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He also does not understand that a 15-band graphic EQ is not a shelving equalizer. Ethan, this guy reminds me of someone. What to take a guess who?

Here is how I really started to understand what compression was doing. Solo a snare or kick or anything with a good transient. Have the attack set to as fast as possible. Medium release. Set the ratio to 4:1. Lower the threshold until you are compressing the signal at least 6-10 db. (The reason for this is at the beginning you are trying to understand compression, so there is nothing wrong with compressing a lot since you are trying to listen to what it's doing. After you can hear it at extreme levels, you will be able to hear it at subtle levels). Then slow down the attack until you hear the transient come back to life. It should be dull with a super fast attack but you will DEFINITELY be able to hear it pop back to life when you slow down the attack. But make sure you do this part slowly. It should happen within 5-20 msec, depending on the sound. You can do the opposite too. Start with a slow attack and speed it up until you hear the transient dull out. Doing that really helped me understand compression more. I understood what threshold and ratio did, but the attack and release times were so foreign to me until I could actual hear the sound change with the attack setting. At that point everything made sense. or just use LA2as!!!! Glenn

This is a great thread!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! For me it is mastering, I SUCK!!!!!!!!!! Not so long ago I had to master something I did and thought I did a great job. When I compared it to something John at Massive Mastering did I just about started to cry. Why is it I can mix 40 tracks just fine, but can't master 2? I really take my hat off to the mastering guys that really make things sound so damn good!! Glenn

Ethan, You know I have a lot of respect for you when it comes to room acoustics, but sir I disagree about tube pre amps. Pick yourself up a 610 and listen how smooth it sounds. Yes you can get distortion out of it, but when backed off it just sounds smooth. A lot of times you may not want that smooth sound so something that is transparent may be in order.. Depends on what you are going for. Glenn

Originally posted by Rodney Gene Hey Glenn! How is the Acoustic Panel Rock and Roller doing these days? The new Tri-Trap looks great! Brother Ethan was refering to 'toob' as in starved plate lower-end pres than the actual sound of a 'TUBE" preamp. In other words... no sense in using extra nonsense on the chain regardless of the mic. Clearly good tube designs sound great and can usually be either clean or 'warm'... the Presonus (unless it is the ADL) is a 'toob' design. Much Respect, Things are going pretty well and thanks for kind words about the Tri Trap. Oh the toob is not a tube? well hell I guess you learn something everyday. Glenn

>> I have the option of running it through a Presonus tube pre, or just straight into the Firepod (we have 2). Ethan wrote: Skip the toob nonsense and just aim to capture the cleanest signal you can. You can always dirty it up later, though I can't imagine why you'd want to! I am not so sure about that. Don't know anything about the Presonus tube pre, but if it is anything like the LA-610 I have, it is far from "dirty".. More of a smooth nice sound is more like it. I do agree with Ethan that the room sound is going to be your biggest challenge, with what ever mic or pre that you use. Glenn

John, You rule sir. Ever since you told me about this my recordings have improved 300%. It is so easy to understand but for some reason not so many people get it (or should I say do it). Maybe this is still thinking from the 16 bit Adat days? I do want to say I do not disagree with any of the other points, just agreeeeeeee with you 10000000000000%. Glenn