Quote:
Originally Posted by H165
It's possible to get an absolutely outstanding recording of a guitar or any other set of audio signals with very bad dynamic balance. Judiciously applied compression really reduces the cringe factor when listening to such a recording.
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Do you have an example? Seems like a contradiction - a recording with bad dynamic balance seems like either a bad performance, a bad recording, or just a piece with both very quiet and very loud parts. In the latter case, a bit of volume automation would be what I'd go for. Compressing a very loud part enough to even it out with a very soft section, on solo acoustic guitar, is at least in danger of creating audible, pumping compression - tho of course it all depends on the degree.
One place people talk about using it - maybe this is what you mean - is for percussive guitar. Certainly you can use limiting to reduce peaks caused by hitting the guitar. But a while back when I interviewed Andy McKee for an article, one of the things that impressed me was his dynamic control - he sounded in person exactly like his records. His loud stuff (hitting the guitar) was relatively quiet. His "quiet" stuff - harmonics, tapped notes, etc were nearly as loud as picked notes. So on my recordings of him, I didn't have to do anything special to make him sound balanced. He did it with his fingers. Jon Gomm talks a lot about this same thing in one of his instruction videos. If the performance is right, you don't have to "fix it in the mix".