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Imagine you had a vocalist who would whisper words quietly and then belt
out some loud screams. You, the engineer, has to record such a
take. You find the whispers are too quiet unless you boost the fader and
the screams require you to quickly lower the fader so you don't overload
the recorder. That is the time-honored technique called "riding the gain"
(gain is another word for volume). A compressor is an audio
circuit that automatically rides the gain. It pumps up the volume when
things get quiet and slams down the peaks when they get loud. The goal of
the compressor is to achieve a more uniform, more consistent audio signal
that is optimum for recording and listening.
How does it Connect to My Studio?
There are 3 places where a compressor can
be advantageously connected.
1. On Mixer channel Inserts. Here the
signal goes out of a single channel, gets processed, and goes back to that
channel.
2. In between a sub out bus on the mixer
and audio interface. This way anything going out the bus gets
processed. This way is very flexible as it allows you to use your
compressor both during recording and mixdown and you can select any number
of channels to be processed.
3. After the Mic preamp and before the
audio interface. For those going mixerless, this is the way it is
done. You go form the preamp line outs to the compressor line ins,
then from the compressor line outs to the audio interface line ins. If your
mic preamp has inserts (not all do) you can use that. |
