Hopeful

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JTC111

JTC111

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From XLR:
"The recording chain for "Hopeful" was a single mk41 mic - Great River MP-2H pre - Lucid 9624 AD converter. Two guitar parts. A slight use of the Waves Linear Phase Multiband compressor during mixing on each guitar part to control the occasional 350 kHz boominess that particular guitar has, slight amount of SIR verb with a half second tail and the highs rolled off the verb."

You're using a couple of pieces of gear I'm unfamiliar with. I don't know what the "H" model of the MP-2 is like and I don't know much about the Lurid converter.

Is the 2H fairly colored like the current NV version or is it transparent like the earlier GR pres?

I did some reading up on the Lurid and it sounds like it's some good value for the money. I've been looking into getting something better for the AD side of things. I'm currently using an 001. It's about to get an upgrade through Black Lion Audio (I might be the last 001 they ever do actually) and I'm considering purchasing their Sparrow AD convertor.

So here's my main question...
How does a compressor help you control boominess at 350kHz?
 
This question is about an instrumental acoustic guitar track from another thread. This is the tune.

How does a compressor help you control boominess at 350kHz?
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It's actually 350 Hz, not kHz... a typo in my PM response that you're quoting. 350 kHz is definitely ultrasonic.:D

Multiband compressors split the freq range into separate bands then allow you to individually control compression of each band. Best to avoid boominess in the mic'ing of an acoustic guitar altogether but slight and occasional boominess can be controlled surprisingly well with a multiband comp skillfully used. It's good to avoid compressing the higher frequencies (anything above 1 kHz) if you want the guitar to sound natural. A broadband compressor, which is what is usually meant by "compressor", acts on the entire frequency spectrum and will tend to squash the highs when it applies gain reduction.

For acoustic guitar a multiband comp is valuable because it's very common to have guitars with uneven low notes, and many rooms have uneven low freq response. There's only so much a multiband can do though before it starts sounding fake, so it's really only good to use if the boominess is very slight. Lots of boom = retrack. A decent track can be ruined by a multiband comp badly used too, so watch out. And many multibands sound terrible no matter how they're used, so only use a good one.

In a song mix don't use a multiband comp on the 2-bus... just on the acoustic guitar track if it needs it.

The Great River MP-2H is the older model, now made by special order I believe. Very clean. The H variant has both balanced and unbalanced outs.

And it's Lucid, not Lurid. :p Typos... join the club, eh?
 
Forgive me for hijacking, but XLR, is that you playing? Whether it is or not, it serves as a reminder (at least for me) as to what this is all about to begin with.

Beautiful. Just beautiful.

Back to your regularly scheduled program...
 
Is there something wrong with my computer. Every time there is an audio file reference, I go there and get a blank screen.
 
Big Kenny said:
Is there something wrong with my computer. Every time there is an audio file reference, I go there and get a blank screen.
Click to expand...

Download quicktime, or some other mp3 player, or set your browser to automatically download mp3 files.
 
XLR said:
Multiband compressors split the freq range into separate bands then allow you to individually control compression of each band. Best to avoid boominess in the mic'ing of an acoustic guitar altogether but slight and occasional boominess can be controlled surprisingly well with a multiband comp skillfully used. It's good to avoid compressing the higher frequencies (anything above 1 kHz) if you want the guitar to sound natural. A broadband compressor, which is what is usually meant by "compressor", acts on the entire frequency spectrum and will tend to squash the highs when it applies gain reduction.

For acoustic guitar a multiband comp is valuable because it's very common to have guitars with uneven low notes, and many rooms have uneven low freq response. There's only so much a multiband can do though before it starts sounding fake, so it's really only good to use if the boominess is very slight. Lots of boom = retrack. A decent track can be ruined by a multiband comp badly used too, so watch out. And many multibands sound terrible no matter how they're used, so only use a good one.
Click to expand...

Are there hardware versions of a multiband compressor that you've had any experience with or heard any good things about?

XLR said:
The Great River MP-2H is the older model, now made by special order I believe. Very clean. The H variant has both balanced and unbalanced outs.
Click to expand...

One output is transformerless, isn't it? Which were you using?

XLR said:
And it's Lucid, not Lurid. :p Typos... join the club, eh?
Click to expand...

Then I should probably go with the BLA Sparrow because I can spell Sparrow.
S-P-A-R-R-O-W
Hey, does this mean I'm on the road to becoming an audio engineer?
 
MOFO Pro said:
XLR- Ever used a dbx quantum or TC Helicon Finalizer for multiband compression on a track... any opinion?
Click to expand...

That would really make that piece shine, it is very nice now, Finallizing would do it even better
 
Are there hardware versions of a multiband compressor that you've had any experience with or heard any good things about?
Click to expand...
Haven't used them... I chose the software route because I always use it after the initial recording and I like the flexibility and graphic control of software. I also prefer to avoid the out-and-back-into-the-box digital conversion that would be required to use hardware during mixing. If I had Prism or Lavry Gold converters I wouldn't mind that though.

But there may very well be MBC hardware that's just as good as the Waves Linear MBC. Just haven't used it myself.

One output is transformerless, isn't it? Which were you using?
Click to expand...
Yes, the unbalanced out has no transformer. The balanced/unbalanced outputs have only a subtle difference in sound between them. I used the balanced out simply because my Lucid AD has balanced inputs.
 
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XLR said:
Nope. Always interested though in comparisons. Have you used them on acoustic gtr?
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No I haven't had the chance... I own both the Quantum and a Finalizer but they're currently with a bunch of other gear in anvil racks in storage down in the basement... I really like the idea of a multiband comp (over an EQ) to tame a boomy guitar... Maybe I'll go rooting around down there...
 
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