fader position

ashcat_lt said:
But turning up the output knob on the amp sim does exactly the same thing. ???
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Feeding more gain into the compressor will complicate the compression settings, based on where your threshold is set. that's all i'm saying. And yes, when I crank the volume on my amp sim, it affects the threshold point of the compressor. So i make sure to have the sim set and ready first, then i add the compressor and play with the threshold. once my threshold is set, i add volume via the compressors output gain. if i did move the guitar/bass fader up for volume, then i'd go back into the compressor and see if it is now compressing too much since that threshold is being crossed more often now.

when i wrote "add output gain", i meant via the compressor. sorry if that wasn't clear. my mistake.
 
See, now it sounds like you've got the comp sitting on the same track as the amp sim and if that's the case, then the fader position can't affect the what the compressor sees because it comes later in the chain. If you're sending the post-fader output to some other track (bus, whatever) where the compressor lives, then yes, but why?

You can and should do whatever works, I'd say that if your track fader is down at -20db, then you've probably got the output of the last plug in its chain 20db too high.
 
ashcat_lt said:
See, now it sounds like you've got the comp sitting on the same track as the amp sim and if that's the case, then the fader position can't affect the what the compressor sees because it comes later in the chain. If you're sending the post-fader output to some other track (bus, whatever) where the compressor lives, then yes, but why?

You can and should do whatever works, I'd say that if your track fader is down at -20db, then you've probably got the output of the last plug in its chain 20db too high.
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you know this wasn't my post, right? i'm not the OP asking any questions..? And vocals would have been a better example, in that case I have the compressor on the group bus which is the destination for multiple vocal tracks. Same for guitar, should I use a compressor on the guitar buss. An insert was misleading, you are correct.
 
Well, whatever. I guess it does help reinforce the point that actual fader position doesn't matter as long as the signal through it is appropriate and perhaps that absolute level doesn't really matter either unless there's a non-linear process along the way.
 
I'm a bit amazed by this topic. All this talk about -2dB here and + something else dB on another source? In the real fader days and now the virtual fader age, I never ever had a formula. I never found any 'standard' because my music production is very wide, genre wise. I set the faders at whatever setting sounds right. If I discover I'm cooking everything and have to have the master down to silly levels, then I re-adjust the channels to give me a more sensible figure. If I can't get one source up load enough - in my studio this is often the bass guitar channel - I pop in a compressor, and use the make up gain to get a more sensible channel level.

So for me - no prescription just whatever works for the song. With decent dynamic range, I gave up trying to juggle the gains - just pointless now
 
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