how do you use compression best?

[lucaskerper]

hi i am completely new here...
i am recording my drums with only one mic, can someone tell me some good compression settings to use? what threshold to use? amount to compress?
i use vegas 3.0 and have the basic plugins...

any ideas will help.

 

[MemoGtr]

1 mic... damn...
i had to go that way once. it turned very good though

hmmmmmm... be careful with the compression. i wouldnt use too much. also check the position of the mic, you may get to much cymbal noise

 

[mshilarious]

The simple answer here is to look at your uncompressed waveform, looking for irregular peaks due to uneven playing. Use just enough to smooth those out. With one mic, you might find that your cymbals are too hot, so compression might help reduce that.

But if every cymbal crash is too hot, you'll need to play with mic placement to even things out. Also if you have to use too much compression, you'll have lost dynamic range.

Often with multiple mics it's common to compress the snare and kick to give 'em some more punch, but with one mic you'd be attenuating the hat on every other beat which is a bad thing.

So again, look at your wave and use light compression to smooth out the few odd peaks.