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Tyler22
New member
iwas just wondering.........should i use comprresion on everything???(vocals,guitar,bass,drums,and keyboard)......thank you
dachay2tnr
One Hit Wonder
Tyler22 said:
You should use compression on those things that need it.
Vocals, guitars, bass, drums, are all items that MIGHT need compression at times.
I'm not so sure about keyboards. Generally they don't have a lot of dynamic range to them. I guess there might be a case, but it would be more the exception I think.
bsanfordnyc
New member
Tyler22 said:
I use compression on the first 4 at least. The keyboard would depend on which type of sound it was producing.
Light
New member
You use compression on those things which need it. It also depends on the style of music. With jazz, you will almost never need compression, at least with traditional jazz. Also, classical is another place where compression is a big time no no. However, in popular styles of music (rock, hip hop, etc.), it is not uncommon for every track to get some form of compression.
When I was at Berklee, I sat in on a master class by Eddie Kramer. He spent a whole lot of time talking about how he always tries to avoid using EQ and compression if it is at all possible. He then preceded to mic everything up (destroying an RCA 77 while he was at it, by the way), go into the control room and set levels, EQ and compress every channel. This is the guy who did Jimi Hendrix, and a whole lot of others. He is as good of an engineer as there is anywhere in the world. I think if it is good enough for him, it is good enough for me.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
When I was at Berklee, I sat in on a master class by Eddie Kramer. He spent a whole lot of time talking about how he always tries to avoid using EQ and compression if it is at all possible. He then preceded to mic everything up (destroying an RCA 77 while he was at it, by the way), go into the control room and set levels, EQ and compress every channel. This is the guy who did Jimi Hendrix, and a whole lot of others. He is as good of an engineer as there is anywhere in the world. I think if it is good enough for him, it is good enough for me.
Light
"Cowards can never be moral."
M.K. Gandhi
Be Loveless
New member
I have a real simple set up and have only been doing this for about a year and a half or so but I find that so far a little bit of compression has been most useful to me on bass and lead vocals. Thats my two shits.
B
bbop73
New member
Of course it really depends on the style of music you're doing, but I like to compress bass and vocals for pop/rock stuff. Also drums if you're tracking the real deal.
Codmate
New member
I've found that it depends on the performance.
I've only just started with this recording lark, but when I began I was playing my acoustic guitar 'naturally' as I would play guitar live. This way of playing produced lots of dynamic range and I *had* to compress or I was struggling to get any kind of coherant mix. The same goes for vocals.
A few weeks later and I've now found that I can play and vocalise (I hesitate to use the word 'sing' when talking about my voice) in a more measured way, requiring less (or no) compression. When making music in this way I find I have to plan where I put emphasis and know exactly how much emphasis to give. Doing many takes is very beneficial to this approach.
Overall I prefer to use very little compression (if any at all), and compensate by changing my performance to be slightly less 'wild' instead. I believe it is possible to get good 'feel' and still play in a measured way, geared towards recording.
Of course, sometimes you might want a deliberatly compressed sound. If it's the sound you want then go for it - compress away!
If you're using compression to compensate for something in the performance, IMVHO I would suggest trying to change the performance a little.
I've only just started with this recording lark, but when I began I was playing my acoustic guitar 'naturally' as I would play guitar live. This way of playing produced lots of dynamic range and I *had* to compress or I was struggling to get any kind of coherant mix. The same goes for vocals.
A few weeks later and I've now found that I can play and vocalise (I hesitate to use the word 'sing' when talking about my voice) in a more measured way, requiring less (or no) compression. When making music in this way I find I have to plan where I put emphasis and know exactly how much emphasis to give. Doing many takes is very beneficial to this approach.
Overall I prefer to use very little compression (if any at all), and compensate by changing my performance to be slightly less 'wild' instead. I believe it is possible to get good 'feel' and still play in a measured way, geared towards recording.
Of course, sometimes you might want a deliberatly compressed sound. If it's the sound you want then go for it - compress away!
If you're using compression to compensate for something in the performance, IMVHO I would suggest trying to change the performance a little.