Using two compressors, yes or no

  • Thread starter Thread starter Dusty Ol' Bones
  • Start date Start date
Dusty Ol' Bones

Dusty Ol' Bones

Full of green dust
Hello, I have a simple question about compression in the signal chain. I recently had to upgrade PCs because my 2008 model running XP just wasn't cutting it anymore. With that, I had to upgrade interfaces because my new machine does not have firewire.

My new interface is the Universal Audio Volt 476P. UAs Volt line of interfaces, at least my model, has a built in compressor that you can engage during recording. The only settings it has are Vocals, Guitar, and Fast (for drums I believe). I know it is very basic but I am somewhat a newbie to mixing, in fact I normally record and outsource the mixing. Recently I have been slowly increasing my mixing knowledge and experimenting with mixing my own stuff.

My question is, if I use the vocal compressor at the front end, is adding a compressor plugin after EQ a bad idea? I have a Universal Audio LA2A plugin that is more adjustable and I would like to use it but have already recorded a handful of songs with the front end compressor engaged. Is having two compressions overkill?
 
Huge subject, lol.

There is nothing inherently wrong with using two compressors. Sometimes, it's better to use two different compressors doing two different things (say, one with a high threshold and high ratio to lop off just the very transients, and then a lower ratio/lower threshold for actual dynamic control once the errant peaks are dealt with) than a single compressor.

Should you use the compressor in your interface while tracking and then another one in the mix...? Eh, harder to say. The challenge here is it's kind of hard to "hear" compression when you're also in the room with the source sound. If you're monitoring through headphones, and recording an acoustic guitar with a compressor in line, then in your headphones if you're monitoring the acoustic guitar, you're hearing the (compressed) acoustic... but you're also hearing a little unprocessed acoustic bleeding thrpough as well, and that van really screw with your ability to assed what's going on with the dynamics. Doubly true if you're singing, and listening to yourself through your headphones, bit also "hearing" your voice resonate in your head.

IT can absolutely make sense to compress a bit on input, but 1) I'd be pretty conservative and not get too aggressive, and 2) this is definitely one of those things where you dial everything in the way you think you want it, check your meters and make sure you're not smashing anything more than you mean to, and then go and record a test run of your part fully expecting that when you listen back it may sound more compressed than you mean to, and you may have to back it off.

I'll use some light compression while tracking acoustics, but you do have this feeling of, when you're self recording yourself, and you're holding the guirar you're strumming while spinning knobs on the compressor, that you're playing with fire, a little.
 
I've had people in my studio who insist on compressing the input, before recording. I absolutely hate it, because it limits decisions later on - so what I do is set it up so in their headphones they hear the mic compressed, but I record a clean version AND the compressed version. That's a bit of a pain, but with people who insist it's essential, it keeps them happy like reverb. Their phones have reverb and compression and they're happy. I'm happy later on when I'm putting a mix together. Very rarely is the final compression the one I used during the vocal session.
 
Like @rob aylestone I’m not using compressors as much anymore - but I've double compressed on the same track before - and then again on the two buss master - it’s a choice thing and depends on what sound you are going for.
 
DrewPeterson7 said:
Huge subject, lol.

There is nothing inherently wrong with using two compressors. Sometimes, it's better to use two different compressors doing two different things (say, one with a high threshold and high ratio to lop off just the very transients, and then a lower ratio/lower threshold for actual dynamic control once the errant peaks are dealt with) than a single compressor.

Should you use the compressor in your interface while tracking and then another one in the mix...? Eh, harder to say. The challenge here is it's kind of hard to "hear" compression when you're also in the room with the source sound. If you're monitoring through headphones, and recording an acoustic guitar with a compressor in line, then in your headphones if you're monitoring the acoustic guitar, you're hearing the (compressed) acoustic... but you're also hearing a little unprocessed acoustic bleeding thrpough as well, and that van really screw with your ability to assed what's going on with the dynamics. Doubly true if you're singing, and listening to yourself through your headphones, bit also "hearing" your voice resonate in your head.

IT can absolutely make sense to compress a bit on input, but 1) I'd be pretty conservative and not get too aggressive, and 2) this is definitely one of those things where you dial everything in the way you think you want it, check your meters and make sure you're not smashing anything more than you mean to, and then go and record a test run of your part fully expecting that when you listen back it may sound more compressed than you mean to, and you may have to back it off.

I'll use some light compression while tracking acoustics, but you do have this feeling of, when you're self recording yourself, and you're holding the guirar you're strumming while spinning knobs on the compressor, that you're playing with fire, a little.
Click to expand...
Thank you for your input. Yeah, I think I'm playing with fire a little. Due to the setup of the compressor on my interface, there is no way to control whether I am being conservative or aggressive. Like I said above, the compressor only has three settings per input with no adjustment: Vocals, Guitar, or Drums. An important thing I'm worried about is that doing it on the front end is permanent whereas adding it during mixing, I can go back and tweak as needed.
 
rob aylestone said:
I've had people in my studio who insist on compressing the input, before recording. I absolutely hate it, because it limits decisions later on - so what I do is set it up so in their headphones they hear the mic compressed, but I record a clean version AND the compressed version. That's a bit of a pain, but with people who insist it's essential, it keeps them happy like reverb. Their phones have reverb and compression and they're happy. I'm happy later on when I'm putting a mix together. Very rarely is the final compression the one I used during the vocal session.
Click to expand...
Thank you. I'm not really insistent on anything, hence creating this thread. It's more a factor of, my interface gave me a button, should I push it or not? Like when you have a hammer and everything starts looking like a nail.
 
Papanate said:
Like @rob aylestone I’m not using compressors as much anymore - but I've double compressed on the same track before - and then again on the two buss master - it’s a choice thing and depends on what sound you are going for.
Click to expand...
Good point. There is no rule book stating it is forbidden to use more than one compressor. I like the LA2A because it doesn't seem to have as many parameters and doesn't look as intimidating as some other compression plugins. The more knobs to turn and buttons to push, the more I feel this mixing noob will screw something up.
 
I would nearly always comress on the way in. If it needed to be aggressive, I would beat the peaks back with an LA3 and run that into a slower compressor.

Then in the mix, I would always have a compressor on the vocal bus, but could have compressors on the individual vocal channels as well.

Some of it is genre dependant. I wouldn't compress that much if it was just vocal and acoustic guitar, but when the vocals have to compete with a wall of electric guitars, compression helps.
 
I do multiple stages of compression all the time, but with a band I know very well. And I compress very lightly on the input. There's nothing worse than overcompressing on the way in and not being able to undo it. For anything I don't know well, I would cautious about compressing during tracking.
 
Dusty Ol' Bones said:
Good point. There is no rule book stating it is forbidden to use more than one compressor. I like the LA2A because it doesn't seem to have as many parameters and doesn't look as intimidating as some other compression plugins. The more knobs to turn and buttons to push, the more I feel this mixing noob will screw something up.
Click to expand...
Mine is the Logic Compressor - it sounds in one interation just like a LA2A of old.
 
Farview said:
I would nearly always comress on the way in. If it needed to be aggressive, I would beat the peaks back with an LA3 and run that into a slower compressor.

Then in the mix, I would always have a compressor on the vocal bus, but could have compressors on the individual vocal channels as well.

Some of it is genre dependant. I wouldn't compress that much if it was just vocal and acoustic guitar, but when the vocals have to compete with a wall of electric guitars, compression helps.
Click to expand...
It probably would have helped earlier on in the thread if I had mentioned what I record. The majority of what I do is solo acoustic + vocals.

Sometimes I will have a friend add some acoustic or electric overdubs because he plays guitar much better than me. No bass, drums, or anything else. Of course, there have been a time or two where I will have my friend overdub two or three electric tracks and I will use mute envelopes to carve out where I want the individual tracks to come in and out. Not quite a 'wall' of electric guitars but definitely more to compete with the vocals.

And thanks to advice from this forum several months ago, I have been working on recording my guitar performance first then overdubbing the vocals. Much easier to EQ and mix that way lol.
 
In light of the great advice I've gotten in this thread, I posted a song in the Mixing Clinic. This is one where I had the vocal compressor engaged during tracking, then added a light compression from the LA2A after EQ. Thanks everyone!

Dusty Ol' Bones

Thread 'Journey of Old, original song'

I posted a song last year and got really good comments, most on my performance though. So I've been working on laying down a guitar track and overdubbing vocals, as opposed to recording everything live. I was surprised how much easier it is to sing when I'm not beating on my guitar at the same time.

This song was recorded by overdubbing my vocals on top of my guitar performance then having a friend overdub his acoustic part and some electric as well. He wrote the chords and I added words. It's a little more complex than the last one I posted.

I would post the lyrics but I want to see if...
  • Like
 
Acoustic music doesn't generally need a lot of compression to sound good, but to get it to "standard" commercial release levels may take substantial amounts of compression.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top