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2 questions - Compression and DAWs
Question #1. What is compression? And what do "attack" and "release" refer to? Is a good guide available on the net?
Question #2. DAWs: What makes one better than the other? Is it the quality of the plugins? How many plugins are actually presented as built in options/features that add "value" of one DAW over another? Bonus question: Can a home recording become decent with Audacity and the right use of features and plugins? Thanks.
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Barry Sad Moments {Marianne Vedral cover}: My SoundCloud page Some steel strings, some nylon. |
#2
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Compression is a way of knocking down the peaks of a audio volume. Paradoxically, this if often used not just to "even out" a sound's volume but to increase it, as it tends to increase the overall volume of when more gain/volume is applied when the peaks have been lowered. Sometimes this additional gain (make up gain) to raise the sound level when the peaks are lowered is part of the compressor's settings, other times you do that elsewhere in your DAW or recording chain.
Attack is how fast the compression effect is applied. If you lay off a bit on clamping down, you can still hear the sound character from the attack more. Ratio (you didn't ask, but ) is how much proportionate "squish" of the peaks are applied. Higher numbers, more squish. Release is how fast your allow the effect to expire, allowing the natural volume to return. I'm sure there are good explanations all over the web, but I'd need to use a search engine to find them and I'm in the middle of things now. Others will no doubt chime in. What makes one DAW preferred over another? Big subject! From an objective point of view it would be features and how they are implemented. Over the years the major DAWs all have the most needed features, but among users, the way they are implemented gives rise to preferences for one over another. Another differentiator, even among products from the same brand, is number of included plugins and to a certain degree, special features, with "lite" versions having fewer and "deluxe" versions have more. As a practical matter, many/most users get very used to how their DAW works and begin to base their musical work around how the DAW mixes with their aims. At that point, the objective stuff tends to fall away in importance as their ingrained workflow allows them to work effectively. Can a great recording be made with Audacity. Surely, yes. Great recordings have been made with a recorder, a few mics and their interface to the storage medium. Of course Audacity is not the most full-featured DAW, far from it, but not all recordings require the extensive feature set and range of hosted plugin possible with modern digital recording.
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----------------------------------- Creator of The Parlando Project Guitars: 20th Century Seagull S6-12, S6 Folk, Seagull M6; '00 Guild JF30-12, '01 Martin 00-15, '16 Martin 000-17, '07 Parkwood PW510, Epiphone Biscuit resonator, Merlin Dulcimer, and various electric guitars, basses.... Last edited by FrankHudson; 06-08-2018 at 11:18 AM. |
#3
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Tons of extensive info on the internet about compression.
In short though the best compression for solo acoustic guitar is no compression. Best DAW is often the one you get familiar with. I personally use Ableton Live. Regarding Audacity, however, it's quite limited. For example you would want a real time use of software tweaks (e.g. reverb) and Audacity does not do that.
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Made to one with pride and love To be that we hold so dear A voice from heavens above |
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Attack: is how quickly the compression occurs when the audio exceeds the threshold Release: is how quickly the compression stops In todays world (2018) there really is not one better than the other per se especially among the full featured major DAWs . The only real differences is the overall feature set , the GUI ( Graphic User Interface, or how it looks and is laid out) and the work flow While there are probably some minor differences in the sound of different plugins, Again I don't think there is any significant difference in sound of the bundled plugins in the major DAWs. And with the availability of numerous 3 party plugins the available in almost all SAW formats there is no difference. I haven't ever tried Audacity but I am guessing a you can get a "decent " recording and mix with it . Again the biggest difference will likely be more about the workflow involved to get there.
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Audacity is good but I would recommend other free DAWs: if you're on a Mac - use Garageband or if you're on Windows - there is now free Cakewalk by Bandlab. Other free DAWs: Tracktion 6, Presonus Studio One Prime. |
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Unless all you've heard is jazz CDs by Flim & the BB's or classical CDs on the Telarc label, chances are you've heard compression. Compression is what makes a recording listenable in anything other than a perfect listening environment. It is used to level out performances and to reduce some of the transients that reduce the overall volume of a recording. In excess it yields loud recordings that are fatiguing after a short listening period. That is a result of the "loudness wars" for the last decade.
However, tasteful use is makes a recording far more listenable than none at all. Non
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#7
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Interesting stuff, thanks everyone.
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Barry Sad Moments {Marianne Vedral cover}: My SoundCloud page Some steel strings, some nylon. |
#8
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As for compression on acoustic guitar in general, though, when you get good at it, it can be an artful and flexible tool. Either tracking though hardware or using a plugin in post. I do it way, way more than I don't, on both my playing and other people's. But I've been at it for a while. |
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can be pretty explosive. If you achieve mass media play (radio, TV) they do their own overall compression.
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Derek Coombs Youtube -> Website -> Music -> Tabs Guitars by Mark Blanchard, Albert&Mueller, Paul Woolson, Collings, Composite Acoustics, and Derek Coombs "Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Woods hands pick by eye and ear
Made to one with pride and love To be that we hold so dear A voice from heavens above |
#10
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You're probably right. But here, we're all talking to everyone.
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Last edited by Brent Hahn; 06-08-2018 at 01:18 PM. |
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Barry Sad Moments {Marianne Vedral cover}: My SoundCloud page Some steel strings, some nylon. |
#12
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The wikipedia version for anyone still unclear on what audio compression is:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dynamic_range_compression
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#13
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I use a touch of compression on nearly all of my solo guitar recordings, for what it's worth. It has to be *very* light, or you will hear it, and it will sound bad. With vocals and some other instruments you can be more heavy-handed, but not fingerstyle guitar. But just a touch, to my ear, brings the music forward a bit, fattens it up, smooths it out. It's subtle, but it can be an improvement. If you have your solo guitar music professionally mastered, the mastering engineer will almost certainly use some degree of compression in the process.
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#14
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Me as well. Lately I’ve grown very fond of Izotope Ozone 8. Although I love the wide band analog style compressor that comes with, I’m REALLY impressed with the dynamic EQ which is inserted before the mastering comp. A tad complicated to detail in a post but there’s plenty of vids that do a good job of explaining. It’s really a game changer for compression. Essentially it’s a real time dynamic eq that attempts to corral eq peaks (in very small increments) so that the mastering compressor has a better change of not over-reacting to those minuscule bursts of overs. It makes for a MUCH smoother task for the compressor. Honestly everything Izotope does is superior. Waiting for an Izotope reverb and I’ll be totally in the box |
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Derek Coombs Youtube -> Website -> Music -> Tabs Guitars by Mark Blanchard, Albert&Mueller, Paul Woolson, Collings, Composite Acoustics, and Derek Coombs "Reality is that which when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." Woods hands pick by eye and ear
Made to one with pride and love To be that we hold so dear A voice from heavens above |