compressors + EQ inthe racks??

[cimmerdyne]

hey, I have seen pics of alot of people's studios and in most of them their racks had two compressors and two equalizers. My question is why do they have two of both those???
I was thinking of getting these pieces for my rack soon, but was wondering why many people have two. LAter,
Cimmerdyne

 

[lykwyd chykyn]

Compression is an effect you typically have to run as an insert (you can run it auxbus for a special effect, but it's normally run insert). So if you want to compress more than two instruments you need more than just one compressor (assuming you have a two channel compressor). Of course, if you have plugins, the only reason to have an anolog compressor is either for tracking (as protection against input clipping) or if it has a particular sound you like (some people swear by the dbx 160a, among many others).

Eq is the same way. You definitely use them as inserts fx most of the time, so if you need as many eq's as you want to have available to you. Of course, we again have plugins, and most boards have a rudimentary eq built in, so you'll only need these if you need to do some serious tone shaping and you don't like the plugins you have.

I wouldn't worry what's in other people's racks. Buy what you need when you realize that you need it. That's the best way to go.

 

[cimmerdyne]

thanks for the input

 

[Zer0PointEnergY]

Buy what you need when you realize that you need it. That's the best way to go.

Yeah, thats My Philosophy as Well. "You'll Know When You Need It."

BTW, Nice Graphic.

 

[theblue1]

Another reason for having two EQ's and two compressors is that some models only come in mono. But if you want to master using them you'll need to apply them to both channels.

But the big gotchya on doing that is, of course, that you have to set each 'side' individually. This isn't too hard usually with an eq -- esp if it's got fairly well calibrated controls so that you can save your ears for fine tuning the settings.

But running two separate compressors on the two sides of a stereo pair is very, very tricky. And that's why most folks use two channel 'stereo' compressors which typically have a "stereo ganging" function that yokes one side to the other. Even past getting the proper settings this prevents a loud sound on one side from creating a very different compression profile as the sounds shift through the track -- which in the mix can produce odd stereo "breathing" and stereo sound stage shift.

This last bit above applies to plug ins just as much as analog units.

When you're compressing a stereo signal it's usually best to use a compressor in "ganged" mode. (And of course many EQ plug ins and outboard units also come with a stereo function.)