cheers, RD
 
Well, Jeroth, I'm really just a little ahead of you in the learning curve, but I think Littledog is basically right. What you need to learn about compression is mostly with your hands and ears, and it's not in a tech sheet or any book. Basically, compression can be used strictly for dynamic control, or as a tone shaping tool, almost like an effect. Just like tubes vs. solid state, some just sound better than others, and the tube, or lack of it, is not the deciding factor.
What you need to know right now, is that very affordable units exist that will give you hands-on experience with real-world compression. The FMR audio RNC is a cheap unit that works well for dynamic control, and the Joemeek MC-2 is more of the second type, which will change the sound of a signal significantly, often improving it, sometimes not, sometimes for the worse. Both units are under $200. Play around with them, and learn what kind of sounds you can get from them. In general, I would say, use the first type only when you can't control the dynamic range of a signal any other way, and use the second type only when it makes the signal sound better to you.-Richie
 
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