Topic: Need help w/ compressor

[Craig T]

I have several recordings from the Sting Nation (http://www.stringnation.com/Home.html) concert this past May that need help to make them more listenable.  They were acoustic acts with very little amplification (if any), so the music is soft in comparison to the audience.  I've had other situations like this before, and was able to use a compressor in post to bring up the level of the music relative to the audience, but this one is giving me trouble.  I just can't get it to sound natural.

I've got sets by Tim O'Brien, Darol Anger's Republic Of Strings, Vasen, and the "String Nation Orchestra" (everybody + guests).  What I'd love to do would be to send the original untouched untracked 24bit flac files to someone who could do the post processing for me.  Any volunteers?

[bhtoque]

What are you using? How did you set it?

I could prob do it for you as a last resort, but I can give you some pointers first.

JAson

[Craig T]

I've used a Waves plugin with Wave Lab 5 in the past.  I don't have it here at work, so I'm not sure which one I tried on these sets.  If you want to give me some setting pointers, I'll give it another go before handing over the reigns.

[Brian Skalinder]

I've found s/w compression works wonders in some cases.  But the more compression required, of course, the less natural it sounds.  In those cases, I've either employed a volume envelope solo, or volume envelope + compression.  Might be worth a try.