Personally, I would stay away from it man.
If I'm in a great need for compression while tracking, I just add a plugin
on the track.
There's a lot to be said for getting the sound you want when you start the
tracking process. I come from the school of good old raw tracking. for
example: If a vocalist is to bright/ harsh, my first thought is to change
the microphone. Not all microphones work for all applications *grin*. If
I want the vocalist to be tamed down, I'll pull out a ribbon or
transformerless mike. That usually does the job, and if it don't, I still
don't have to EQ as much. To me this is a far better option than just
eqing the vocal as its recorded.
I use the same principles with compression. If I want a guitar to be a
little more punchy, I will use a pare of small diaphragm condenser mikes,
and compress it later if need be. The objective is making the best
sounding recording you can going in...
If you over compress while tracking, your screwed in the long run. Even
if you under compress, when it comes time to mix, you will play havoc
trying to get the compression just right. And in the end, you end up with
2 different types of compression on 1 track. My experience has been that
you easily end up with a track which is more muddy, and its never what you
wanted it to be.
One of the fraises that has bothered me the most that gets used in
sessions daily is, "we'll fix it in the mix." That's just an amateur
attitude to have, and its putting off the headache for another day and
passing the buck to the unlucky fool who happens to be the mix engineer...
Most mixing problems are caused by people who make mistakes while
tracking, and just think it can be fixed in the mix.
We can work wonders these days with technology, but a lot can be said for
a musician who records his complete solo with few punches. Its a lot
easier to deal with, and you don't have as much worries about if the tones
match up.
I have seen these guys who will splice together a dozen takes of a solo,
and lots of times its so obvious. They will have changed posissions and
the complete tone color changes with them. Lots of musicians don't, or
don't want to here that. They say, "we can fix it in the mix." And some
fool has a hell of a time trying to make the solo sound like a 1 take
solo... This is completely off topic, and I'm sorry about that...
I guess all I'm saying is, think twice before you start compressing or
using EQ when your tracking... Get the best raw sound you can get before
worrying about cluttering up the picture with toys.
Just because you have an interface with EQ and compression on it don't
mean you have to use those tools while tracking. 1 of the big reasons
these companies put this stuff on these products, is in case someone wants
to use this stuff for a live situation, (gigs). They want to make the
product seem more friendly to the buyer. "oh look! It acts as a
recording interface, but we can also use it as our mixing board when we
play out! Aint that cool?"
That's all fine and dandy I guess. For me though, I have studio hardware,
and gigging hardware. And never the twain shall meet...
Shawn
----- Original Message -----
From: "Brian Howerton" <bshowerton1@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 4:49 AM
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: mackie onyx 1220i question
How much compression would you do for something like this? I've never
recorded with compression on a track while recording before...
----- Original Message -----
From: "Nickus de Vos" <bigboy529@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 7:14 AM
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: mackie onyx 1220i question
-original message-
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: mackie onyx 1220i question
From: "Brian Howerton" <bshowerton1@xxxxxxxxx>
Date: 08/12/2010 13:36
what you can try in a case of recording someone with a big dynamic range
like you had with this client is to record with slight compression. This
can be nerve recking at first because you'll be scared of messing up the
signal but if you do it a few times it will start working great. I would
suggest a few practice runs with less important recordings or get a
friend to sing for you wile trying out different compression settings,
ask if you need any help on this subject.
She also has a softer voice as well so maybe that has something to do
with it until she gets a little in her higher range...
----- Original Message -----
From: Charles Marston
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 6:30 AM
Subject: [ddots-l] Re: mackie onyx 1220i question
I think this is usual when using a dynamic mic. However, with regards
to the jump from negative 14 to negative 3, that may be normal depending
on the kind of song you are recording. You may use a compresser
afterwards to even out the dynamics on the track.
From: Brian Howerton
Sent: Wednesday, December 08, 2010 1:28 AM
To: ddots-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ddots-l] mackie onyx 1220i question
Hello all,
Yesterday I was recording a client with my new mackie onyx1220I and I
was finding that I was having to run the tain knob really hot in order to
get good meter readings. It was like one minute she would be at -14
or -21 and then she would jump to a louder portion of a song and it would
jump sometimes to like -3 or -2. Am I doing something wrong? I mean is
it normal to have to run the gain knob all the way almost to it's max?
COuld use some help please... Thanks,
Brian
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