How do I set up an effects loop?

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pappy999

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I would like to use my mackie 24-8bus with a compressor on all tracks when tracking drums. I bought an ART pro VLA compressor. Is it possible to run it into the aux sends and have compression on every channel?

I should also state that I am using the mackie for pres into a digi 001 through the direct outs on the mackie.
 
The only way you can use 1 compressor on all the drums while tracking is to sum them all to a buss, and then you can't seperate them back out to the individual tracks. Using the aux sends or buss assignments you could create an additional track with "summed compressed drums" but the individual tracks would still be un-compressed.
 
If he ran the compressor through the loop, and routed each drum track to an individual bus, then out of each bus to each in on the recorder. Wouldn't it allow for compression (or whatever effect was in the loop) across all 8 buses? Thus recording compressed (effected) tracks?


For clearity, I believe the direct outs are pre-fade which means that the only thing on the channel strip that will effect the signal is the gain. Having said that, and you may want confirmation, the effects loop will still hit every bus. BUT it would be the same compression on each track, with only the level of the aux. knobs to change it up a bit, /shrug
 
Is it common to apply compression to drums and other instruments during tracking to keep all the levels consistent?
 
I am by no means an expert, so you might want to take this thread to the mixing/mastering section, but I'd say it's fairly common to add compression to anything that you need compressed. Having said that, let your ears be your guide.
 
Why dont you just subgroup your drums, put the compressor on the sub group inserts, then sub group outs to the recorder..... generally much better quality than using aux loops....
 
Creamyapples1 said:
If he ran the compressor through the loop, and routed each drum track to an individual bus, then out of each bus to each in on the recorder. Wouldn't it allow for compression (or whatever effect was in the loop) across all 8 buses? Thus recording compressed (effected) tracks?


For clearity, I believe the direct outs are pre-fade which means that the only thing on the channel strip that will effect the signal is the gain. Having said that, and you may want confirmation, the effects loop will still hit every bus. BUT it would be the same compression on each track, with only the level of the aux. knobs to change it up a bit, /shrug
Click to expand...

No this is wrong. You are confusing an effect send with an insert. Effect sends route the signal out of the board into a processor and then you return that signal into the board through effect returns or back into another channel on the board. Effect returns come in after the channel strips and before the master section. They are not looped back into the channels, if it was looped back into the channels, each channel would have the same "mix" of everything going through the processor, also it would create a feedback loop! (unless each strip had a "return" after the effect send, but that's just silly)

Inserts tap into a channel after the preamp and before any eq, panning, or fader level, and returns it back to that channel to continue it's was down the strip - and then into the Buss or master.

I'm not sure if the direct outs on the mackie are pre fader or post fader. They should definitly be post insert though. If you only have a 2 channel comp you can only process 2 channels in series. Maybe try the compressor on just the Kick and snare while tracking, if you like the sound great. A lot of people track without any comp or effects, just leave that for mix. You could set up a parallel compression bus and record that, if you have free inputs on the digi.
 
Creamyapples1 said:
If he ran the compressor through the loop, and routed each drum track to an individual bus, then out of each bus to each in on the recorder. Wouldn't it allow for compression (or whatever effect was in the loop) across all 8 buses? Thus recording compressed (effected) tracks?
Click to expand...

You would end up with all of the drums mixed together coming out of the compressor in mono. The drum signal that didn't go to the compressor would be unaffected which would defeat the whole purpose.
 
If you want different compressor settings on each drum, you will need more compressors. Use them on the channel inserts.

If you can settle for using the compressor you have on your entire drum kit, then use two of the sub groups and the sub group inserts and the sub group outs.....it's the only way, given the gear you said you are using.... that mixer should be made just for that.... my Mackie is a lot smaller than yours, and this is how I do it.

but dont use aux loops for that.....
 
i have the same mixer (mackie 24/8) and i use the inserts as well to only compress the kick and snare.
 
How many mics are you using on the drums? To do what you are talking about you would need a channel of compression for each mic. So the PRO VLA would be able to handle two of the drum mics. That's unless you decided to submix the drums going into your recorded, but I wouldn't recommend that.

The other option is to record teh drums without compression and then use a buss to compress the drums when mixing. In that scenario you'd send the drums to busses 1&2 for example, send the buss outs to the PRO VLA, and then return that back to the mixer.
 
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