Compression?

[glissongs]

All you guys who play and record your acoustics so well, (specifically Hobo and Michael and Dave)....do you use compression during the recording or are you adding it afterwards in your DAW?

[john]

Hey

 

I would do it in your DAW unless it is at a necessary place WITHIN your effects chain and it is ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY to record the effected guitar within a specific environment, capturing the environmental ambience. In other words, very rarely!

 

Like any effect, once added it cannot be removed. Recording gives you the ability to completely change the sound of your recording. If you record the original with all it's dynamics you can change the effects you use. ie post recording flexibility.

 

The only caveat is if you have a very noisy recording system, where recording adds a lot of noise. Not ideal, but under that circumstance if you compress a noisily recorded guitar, far from ideal as that is, you would compound the problem by compressing the noisily recording as that would effectively raise the already loud noise floor. But that is only a consideration if your recording system is already noisy.

 

Cheers

 

John

 

[justsoulin]

 

All you guys who play and record your acoustics so well, (specifically Hobo and Michael and Dave)....do you use compression during the recording or are you adding it afterwards in your DAW?

 

Good question

[john]

Just an additional on examples where you might seek to record the guitar with fx:

 

• Where you want to capture the sound of the room
• Where you want to capture the sound of amp and cabinet too
• Where the guitarist does something that requires an interaction with the effect and environment, foe example, playing with feedback

[Stova007]

I have the same process as David and John. I never put any Effects on vocal/guitar when I'm recording them. Then i add any necessary FX to get them to sit right in the mix after theyve been recorded.I have a few songs where I don't use compression at all on a guitar just because I want to have it sound more dynamic in the mix....but usually I compress it in the DAW after its been recorded.

[glissongs]

Thanks guys. That all makes perfect sense now.

 

And now that we've covered THAT, you all's playing really sounds good. What other effects are you adding for your simple acoustic playing..........your 1 +1's as an example? Delay, reverb, echo, anything?

[dnafe]

Well I'm going to buck the trend...being from the non-performing side of the glass, unless I'm totally familiar with the song and instrument / voice I'm about to record I will always have a compressor set up...most of the time it never even blinks but it's there just in case. Then there are times when an artist, (usually a singer) has less than adequate mic control and having a compressor there takes a lot of the wild swings in dynamics out of the equation.

With that said for the most part the bulk of my compression is done after the fact.

[glissongs]

 

P.S.  I listened to all your live videos, Bob.  I think your playing, singing, and your guitar sound is great!  I tired doing live videos awhile back, and I never got remotely close to such a good sound.  Kudos to you.  I don't now what your setup is, or how it might vary when you're just recording audio,

Ha!  Thanks David. Most of mine are just playing directly in front of the Zoom Q3 video recorder. A few are playing thru an amp with some reverb, or with the Tascam in the background and playing on top of it. (But the recorder is still just the Q3. Cool little gizmo).

My stuff is really 2nd rate stuff, 'cos I'm such a tech retardo. I wish I knew just 1/2 of what you and Michael know, and what Dave will soon know.

[TapperMike]

Eekk I wrote out about ten paragraphs, went looking for a link and lost it all.

 

I really don't like adding too much effects to an acoustic guitar.  Usually no compression and a little eq to none if I can help it.

The first thing you have to get comfortable with is.... You and your acoustic instrument being a reflection of you.  Sounds weird right?

I've got a godin freeway sitting right next to me and I am not comfortable with the clean tones I'm getting out of it.  It's simply not "me" I love the neck on this thing. It's extremely comfortable sitting or standing to play everything that I play.  John McLaughlin has the exact same model and he's comfortable with it.  Walter Becker who is a hero of mine (steely dan) has one and he'll occassionally pull his out during a live show and he's comforable with the sound. But I'm not.  Recently I put a set of Dunlop "Wylde" strings on it and my god it doesn't sound anything like it did with plain old D'addarios or Fender nickel chromes.  I'm not comfortable with the basic tone.  Stop hold the presses.  If you aren't comfortable with the essense of your tone adding effects on top of that is like "Chocolate Covered Sh!it" it still takes like/sounds like "sh!t" and that can't be covered up by processing.  Me wanting for it to sound different isn't going to change a thing untill I go out and buy new more familar strings.

 

So lets talk just about strings. going to a slightly thicker gauge string will give your tone a lot more body. But it also can work against you if you are fighting the strings too hard to hold down the strings. The harder one clamps down with the left often the harder one will attack the strings on the right.  If you strive for a fluid picking style like I do it's going to go out the window for a bit.  On the opposite side if you go to too light a gauge after playing with a thicker one you may still maintain the same type of attack as before. If you want a slightly brighter tone try backing off of the flatpick a bit before you consider going to a lighter gauge string.

 

Be comfortable with your sound before recording.  This is "who you are"  you are not just going through the motions you are feeling it.

Compression is used as a leveling device.bring up the quieter notes bring down the louder ones.  If you are happy with the you that you are getting with your guitar and you are focusing first on your guitar playing then you won't have those extremes.  You'll figure out just soft enough or just hard enough on your own so the dynamic range isn't so irregular.  If you are distracted say... Trying to sing and play and putting all your focus on your singing well.... your guitar playing will suffer.  Or distracted by other things like feelings of insecurity checking the levels etc.  You want to be in your happy place when you record not in your distracted place.

 

 

A lot of eq and compression happens before the mix. Tonewoods, strings, technique all shape the sound.  Compression and EQ can suppress more then enhance the character of the song and the instrument.  Next move on to  the room and mic'ing.  If you are mic'ing with a camera you are in essence mic'ing the room not the instrument.  The further away the camera is from the guitar the more prevalent the room becomes  You might want to prep the room but honestly a lavalier michropone cliped to the sound board will remove most if not all the room attibutes and give you a better signal to work with.  Room you can always add later and better with any generic room reverb. But you may find you don't want to or need to. A good engineers motto is do no harm.  You don't want to take away something from the sound by trying to add something else to it.

 

This is a great practical article on mic'ing. http://www.cakewalk.com/Support/kb/reader.aspx/2007013311

[justsoulin]

 

Eekk I wrote out about ten paragraphs, went looking for a link and lost it all.

 

Couldn't you just scream when that happens

 

I always now ctrl+a, ctrl+c so at least I've a copy in memory