A couple of months ago, I listened to a few different recordings of the same show. I was a little confused by some subtle differences between a couple recordings. Why was this one particular tape of the bunch so different across the board? I knew these microphones. It wasn't the equipment, was it? What made this recording sound so different, so consistent across the range of different songs and dynamics?
This thought kept fading in, not while I was recording, but when I was in front of my laptop. Yesterday, middle of a rabbit hole and a vape cart, I stumble on a YouTube video on compression. I knew it from my podcast days, but I didn't like it. In fact, running that podcast made me fear EQ and compression. I've never used those in the five years I have been taping. Well, the rabbit hole and the cart won, and within thirty minutes I had triple watched sections of two videos and came to the search function on TS.
As a podcaster, I was using envelopes as a solution for minor changes to audio snippets. It was tedious... I'll keep it P.C. I have had to use them with concert processing, but in very small doses. Claps when I don't feel like reaching for RX7; the minor adjustments.
After about 10 hours in front of my laptop over the last two days working on the files of card, subcard, and matrix of both for a band, I just want to say parallel compression is very useful and this thread gets a bump for newer tapers like myself.
I don't get as NY on it as my native roots - I would say I go more NOLA. ReaComp for compression and ReaEq for EQ. With ReaComp, I fiddled with settings a lot. I liked the preset Master Bus NY Comp. However, I minimized nearly all parameters, only using it as a basis before making my own preset to go with next time. Same with ReaEq, I drove both ends pretty hard before backing off a bit to +2-3dB. I feel like videos on this are geared toward studio production rather than what we do and, YMMV, but I tended toward more middle ground than 4x4 terrain.
I am already integrating bottom up processing when I blend subcards into my main pair. The same principle made fading the compressed track in, ganging channels, and adjusting gain after mix just that much easier.
TS and its search function wins. Again and again. I had to hunt around for specifics on what the function of pieces like make-up gain were and how to use them, but this thread needs a bump for us newbs.
Vids that also helped in no particular order:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnKgDAImZtg B and H on parallel compression
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yi0J9JsRdI4&t=1159s Compression/settings overview, very understandable
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehY4Yr0jom0&t=392s Same channel as above, focus on parallel processing