Weird Compression

[ido1957]

I recorded a rough track that included some drum machine by itself at the beginning - sort of a count in thingy. I recorded it on two tracks of my Tascam.
When I mixed it down from tape to mixer to computer, I used a Triple C multi band compressor on the main inserts.
The intro section of the drum machine by itslef clipped the levels, but when the guitar came in everything went down in level to normal (say -12).
I'm wondering if anyone can explain why this happened, maybe how to fix it. Although I trimmed off the intro drum machine, I'm thinking I will likely record live drums someday that has drums by themselves in the intro and I don't want them to clip. Thanks for any insight you can give about this......

 

[ssscientist]

That's what compressors --- especially multi-band compressors --- are supposed to do if you don't set them not to do it.

Back off the threshold on all three bands and maybe drop the ratios too.

You don't say what kind of Tascam, but if it was a cassette machine then you've got a limited dynamic range to begin with and if it was an reel to reel all you'd need compression for would be shave the peaks so it doesn't clip the inputs on your computer interface.


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[ido1957]

Thanks ssscientist....I'll play with the threshold/ratio. There's no separate threshold/ratio settings for each band only one for all three bands. I am a total newb with a compressor and admit I need lots of practice with using it.
Oh almost forgot to mention it is a Tascam 4track cassette player 424MKIII.

 

[XLR]

Sounds like the attack of the compressor was slower than needed to catch the drum peaks when the drums were solo'd. Then when the gtrs came in the compressor was triggered by the more consistent level and so appplied a more steady gain reduction to the mix - enough to catch the drum peaks.

 

[ido1957]

Sounds like the attack of the compressor was slower than needed to catch the drum peaks when the drums were solo'd. Then when the gtrs came in the compressor was triggered by the more consistent level and so appplied a more steady gain reduction to the mix - enough to catch the drum peaks.

Tim - the newb thanks you - I'll try that...