Would love to know your workflow.

[Picking Moose]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

A compressor reduces the dynamic range. How and why that's useful varies. For example, you can apply it to a vocalist who isn't consistent in volume, so that it keeps the vocal front and center, and you don't lose words. Same thing with a bass drum or a snare. Compressing those allows you to have them basically be at max volume on every hit, good for dance music. Keeping the range limited on an overall track minimizes the differences in music to make them work better in poor playback situations...

Thank you Doug for the explanation.
Although I know quite well what a compressor can be used for I am sure many will find these info useful.
My question was really intended for verstft, I'd like to know why HE/SHE uses a compressor. What is the purpuse and, while we are at it, what kind of compressor he/she uses.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by Picking Moose

Thank you Doug for the explanation.
Although I know quite well what a compressor can be used for I am sure many will find these info useful.
My question was really intended for verstft, I'd like to know why HE/SHE uses a compressor. What is the purpuse and, while we are at it, what kind of compressor he/she uses.

Sorry I misunderstood your question.

[verstft]

Originally Posted by Picking Moose

Thank you Doug for the explanation.
My question was really intended for verstft

I think it's a misconception that a lot of electric players have which is thinking they need to compress the sound. It's usefull for a clean electric sound to get that Boom Chick sound on a tele...chicken pickn' if you want.

Theoretically, I was trying to use it for acoustic reduce the gain a bit. When I mess up (which happens a lot) up I tend to make a clunk/slap sound and the db's go through the roof.

I think a compressor as a mastering tool can create perceived loudness. Very subtle obviously, you woudn't want things to sound like a club mix.

Don't take it from me though. I've been in the audio production biz for about 3 to 4 days now. So I'm definitely "expert" producer on youtube now.

[Doug Young]

Originally Posted by verstft

When I mess up (which happens a lot) up I tend to make a clunk/slap sound and the db's go through the roof.

That's what editing's for!

[Picking Moose]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

Sorry I misunderstood your question.

No need to apologise Doug.
Your reply is still appropriate.
You refreshed my memory about it all and, as I said, many will find it very useful

[verstft]

Originally Posted by Doug Young

That's what editing's for!

True. I just started using logic pro and the comping capabilities are amazing which makes editing a breeze.

Also, I didn't make the connection earlier but I just bought your book on DADGAD! I've been trying to teach myself for about 2 months now.

Just goes to show the caliber and quality of the people posting on AGF. Thanks to all the people who contributed, I've got some "messing up" to do.

Cheers.

[KevWind]

My workflow and preference is such that my song templates all have EQ's and Comp's on almost every channel but ! They are all inactive on launch, and remain as such during tracking . That way they are they are there if I decide to use them for mixing, but they not are taking any processing power or causing any latency while recording.

When I track just a guitar solo ( not very often) or even just a guitar and then dub a vocal I seldom use a click.

But if I know I will be adding more instruments then yes I will use a click or a make a very basic midi drum loop (usually just kick and snare) based on the sessions beats per minute.

On the headphones question, were you talking about monitoring when you are recording or when you are mixing?

I do use closed back HP's while recording anything using a mic, so as to not get any any feedback or phase issues coming from the speakers going into the recording.

For mixing I use speakers for monitoring then I always check the mix with open backed HP also

As far as reverb I always setup reverb as a parallel effect on its own Aux input track, never on the Audio track itself or the Master Fader track
This way there is both a completely 100 % dry signal and a lesser % wet signal going to the main mix.

In the example below you see a Pro Tools session but I am assuming you can do the same in Ableton and or Logic . I pulled the EQ's and Comps off the inserts for less clutter in this example. So the only insert showing is the M7 (reverb) on the "Rm Vrb" Aux Input track.

Also note for clarity, I always rename the Aux track itself, the input for that track, and the Send Bus that feeds it, exactly the same in this case Rm Vrb for (Room Reverb)



The reverb (M7) is on the "Rm Vrb" track, second track from the right. Notice that Gtr 3 , Gtr 4 and the Vox Comp (names towards the bottom) tracks are all sending to the reverb track at their own individual levels. In this case... Gtr 3 @ -15.0 db....Gtr 4 @ -17.2 db... and the comped vocal Vox Comp. @ -11.1 db.

This means that the reverb is set to 100% wet and the amount of dry signal coming out of each individual audio track is controlled by its fader, but the amount of wet signal is controlled by the send level being fed to the reverb track.