Digital Compression??? Question For Protools Users ...

[Theformatt]

I RECENTLY ASKED A QUESTION ABOUT COMPRESSION AND GOT SOME EXCELLENT FEEDBACK HOWEVER I WAS NOT ABLE TO APPLY WHAT I LEARNED IN THE STUDIO.. THIS QUESTION IS AIMED AT PROTOOLS USERS USING THE COMPRESSION PLUGINS. WHEN RECORDING VOCALS IN PROTOOLS I AM CURIOUS TO KNOW WHAT OTHERS R DOING WITH COMPRESSION, ARE U INSERTING COMPRESSION ON THE TRACK WHILE THE PERSON IS RECORDING. OR ARE U RECORDING DRY VOCALS AND ADDING COMPRESSION LATER. I WAS ALWAYS CONFUSED ON WHAT TO DO... IF I HAD AN ANALOG COMPRESSER I WOULD GO INTO THAT FIRST AND THEN INTO PROTOOLS BUT SINCE I DONT I WANTED TO KNOW IF I SHOULD BE DOING ANYTHING DIFFERENT BECASUE I WILL BE USING A PLUGING COMPRESSER...tHANKS TO ALL WHO RESPONDED BEFORE.. AND NOW..

Also If I Do Use Compressen During Recording What Should I Do About The Playback Engine.. Should I Put It Higher Or Keep It Low Becasue I Am Tracking..

 

[dfltchra]

Okay we'll try again. You said, "If you had a hardware compressor you would run the mic into that first." I say do the same principle in PT. The inserts on the audio track are after the recording in the PT Signal Flow. meaning it goes Input=>track=>insert=>send=>output. so putting the compressor on the "audio track" is recording "dry" and adding the compresson on after. If you want to record the compressed signal, do it the hardware way in the software. Use an "Aux" track as a make shift insert. Basically, open 2 tracks. 1 Audio, 1 Aux. on the Aux track make the input, the input from the mic. On the Insert of the Aux track put the compressor. The ouput of the Aux track assign to a bus. On the input of the Audio track, make the input whatever bus you had assigned the aux output to. make the ouput of the Audio track the main output. Record arm the Audio track and record. The audio that is being recorded will be the audio compressed from the Aux track.
As far as the playback engine, set it the best your computer can handle. If things are getting screwed up, then it's doing too much. thats an easy cause and effect.

I think your making things way more complicated then it needs to be. There are 2 choices: either YOU want the signal compressed, or YOU don't. You keep asking people what they do, but it's YOUR recording. ^^^ is a way to record a compressed signal with a plug-in. You already know how to record without one. The settings are done "to taste" If you like it hard compressed, compress hard, if not then don't. The difference in recording dry, is that whatever plug-ins you add to it if you don't like the result you can just take it off. If you record with the plug-in (wet)your stuck with whatever you recorded. If you didn't like it your only option would be "undo" or Command+z. Espcially if it's EQ, or a time based effect. Usually unless your just trying to tack down a plugin sound that you have at home that isn't available in another place that you record, you would not record those effects. You would just use them in the mix. Meaning, traditionally inserts on inserts and time based on auxes (in PT).
I don't mean this to sound angry I'm not angry and I apologize if it sounds that way. I just hope this finally helps you get what your looking for.

 

[moses]

simply don't process during recording. it's a bad, unflexible and time wasting habit.

i don't know one good reason to process before or during recording.

 

[Samplecraze]

simply don't process during recording. it's a bad, unflexible and time wasting habit.

i don't know one good reason to process before or during recording.

True, but when dealing with singers who have very poor mic technique it sometimes helps to have some very light compression during tracking to control the wild dynamics.

 

[truehunger]

Its true don't process before recording unless its very light compression, stay away from gating, even for drum bleed.
Do all that stuff after. Plus if your vocalist needs aides like reverb just add it to the headphone mix.

 

[epotts06]

You can record plugin compression while tracking vocals in Pro Tools but latency may be induced.

 

[dvyce]

If you want to record the compressed signal, do it the hardware way in the software. Use an "Aux" track as a make shift insert. Basically, open 2 tracks. 1 Audio, 1 Aux. on the Aux track make the input, the input from the mic. On the Insert of the Aux track put the compressor. The ouput of the Aux track assign to a bus. On the input of the Audio track, make the input whatever bus you had assigned the aux output to. make the ouput of the Audio track the main output. Record arm the Audio track and record. The audio that is being recorded will be the audio compressed from the Aux track.

While this will record the compression to the track, there is zero reason to do this... and many reasons not to do this.

The end result will be no different from having the compressor on the insert.

And there is even less reason to do it since he obviously doesn't know much about compression (based on his question) so why in the world would you want to record that to the track?

 

[dvyce]

True, but when dealing with singers who have very poor mic technique it sometimes helps to have some very light compression during tracking to control the wild dynamics.

then put the compressor on the insert.

Even if you put the plugin compressor on an aux and record it to the track, it is not controlling dynamics on input... therefore it is serving no purpose with regard to recording it to the track.

Put it on the insert and the singer will hear his compressed voice and be happy... absolutely no reason to record it to the trck, though.