Compression |
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Compression |
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Oct 2 2008, 10:18 PM |
Hello Jeff
My rule of thumb is to be careful with adding compression pre-recording. And the reason is very simple - you can't take away the compression once it is recorded, as you said. Decisions about compression should generally be made while mixing - not recording! But there are exceptions, like when we record vocals. Then it's a good idea to have a little compression so that the input signal doesn't clip, and that we use as many bits as possible. Then once it's recorded we can experiment with different compression that fits the mix... However, when we record a guitar with lots of distortion the signal is kind of already compressed. So most of the times there's no need to compress it (it wouldn't have much effect). We should always have a compressor on the master fader though, but that "master compression" mainly makes the instruments blend together, so that's another story... Now to answer your questions Yes, I do use a combination of both POD and plug-in compression, but the POD compression is very very small and I could probably remove it and not notice any difference. I think it's more a mental thing for me, that I don't want the signal to clip I think both the POD and the RTAS plug-ins are great, so I can't really say which one is better. But of course, it depends on what plug-ins we're talking about. The free ones from Bombfactory for example are amazing and does wonders to a lead guitar track! With the plug-ins there are usually more options though (the POD only have ratio and threshold, right?)... so on second thought I'd say the RTAS are better //Marcus |
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