Full Mix compression

[Rhythm Addiction]

As a beginner in the art of sound but armed with a little bit of knowledge, I'm interested in knowing if there is such a piece of electronic wizardry that will sit between the outputs of a desk and the amplifiers and which will compress the whole output of a rock band musically?

 

And to make it even harder to answer, are they easy to set up and just leave running (ie no sound engineer to tweak it all the time) or am I barking up the wrong tree?

 

What I want to do is even out the dynamics of the sound in a similar way to when a CD is mastered so I'm reducing spikes on the gear yet giving a good overall balance.

[JakeCTG]

A standard compressor should do what you want fine.

 

Once it is set up you can leave it.

 

One suggestion is this http://www.behringer.com/MDX1600/index.cfm?lang=eng A Behringer compressor it is not that expensive about £50 ish.

 

It would depend on the application, so more info on what gear you are using and where it is happening could be usefully.

[Rob_Beech]

Its extremely difficult to do this effectively when a full mix has a wide dynamic range. You will notice the compression instantly when you get a change between a vocal and guitar part and the full band playing. More often than not its vocals that cause the biggest problems when left unattended, a compressor over a vocal sub group may go some way to helping here but again this can often be more trouble than its worth. There is nothing that will compare to getting the source right in the first place. Manage this and THEN put a compressor over a vocal group and you have potential for a good balance.

 

 

Rob

[Just Some Bloke]

I'm not sure how the musicians will feel about you removing their dynamics. ;)

 

However, if you set a high threshold so only the really OTT bits are squashed then it could make sense, I suppose.

[Rhythm Addiction]

As it stands at the moment, it's just an idea but here's what it potentially would be going into.

 

Behringer SL2442FX desk -> Behringer ULTRAGRAPH PRO FBQ3102 -> 2 x Warrior Audio Elite 2K5 amps -> 4 x Warrior Audio L400 top cabs + 4 x Warrior Audio L400B bottom cabs. The Warrior Audio (now known as W-Audio) was cheap and sounded good when I heard it and it is relatively portable which is a big bonus.

 

What I'm trying to do is bolster the sound by reducing the peaks and boosting the rest to give the overall set up more oomph (for want of a better word) because at the moment I have to set the levels to accommodate the peaks so sometimes bits disappear behind loud vocal bits or bass drum kicks.

 

Being a three piece band and wanting to keep costs down we don't want to try to get a sound engineer in unless we are doing bigger gigs and need to use a snake etc.

 

Someone suggested that there was something that TC Electronics did that he has used which will EQ the overall sound, compress it and give the impression to the listener that the amps were far more powerful than they actually were. Looking through their web site I think he was joking but perhaps I'm missing something - not that I reckon we could afford it anyway if there was one! ;)

[Trunker]

Someone suggested that there was something that TC Electronics did that he has used which will EQ the overall sound, compress it and give the impression to the listener that the amps were far more powerful than they actually were. Looking through their web site I think he was joking but perhaps I'm missing something - not that I reckon we could afford it anyway if there was one! ;)

 

 

There are a few bits of kit that will do this, but if you want good results you pay out good money too! :** laughs out loud **:

[The Boogie Man]

A compressor will do what you want, but wont do it very well. To get the full sound with punch , but no massive spikes, comes from you.

A good vocalist will work the mic to keep a constant level going in ( when they know they're going to let rip they move away from the mic and vise versa ) so to the guitar and bass. Add a little compression at source to even out each sound a little then mix the foh to the level you want. After that it's down to you. ( not meant to be patronising, but its a fact ).

If one member of the band is up and down like a yoyo you'll never get an even sound.

I've mixed bands before where I've had to spend all night riding the fader for one band member as the sound went constantly from nothing to screaming.

hth

baz

[p.k.roberts]

What I'm trying to do is bolster the sound by reducing the peaks and boosting the rest to give the overall set up more oomph (for want of a better word) because at the moment I have to set the levels to accommodate the peaks so sometimes bits disappear behind loud vocal bits or bass drum kicks.

 

The problem you will encounter by putting a compressor across the output is that when loud peaks are reduced, all other sounds will also be reduced, so you will end up with what could be a louder version of a bad mix! Another approach might be to identify the sources that are giving the most problems (from your post it sounds like you have a pretty good idea) and put some kind of dynamics control on them individually, which could control excessive peaks and allow them to sit better in your mix. . As you are already down the Behringer route, how about a Multicom. That would give you four channels to be going on with.