#881683 - 12/10/00 04:56 PM
What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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InsightPro
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Registered: 12/10/00
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Loc: Houma,LA,UNITED STATES
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I run sound for a few small up and coming bands and I finally got enough money to get some compressor/limiters for everything( vocals, drums, guitars, etc...). Now the question is how to use them effectively. Any help with this matter would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.
_________________________
"Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and he'll spend all day in a boat drinking beer."
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#881684 - 12/11/00 12:42 PM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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Anonymous
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I am kinda curious how you came to decide you needed compressors?
In general, one buys compressors to tame dynamcs of a performance. Usually the compressors are allocated in priority such as: 1) kick drum, 2) bass guitar, and 3) vocals.
For Kick, about a 5:1 ratio and set threshold for about 10dB gain reduction on the peaks.
For Bass, about a 4:1 ratio and set threshold for about 10dB gain reduction on the peaks.
For vocals, about a 2:1 ratio and set threshold for about 6dB gain reduction on the peaks.
For entry-level compressors, look at the Behringer Composer Pro as the very minimum unit.
For mid-price stuff, look at Presonus and dbx units.
For pro stuff, consider Drawmer or BSS units.
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#881685 - 12/11/00 04:28 PM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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InsightPro
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I decided that I should get compressors mostly for protection purposes. Mostly on the drums and vocals. I would hate to blow a horn because of a loud snare hit. I run sound for a rock band and I want one to tame the singer who can get carried away at times. Thanks.
Matt
_________________________
"Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and he'll spend all day in a boat drinking beer."
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#881686 - 12/13/00 12:11 PM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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Bart
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Registered: 12/07/99
Posts: 44
Loc: St.Paul, MN USA
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Compression can potentially complicate things and make a mix worse if you are not used to them or understand them. I think I was running sound for almost a year before I decided to tackle these beasts. Just a thought, but if you are just starting out, I would keep things simple at first. Buy a unit, get a feel for what it is doing for you, then re-evaluate your situation after you have used for a time and have gained a better understanding of them.
My suggestion would be to buy a Behringer Multicom Pro - http://www.behringer.de/eng/products/compressors/mdx4400.htm They are affordable, offer up to 4 channels of compression, and are easy to use. I use these on my monitors and a couple of FOH and they work great. Note, they don't have gates.
This is what I would in your situation. If you are running stereo, I would put two channels of the compressor on L/R. Then, I would submix the drums and put another compressor channel on the submix insert for the drums. If it is just the one singer who is giving you problems, you could put the last channel into the insert on his vocal channel, or you could put it on the vocal submix insert if you want to compress all the vocals. The Multicom also has a limiter for extra protection. Mark suggestions for initial settings are a good starting point. However, I see 4:1, maybe more, on a vocalist that is all over the place, especially if they scream a lot. If you are looking to protect your speakers, then I would run it either inline or on the L/R insert. If you run it inline, their could be arguments in regards to whether it should be before or after the eq. I ran mine after and that worked out for me.
On another note, don't forget your monitors. When a singer is screaming through your FOH, remember that your montitors are taking the beating as well. Or maybe a drummer that likes a ton of kick in their montitor. I compress the hell out of my monitors and set the limiter threshold low. If a singer complains to me that they can't hear their scream or drummer can't here the thundering double bass solo, well you know what they can do, or they can bring their own monitor and we can abuse theirs all night.
One note: I was thinking about my monitor statement, and I don't want to mislead anyone. In my situation, I run a separate split monitor system. If you are running your monitors off AUX sends on the main board, I am not sure if the AUX sends would be compressed by channel inserts or not. Didn't mean to complicate things, but maybe somebody with a good working knowledge of signal flow through a mixing board could clarify. Thanks.
[This message has been edited by Bart (edited 12-13-2000).]
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#881687 - 02/01/01 06:34 PM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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MidiMagic
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Registered: 02/01/01
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Loc: Bloomington,IN,UNITED STATES
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I have been using 2 Behringer Autocom compressor/gate units for quite a while now.
If you want to protect the speakers, set the compressor as a limiter, with a high compression ratio (8:1 or higher) and the threshhold so high that it just barely triggers on normal peaks.
Note that the compressor can make feedback more likely if the level is raised to offset the compression.
We have one singer who comes and goes in level. "Cheryl Mouse" became our pet name for her. We tried all sorts of mic placement and monitor placement tricks, but nothing worked. Then we stuck a compressor on her, and that helped some. But what worked the best was taking a reverb feed from her mic channel, and putting that in just her monitor. Instant "tiled shower effect", and she leveled out her singing. Is that a "Cheryl Mouse" trap?
This message has been edited by MidiMagic on 02-01-2001 at 03:35 PM
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#881688 - 02/02/01 03:01 PM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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miroslav
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Registered: 05/23/00
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Originally posted by ilikeguitars@hotmail.com:
I decided that I should get compressors mostly for protection purposes. Mostly on the drums and vocals. I would hate to blow a horn because of a loud snare hit. I run sound for a rock band and I want one to tame the singer who can get carried away at times. Thanks.
Matt
Check out http://www.jblpro.com/
Go to the FAQs and look under General Audio FAQs
Seems like you need to address your speaker/amp/crossover combination first.
If it's right, you should not be "blowing horns"...then proper application of a limiter will add some extra control.
_________________________
miroslav - miroslavmusic.com"Just because it happened to you, it doesn't mean it's important."
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#881689 - 02/02/01 06:40 PM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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InsightPro
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Registered: 12/10/00
Posts: 101
Loc: Houma,LA,UNITED STATES
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I've never blown a speaker before. I'm just trying to prevent that from happening in the future. As the saying goes,"Better to be safe than sorry." Thanks for the info though.
--Matt
_________________________
"Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and he'll spend all day in a boat drinking beer."
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#881690 - 02/05/01 04:31 AM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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Sir Bob
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Registered: 03/25/00
Posts: 310
Loc: Altadena, California
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The Real Nice Compressor (RNC) is a steal for $200. It doesn't color the sound, which I cannot say about my first compressor, the Alesis 3036.
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#881691 - 02/11/01 04:08 PM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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Anonymous
Anonymous
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Bart, insert point preceeds aux sends in the signal flow, so when you compress the channel you are are compressing the signal going through the aux sends as well.
Cheers.
------------------
Ufuk Onen
http://www.SisProductions.com
Ankara, Turkey
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#881692 - 02/27/01 08:46 AM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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Hack
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Registered: 02/22/01
Posts: 41
Loc: Little Rock,AR,UNITED STATES
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Compressors aren't magic. They don't make anything sound better. Use them vary lightly. If you can hear it suck the sound level down, you have it set way to heavy. Start at 3 or 4:1 with a max of 2 or 3 db of reduction.
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#881693 - 04/02/01 04:44 AM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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sonusman
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Registered: 11/21/00
Posts: 175
Loc: Portland,OR,UNITED STATES
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Man, lot of talk, and only one guy really answered the question.
Go read this. http://www.geocities.com/shailat2000 . Written by a big named engineer in Isreal. It links to something I wrote too. His will give you audio examples of what different compression parameter adjusts will do, and mine explains what all the knobs do.
Good luck.
Ed
This message has been edited by sonusman on 04-02-2001 at 01:45 AM
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#881694 - 04/05/01 06:41 PM
Re: What is the best way to set a compressor/limiter?
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InsightPro
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Registered: 12/10/00
Posts: 101
Loc: Houma,LA,UNITED STATES
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Ed,
Great page! The article explaining the controls was very informative, and the audio examples of the different parameter settings allowed me to hear the effects of different settings. Thanks.
--Matt
_________________________
"Give a man a fish, and he'll eat for a day. Teach a man how to fish, and he'll spend all day in a boat drinking beer."
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