I remember in the beginning of my sojourn in engineering when I had absolutely no idea about anything. I was a guitar/keyboard player who never thought about the tech side of things and starred at a mixing board like it was an alien language from a far off planet from another galaxy that I could never understand. I had bought a Joe Meek VC1, and when I finally had the ADATs wired up to the Mackie 32-4 and the patch bay (took me about 12 hours because again, I had no friggin idea) and those crappy JBL monitors that fatigued my ears in like10 minutes, I plugged in that sweet Røde Classic (everything came from Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard) and was ready to make beautiful music. I turned on the power on the Meek and sang a note...and that damn needle slammed so hard and so fast against the left side of the meter that I thought that I had broken it and that $1500 of hard, hard earned money was down the drain, LOL! It took me a good long while to get a handle on gain staging it as I had no idea what or how to listen to compression. It takes time to grok audio engineering and train the ears to listen, and I think especially compression. Newbies haven't a clue.

 

Nice strip that VC-1. I like Joe Meek in general especially the UK made units.

 

is it you singing in these two ?

 

No. It's AI.

 

I thought autotune was the culprit

 

AI can sing? :D wooow
I found a new singer for my songs. I wish compressors will not ruin vox

 

Last edited: Feb 10, 2024

Yeah. Kinda it is the culprit. Singing AI is like autotune grew a mouth and started screaming.

 

Last edited: Feb 10, 2024

I really like this dev and his knowledge about plugs and most especially his take on a couple of legendary compressors

Psycho Circuitry - YouTube
Check him out - I use 99% his plugs over any other ones
https://psychocircuitry.com

 

Well, i on the league of people that don't see any purpose on using a such agressive multiband expander (or upwards compressor) with a lot of crossover issues when you can use more "professional" (i hate this word, but i'm lacking for a more suitable one) multiband tool which you can do basically the same thing, but with caution.

(and i think OTT is boring af)

 

I see this kind of sh*t FOR DECADES.
-you don't need EQ
-you don't need compressor
limiter
Nebula sound like sh*t
... and on and on

Those ppl spend more time making video than music or mixing or mastering or ... whatever

The new trend i can't stand is those "guitarists" spending more time bashing REAL guitarists than learning guitar.
And they pretend to teach YOU guitar.

F*ck y*u useless wannabe !
That's my final and unique answer to this thread ... because i have a real life

 

You don't NEED compression. It's a nice tool to have but I recorded for 15 years on PortaStudio, Tascam Studio8 and even ADAT and never owned one. And to be perfectly honest the results generally sounded really good if maybe not quite entirely radio ready.

 

Last edited: Feb 10, 2024

I think the problem with this, in which I have been a part, is that sometimes people use a compressor when it's not necessary, or to gain volume in the mix. There's like a 'goal' or certain procedures that some say you should follow – first equalize, then compress, maybe add an effect, and finally a limiter. The reality is that, for me, that's false; there's no set goal other than what your song needs. We should use our ears and see what is necessary. Maybe we don't need a compressor, perhaps an EQ, maybe manipulating the volume, cutting the track in two and playing with the gain, etc., etc. Also, sometimes a new VST comes out claiming it will make your mix or voice or instrument sound godly, and you put it there because it's the gem of the moment, only to later realize it was garbage and ruined the song. Conclusion: I believe any VST should only be used when necessary.

 

what the fuck is this? my brain hurts

 

Up until probably the year 2000 it would have been inconceivable for any studio to have been able to place a compressor on every track unless you had a really expensive desk $150k+ that had compression in the channel strips. We had a studio here in town that was considered world class and that did a lot of well(ish) known albums but they had a Sony board (iirc) and it certainly didn't have compression on every track. They had some nice outboard racks but I doubt they have more than four really major compressors and maybe a few little cheap DBXs or something.

 

Found this one really useful, especially for folks like me who got into top down mixing too fast

 

That isn't exactly the best example, because the ADAT's analog to digital convertors serve as a "pseudo-clipper", and tape a "pseudo-compressor". I've seen people say the same thing about not needing a clipper and running the audio through a mixer; but really getting some amount of clipping, distortion, saturation, and overdrive via their mixer into their interface. It's not the same as using dedicated units for any of those functions, but you get some. And since the fix for half the stuff she mentions is not overdoing compression in the first place, you have to keep that in mind.

I agree with your point, but I think your "date vs pricing" is a little off for analog mixers with dynamic processing. Yamaha were frequently way out in front, of course; but this is a short writeup of the 02R from 96. https://www.soundonsound.com/reviews/yamaha-02r. And Roland were way way out in front with their "Virtual Studio" hd units. The VS880 was 96, vs1680 was 98 , vs2480 was 2001.

It wasn't only conceivable by then. You could carry it around in a plastic suitcase.

 

Last edited: Feb 10, 2024

i don't think so. i think it was you. i kinda know people. i don't think AI would be this bad. not ONE single note was in tune. it was very human like. very very bad human-like

 

This is not my voice. I am not that cruel to publish my voice and kill people eardrums.
It's AI generated from this track.

 

Compressors are NOT the issue, and neither are limiters. At least not in the hands of those who know how to use them to ADVANTAGE. Both types of devices have been used since the dawn of recorded audio. What IS a problem these days is the extreme overuse of so-called BRICKWALL LIMITERS. You know, those dynamic range stealing devices that make every commercial mix put out within the last decade or so sound like a pile-driven mess... It's not just bedroom producers doing this it's the "big-boys" in the commersh-large $cale mastering labs doing this crap ad nauseam...