Using effects on a dry recording...

[jsandlin0803]

Hello.
I am in the process of builing a home studio. A question came into my head, and thought that i would swing by here to get help.

First of all, do i record a vocal track with compression, or do i compress after the track is recorded?

Now, say i have a dry vocal track on an adat. I want to add an effect such as reverb to the track for mixdown. But, i also want to add a little compression to the vocal track because of of level issues. Everything is in the patchbay. How would i add reverb and compression to the track at one time? could i do that?

 

[DonF]

First of all, do i record a vocal track with compression, or do i compress after the track is recorded?

Generally, compression is not used when laying down tracks. But if you have a really unpredictable vocalist and you're recording to 16-bit (or any other medium where lack of headroom can be a problem), you might slap a compressor or limiter on it just to be on the safe side.

How would i add reverb and compression to the track at one time? could i do that?

Yes, you can do that. Reverb is most often patched to the mixer's aux bus, and returned through spare input channels or a stereo effects return. That way the reverb can be used for more than one track. The compressor, on the other hand, should probably be patched into a channel insert. It's certainly possible to "daisy chain" the compressor and reverb, and put them both in the insert. Whatever works. But there's no reason not to use both.

HTH,
Don