where should it go

  • Thread starter Thread starter Newbie dude
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Newbie dude

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Well, the drummer- in- my- band's parents are loaded, and the band is about to start recording in january, and he thought it was too much trouble to drive all the way to my house, so his parents are just gonna buy for him recording gear thousands of dollars more than mine. Kinda pisses me off, cause I had to start off by recording a hot, small guest bedroom through a computer telephone into audacity, but oh well.

But anyways, he was askin me advice one what to get, and he was asking about what compressor to get. I said dbx is pretty sweet, so he's getting the dbx v20-somethhing.

But then I thought, wait a minute.......Where does a hardware compressor go in the chain? I've never used one before. I've heard it should come after the mic pre, but he'll be buying a firepod which will go into a mac pro something computer. So, now to my questions:

1. Where should the compressor go?

2. Should we use a hardware compressor on everything? I've heard it shouldn't be used on guitars. We have two guitars, a bass, one lead vocal, two back up vocals, and keyboards in some parts. What should w use the hardware compressor and what shouldn't we use it on?
 
I'm not too familiar with firepod. Theres insert lines on my tascam US 122, and they encorporate a send and return in a Y cable. Maybe someone else will be able to help ya out on that.

I'd compress the drums, it helps due to the often inconsistency of the instrument.

I also like compressing a bass...I sometimes DI a bass from a nice amp through my compressor and it gets a nice sound.

As for guitars, its your call. I sometimes pan an acoustic left and right and compress one channel. I'll also compress the lead if I want a clean bluesy/honky tonk sound.

Thats just my two cents.
 
Compression is an insert processor.

I personally would not compress on the way in unless I had a hardware compressor I really liked the sound of. Otherwise you might just as well do it in software after tracking.

If you're using a compressor to keep peaks down and so prevent your converters from clipping you're probably tracking too hot.

Just remeber that when you compress on the way in you're stuck with it, unlike using plug-ins. Unless you're very experienced and you know your gear REALLY well, it's a bad idea imo.
 
ahhhh, to be young and jealous. If only we could go back! :p
 
Newbie dude said:
Should we use a hardware compressor on everything?
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You use a compressor on anything that needs compression. In some cases you may not need any at all. I rarely use it.

Vocals are usually something that almost always get compressed.

Bass guitar is usually compressed so each note sounds even, and it can also help fatten up the sound.

Acoustic guitar usually doesn't need compression unless whoever is playing it can't keep a steady rhythm without playing really loud/really soft in some parts, in which case, I would just retrack it. But you could also compress the guitar for a different sound, or "color".

A lead guitar can sometimes need compression to help even it out, but chances are compression is done by the amp unlesss you're playing through a clean amp or something.

A lot of people use compression on drums, too. I never tracked real drums before so I don't know.

That's just a really brief explanation of some of the things compression is used for.

Usually to control levels, but it can also help fatten up guitar/bass sounds, or give an overall "color" to the track.

I would read more into it before deciding which compressor to get and when/where/how to use it.
 
Kevin DeSchwazi said:
Compression is an insert processor.

I personally would not compress on the way in unless I had a hardware compressor I really liked the sound of. Otherwise you might just as well do it in software after tracking.

If you're using a compressor to keep peaks down and so prevent your converters from clipping you're probably tracking too hot.

Just remeber that when you compress on the way in you're stuck with it, unlike using plug-ins. Unless you're very experienced and you know your gear REALLY well, it's a bad idea imo.
Click to expand...

Even with that, usually you do NOT compress on the way IN at ALL.... Even at the studio, that's unheard of. You would use the compressor as outboard gear, where it can be controlled easier if you mess up, or anything of that nature, it won't mess up whatever you compress. SO the man is right, don't compress on the way in. EVEN if you know your gear REALLY WELL.
 
Mindset said:
Even with that, usually you do NOT compress on the way IN at ALL.... Even at the studio, that's unheard of. You would use the compressor as outboard gear, where it can be controlled easier if you mess up, or anything of that nature, it won't mess up whatever you compress. SO the man is right, don't compress on the way in. EVEN if you know your gear REALLY WELL.
Click to expand...

I've heard of a lot of people using compression on the way in, although, personally, I wouldn't do it.

A limiter seems like it would be more appropriate for processing a signal on the way in...if your goal is to control levels and prevent clipping.
 
danny.guitar said:
I've heard of a lot of people using compression on the way in, although, personally, I wouldn't do it.

A limiter seems like it would be more appropriate for processing a signal on the way in...if your goal is to control levels and prevent clipping.
Click to expand...

I school & work at Dallas Sound Labs, and over here, we run those as Inline patches, but only through patch bays etc... so the original sound doesn't get affected YET unless we want it to be, and also from there, it's usually an aux return back into the Pro Tools rig anyways or insert, depending on sidechaining, inline or going outboard. I just don't see why people would actually run the compression right away on the way in... It doesn't make sense to me lol. They can't anticipate if the drummer is going to hit that thing too hard, or too soft, and they can't see the future & see how much exactly attack & release etc should be.... Those are needed to be done after you already have the signal. SO I'm with you, I don't use it on the way in either. IMO you wouldn't want to come close to clipping anyways, that's running it too hot. Unless it was just that one thing, or a couple things, but not the whole thing....

You would use the compressor on anything that has a lot of changes in sound pressure basically...

You should run it as outboard gear (get the hardware). When recording, record your stuff all FIRST before running any type of processor/effect to it. Track your stuff out, and then go through each track and see what it needs. Don't over do it on each track either, cause when put in as a whole, and all tracks playing, you would want them to sit good & compliment each other.
 
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