Compressors ?

[dgrady76]

Laying down ANYTHING as a hard and fast rule can be very destructive, as it can take years for an impressionable recordist to shrug off bad habits.

Maybe so. But you can spend an eternity and NEVER get that compression/EQ off the track once it's recorded on the tape.

So yes, if you're a beginner and you plan on learning to mix as well, track with as little EQ and compression as you feel comfortable with. You can always add more when you mix, in fact you're more likely to develop a feel for how much comp/eq to add with a full mix in front of you anyway. I mean, the mix IS the point of all this tracking nonesense, right?

It's a rule. Hard and fast. OBEY.