How to apply compression in line?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Cal D
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Cal D

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I just purchased CEP 2.0. Previously, I had always applied compression after the fact (only because I didn't have a clue how to apply compression as I am recordning)

With CEP 2.o, i want to understand how to apply compression in real time. Can someone please step me through this? Tell me like I'm stupid..I'm not proud...;-)

Thank-you
 
Unless there's something I'm missing bigtime, Cool's compressor can't be applied to what you're recording as you're recording it. You need a hardware compressor for that somewhere in your recording chain on the way to the hard disk.
 
Au contraire... what is most fortunate about cool edit 2 is the ability to process real-time effects without destroying the waveform. Dig it, my brother:

1 - open up multitrack view and click the FX button on one of the tracks.

2 - from the left box, select amplify and then dynamics processing, then click add.

3 - in the right box, click properties to set your shit the way you like it.

4 - click okay and then record.

you will apply compression in real-time and will not destroy the original waveform. just deselect FX to revert to the original track.

and then go to my website for help with your life:
http://www.skydaddy.cjb.net
 
"you will apply compression in real-time and will not destroy the original waveform. just deselect FX to revert to the original track."

Doesn't make sense to me. If you apply compression to a signal on the way to the hard disk, then what arrives at the hard disk *is* the original track, compressed as it is. If I understand you right, then you're saying that Cool 2.0 sends two signals to the hard disk, one compressed and one uncompressed. Is that right?
 
That's ALMOST right, dobro. The waveform is not modified ever, but the compression settings are saved in memory, and are applied to the waveform as long as the FX button is cued. The original waveform is not molested by any effect ever, except during playback and mixdown. The effect exists solely in session data and is never actually applied physically, only in memory. This is why cool edit can be demanding on CPU usage, and is also why they've incorporated the option of bussing effects together.
 
Still doesn't make sense to me. What if the 'original' track clipped? What good's the compression then? One reason I track with a bit of compression is to prevent the occasional spike on a vocal track, for instance, from clipping. What's the good of having an original, uncompressed track if that track's clipping?
 
Okay... Let's suppose you record a vocal track and it clips periodically. Let's suppose, too, that you have the compression effect selected to run in real-time.

Cool Edit records the track with the clipping, and all the harmful mutations that a vocal track might incur. But it stores, in memory and in session data, exactly where the track clipped, and exactly when and how to compensate as per your defined settings.

Each time you playback (with FX button selected), you are processing the vocals as if it were the very first time....as if it were happening during the recording.

The wave is not destroyed. The effect is processed each and every time, and is never applied to the track.

If this still doesn't make sense to you, I 'm convinced that the problem is mine, as i've tried my best to untangle this mystery that does, in fact, make sense to me.
 
No - it makes sense to me now. It's something new - that's why I didn't get it. Thanks.
 
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