To those of us who record, what are our favorite effect settings? In particular, what are your most used compressor settings? I use some reverb, occassionally a little chorus, and a bit of soft compression. However, I’m looking to find a better setting for compression. Anyone got any ideas?
Well, the compressor I use (Alesis 3630) is very analog in it’s dials so it’s hard to specify settings as such. However, the rule of thumb I use is to use a Gate with a fairly short time, plus a pretty large amount of compression with a soft knee. It’s obviously also going to depend on your mike and the sound you are looking for. Ideally, that’s going to be clarity and good position in the mix without making it sound “overcompressed” and that’s an art as much as a science.
Not sure how helpful that was, sorry…
Richard
I’m using “Music Creator” by Cakewalk. It’s got wonderful chorusing and reverb effects, and quite a bit of control over depth and volumes and such.
My only caveat is that I can’t find any compression or noise cancelling features with this software. Mind you, it’s not the "full"version you find in the big music stores, but rather a smaller version I found at a local Staples which was going out of buisness.
I generaly prefer light effects, and a cleaner tone overall. Sometimes a bit more production on low whistle is nice, but it depends on the voice of the particular instrument I’m playing at the time.
WG
I stay away from compression, live or recorded. I feel it takes away some of the natural sound.I use hall reverb at 2 sec and delay at 450 msec. My dry/wet ratio is at 40% with the delay about 20% lower than reverb. In a real “live” room I use significantly less, depending on situation.
Most of the time its best to do a mix with less compression and then have the compression/expansion done in mastering. This way you dont lose the depth. Too much compression at printing may just give you less room at mastering time. And mastering may just give you the overall sound you want. I would even include stuff done with home equipment. My thoughts and experience worth 2 cents.
[ This Message was edited by: totst on 2002-02-16 14:13 ]
Hey Scott,
A while back you e-mailed me some effects settings that you use for whistle. After playing my old Generation with the lead plug, I erased your e-mail without making note of the settings. Could you post them here?
Thanks,
Vinny
Hello Scott,
I am in the middle of my 2nd whistle CD. My engineer had a talk with some of the folks that record Joanie Madden’s stuff, and they compress the dickens out of it. That’s how she gets her “sound”. Also, in speaking to others over the past 12 years, I have developed my own live parameters. I use two “Boss” pedals. The first is a Bass EQ which boosts the low frequencies in the bigger whistles since as a rule, you tend to blow harder on the higher notes. The second is a Digital Delay/Reverb set to “large room”. I love Joanie Madden’s sound and by using these two effects, I can get it. (Just wish I played like her). The other advantage to using these effects live is that you can stomp on the reverb pedal, cancel the effect, and talk between tunes without putting all that reverb on your voice.
In past posts, I ALWAYS get one of two people who are constantly critical of what I say. For these, I merely ask them to check the piece of mistletoe I have tied to the back of my belt.
I hope that the tech stuff was helpful to you.
Bob Pegritz
I’m particularly fond of Cool Edit Pro’s “Taj Mahal” echo preset.
It’s best suited for low whistle tracks, and it adds a very beautiful and haunting effect.
I’ve never played around with compression, but perhaps I will give it a try on the next tune I mix.