Compressors

[skinnypaul]

I'm interesting in knowing more about how/if people use compressors in post.

I have a less-than-perfect recording that *I think* would really benefit from being run through a compressor to bring out the quieter sections. Is this generally seen as an OK thing to do? Or am I messing with the recording to much in doing this?

I ran it through the compressor that is included with Audacity and it worked reasonably well except it didn't compress a lot of individual claps from the audience - with the result that they ended up way louder than everything else. Gah! 

[TNJazz]

For what it sounds like you are after you should be looking more at a limiter rather than a compressor.  Some plugins perform both actions, of course.

My personal favorite is Massey's L2007.  AFAIK it's RTAS only though, so you can only use it in ProTools.

[stevetoney]

I think people use these tools quite a lot here, especially for situations exactly like you describe.  So to answer a portion of you question, I don't think it's taboo.  That said, I personally prefer manually going through my recordings and fading the quieter sections and use the gain tool to get the levels where I want them.  I feel like I have more control of the end result that way and how I want it to sound, because I usually do still want the quiet sections to sound quiet, but they need to be loud enough that I'm not reaching for the volume control during playback if that makes sense.

[Scooter123]

What Tonedeaf said.

At the end of the track I'll pick the applause section and simply reduce the volume by say 5db or so.  If the applause is mixed with music, all the compressor will do is that the volume of everything is equal--like on TV--where all sounds are the same volume. 

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

I do whatever it takes to make the recording sound the best (to me) that I can. If I need to compress the shit out of it, I do.

Some people will say not to touch a thing. That makes no sense to me.

Try it. If YOU like it better, then it's a good thing to do.

Just keep your masters untouched so you can go back and re-do anything you change your mind about.

I'm no expert, but I like the Waves L3-Multimaximizer.

[newplanet7]

Just keep your masters untouched so you can go back and re-do anything you change your mind about.

Quality advice from mike right here.
I usually do zero in the way of limiting/compression/eq.
What I do often use is the pencil tool for those unruly spikes from crowd, or a drum hit.
I will also do what Steve says with adding gain to a quieter section to make them a little louder but not so much that
it messes with the overall dynamics of the performance.

Then I usually go for a Peak Normalize to a certain db. usually -.1
I use Soundforge 6 and find it great for performing these little manual things.
-todd

[stevetoney]

This has been discussed in many other threads, but I don't have any problem with EQ'ing my sources.  While I understand that people don't EQ, I personally find that almost 100% of my recordings sound better after I've done a little bit of tweeking here and there.  As has been said a million times before, just make sure it's done in small doses and do it over the course of several days or several sessions.  It's not unusual that I'll EQ a source one night and come back the next day and change it back.

[page]

If you're dealing with crowd clapping thats louder than the music, I agree with the earlier recommendation on the limiter instead of a compressor. You can do it with a compressor but you'll have to figure out what the top end of the music threshold is and then stop compressing just under that. I think it's just easier to go for limiting; if I'm going to work on crowd noise I might as well cut to the chase.

I'm a fan of Izotope's limiter on the Intellegent2 setting. I can usually eek out another 3-4db of volume without regret.

For those on a budget, Audacity's hard limiter works, but I wouldn't push it further than 2db into the music (compared to the 4+ I've found I could get away with using Izotope's if I wanted to), and use a residue value of 0.35 or higher. ymmv, just my experience.

This has been discussed in many other threads, but I don't have any problem with EQ'ing my sources.  While I understand that people don't EQ, I personally find that almost 100% of my recordings sound better after I've done a little bit of tweeking here and there.  As has been said a million times before, just make sure it's done in small doses and do it over the course of several days or several sessions.  It's not unusual that I'll EQ a source one night and come back the next day and change it back.

+1

Compare on multiple systems if and where possible.

[Fatah Ruark (aka MIKE B)]

tonedeaf has a good point. I think a lot of us want to get our recordings shared asap. Sometimes I'll "finish" tweaking my recording and fire up the torrent, only to change my mind about something after the fact. I need to start tweaking, listening, and then sit on it for a bit.

I think what happens to me is my ears get tired. I can only mess with a recording for so long and then I need a break. More often than not I finish up my recording. Get it rolling on the torrent sites, then come back the next day and wish I had waited.

[page]

I think what happens to me is my ears get tired. I can only mess with a recording for so long and then I need a break. More often than not I finish up my recording. Get it rolling on the torrent sites, then come back the next day and wish I had waited.

I now make an attempt to do all of my left/right balance adjustments a couple hours seperate from my EQ adjustments because my right ear seems to consistantly get tired faster so I tend to want to shift stuff right in the balance to compensate unless I catch myself.

1) EQ/processing.
2) balance
3) check the next day (wash/rinse repeat if necessary).