Members Deckard Posted January 10, 2005 Members Share Posted January 10, 2005 I've been wondering if running my final mix through a high-end, analog compressor/limiter would give my final mix added punch and warmth...or...would it unevenly squash the sound. Anyone know wth I'm talking about? I don't want to take elements away from the mix, I'm just looking to give it a little hot beef injection...lol. I thought it would a nice finish to my mostly digital studio. Anyone have thoughts, suggestions, random qoutes (must not be insulting). Oh, I ran a final mix through a sherman II once...you should try it lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Darkstorm Posted January 10, 2005 Members Share Posted January 10, 2005 I'll assume your talking bout like with bass guitar or guitar where you use a compressor to add some attack thunder crack and to even out the volume some. Here the compressor is used first in line of any affects. Before reverb or anything else. With keyboards this added attack to notes is best accomplished in the adsr's. Set em for fast attack. If needed you can put a hardware comp right after the keyboards outs. But comp used after mixer is generally best used to even out the overall mix so stuff like deep bass & kick drum transients dont peak the meters so much. The main prob with useing comp after the other proccesing in keyboard is the same as trying to use it on guitar or bass after other processing other then eq. It dont work too well there for adding whack to the attack. Essentially useing comp to beef up the attack on bass guitars lacking that is rather like shortening the attack on keyboards amp, mod, & filter adsr's. Hope that helps. >Plays bass, guitar, & synths. If on the other paw, your talking about wanting to increase the mix signals overall percieved loudness, without squashing attack etc, and without running amps into clipping. Then yes something like behringers autcom pro put after mixer and before amps, works very well. I do that myself. The dedicated comps for bass & guitar take careof those instruments attack, & improve sustain. The behringer auto com pro after mixer simply tames drum transients and bass peaks and overall helps even out volume for max useable perceived volume without clipping. Can for example be used to let a 35 watt amp play more like a 70 watt one when needed too. Cause its sharp transients that most eat up watts causing greater headroom to normally be needed with amps for bass guitars, drums and deep synth bass voices. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jchas Posted January 10, 2005 Members Share Posted January 10, 2005 Yes it would work, but compressors are an instrument unto themselves. First I would recommend a quality unit (which doesn't include the Behringer). For added smoothness without mushing up the signal you may want to look at a multi-band compressor which allows you to work with particular bands of the signal like a parametric e.q. A low cost - high quality compressor is the RNC by FMR-Audio which go for around $400. It sounds as if you are doing your mix in the computer? If so you may want to look into software mastering tools which can really help a mix after the fact. I'm running the Waves Gold bundle which gives you some really nice compressors, e.q.s and a function called Maximizer which is a very easy to use tool which brings your mixes up to CD loundness levels. You still want to bring your mixes as close to 0db as you can - but the Maximizer will bring up the 'perceived' loudness level by removing the small peaks and transients before compressing which makes it really beef up the mix with less of the squishy effect of compressing alone.You may want to try your a question again over on the Recording Forum where you will get some more in-depth answers as far as which hardware compressors or software programs are in your budget and will do what you want. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members Deckard Posted January 10, 2005 Author Members Share Posted January 10, 2005 I am willing to spend $1000 on a hardware unit, or perhaps software. I want it to be the real deal...I've looked at software and Waves always sounds good. Still thinking... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Members jchas Posted January 10, 2005 Members Share Posted January 10, 2005 It's always a good idea to have a 'front-end' compressor available when tracking to give you a little hotter track during recording. You don't need a lot of bells and whistles - just a niceclean, uncolored sound. While I don't have one of these myself (i'm using a Drawmer for front-end) they are rated very highly by those in the know. http://www.mercenary.com/realniccom.html During the mixing stage as well as post-mix it's important to have some quality tools to work with to get the most out of the tracks you have to work with. The Waves plug-ins can be hung on a track (non-destructive) or applied to the track (destuctive editing but easier on the computers horse-power). I'd suggest a Google search of what Waves can do for you. Here's a start.http://www.samash.com/catalog/showitem.asp?ItemID=16431&TempID=7&STRID=1119&Method=3&CategoryID=0&BrandID=1497&PriceRangeID=0&PageNum=0&DepartmentID=9&DepartmentKeeper=9&pagesize=10&SortMethod=3&Word1=&Contains=&Search_Type=SEARCH&GroupCode=nonetodaythanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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