mopontop Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I am looking to enrol on a short course in the use of compressors and gates in live sound, it's a specific topic so could perhaps brush up on a few other things (if a more general course is the only option). I am willing to travel the Uk for the right course but ideally in south. Any ideas/ recommendations would be appreciated Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
brainwave-generator Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 Really?!! What do you hope to gain by doing a course in compressors and gates? You can learn to use both within an hour. If you want to learn these skills in a course environment you should probably attend a music tech course of some sort, there are plenty of colleges offering evening courses in music tech. You will not find a course doing solely compressors and gates as it's just too small a thing and EXTREMELY basic (where more specialist things can be made into niche courses). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whisky-zulu Posted October 12, 2011 Share Posted October 12, 2011 I don't know of anywhere that offers a specific course on gates and comps, but you might try SFL Group based in Reading; they do a number of courses on the basics of mixing live sound and having attended a couple of their courses in the past, I can safely recommend them. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulears Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 I found out about gates and compressors after doing sound for 20 years! Never had a 'need' - although plenty of opportunity. To be honest, people still slap them on without any thought as to need. As in "what are you doing?" - "Wiring in the rack - somebody disconnected it" - "why" - "because we have the Glenn Miller Orchestra in, and they have brass and drums" - "still confused, what do you need in the rack?" - "compressors" - "what for?" - "drums" - "forget it, they'll want an overhead and nothing else - no effects, no compression and no limiting. Stick a 414 on a boom and it'll be fine. They do their brass and woodwind solos out front and will shove a 58 down the bell of anything they want louder, and give you 2 seconds to work out which of the 5 or 6 downstage they're going to pick 0 so it's eq for the vocals and a quick finger!" Seriously - you really need to find a quiet moment with somebody to play instruments and sing, and then experiment. Quite a few students simply cannot hear what a compressor is doing - and although they twiddle the knobs, the results are somewhat random. Gates can be good to fiddle with - especially the sidechain feature - I rather like (and probably overuse) gates on synth pads in the studio and then key them with the bass or drums, so you can pulse the steady sound and make it just a tad rhythmic. In college, the furthest we repeatedly got was using them to gate noisy sources, rather than clever stuff. Even if a course was run, compression is very subtle, and needs silence while you twiddle. If it's not your turn to twiddle - the fact your ears and hand are not linked makes hearing somebody else's adjustments really difficult, unless it's hugely OTT. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Before you spend money on a course, work through these RANE NOTES , hopefully with a compressor and a sound source in front of you. They may well give you everything you need. Even the dynamics processing in your favourite DAW is enough--just make sure you have some kind of short audio clip with lots of dynamics to start with. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
whisky-zulu Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 Looking at Bobbsy's post also reminded me that Soundcraft do a number of white papers about mixing and processing; their Guide To Mixing can be found here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
S&L Posted October 13, 2011 Share Posted October 13, 2011 when I was trying to get the right sound for a band using a vocal processing unit with compressor and gate, I had the singer make a cd of her voice singing one of the set list. I then spent an afternoon with a mixing desk, headphone, cd player and the processing unit in my living room, working with it until I got a good understanding of the unit and how to get best results, along with provisional settings. I needed to adjust a little afterwards when using a mic signal instead of line signal, but not much. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProtecAV Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 I am looking to enrol on a short course in the use of compressors and gates in live sound, it's a specific topic so could perhaps brush up on a few other things (if a more general course is the only option). I am willing to travel the Uk for the right course but ideally in south. Any ideas/ recommendations would be appreciated Cheers why not buy one, & use it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
david.elsbury Posted October 14, 2011 Share Posted October 14, 2011 why not buy one, & use it?Why not buy a car, and just hop in and drive without lessons? Yes, it's a bit of a different situation, and you'll not kill yourself with a compressor, but if you have a bit of an idea what you are doing, then your results will be much better. @ProtecAV, how about making some constructive, useful posts? @ the OP, I'd echo what has been said about the books and online resources. Bobbsy's suggestion of getting into a DAW such as Audacity is a good one too. :) David Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Modge Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 @ the OP, I'd echo what has been said about the books and online resources. Bobbsy's suggestion of getting into a DAW such as Audacity is a good one too. :)That's how I taught my self recently, out of a need to improve the sound track of a tutorial video I was making... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indyld Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 For the interest of the OP, and anyone that wants an approach to teaching the use of compressors particularly in a live situation, this may be useful: http://www.goingto11.com/?p=263 I personally prefer the teach live, don't look at the knobs and twiddle method of introducing compressors. I've found that using DAWs helps people visualise compression and remember numbers, but that takes over from the actually being able to hear it bit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bobbsy Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 I personally prefer the teach live, don't look at the knobs and twiddle method of introducing compressors. I've found that using DAWs helps people visualise compression and remember numbers, but that takes over from the actually being able to hear it bit. Each to their own method, but I'm going to disagree a bit on this. I find compression to be one of the few things where it really helps to understand the "technology behind the sound". Having (probably) four different controls that interact with each other...and which are also reliant on the type of programme material going into the compressor...makes it a bit much for my addled brain and ageing ears to learn by playing. Clearly, even if you practice on a DAW you have to take your knowledge into a live situation where you have the added issue of feedback. However, it was playing with a repeatable source on a DAW that taught me what the knobs do and what to listen for. I'm a lot happier doing it live now! As an added aside, if you go back into the history of Dave Rat's old blog ROADIES IN THE MIDST he's got some interesting hints about mixing the compression in and out to change the character of the overall sound. I'm not sure how far back you have to go but it's worth digging. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J Pearce Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 Dave Rat should really publish an edited version of those blogs as a book, there's so much useful information in there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
indyld Posted October 15, 2011 Share Posted October 15, 2011 I find compression to be one of the few things where it really helps to understand the "technology behind the sound". Having (probably) four different controls that interact with each other...and which are also reliant on the type of programme material going into the compressor...makes it a bit much for my addled brain and ageing ears to learn by playing. Well, of course when I say playing, I mean structured playing of the kind covered in the article I linked to above. Basically, getting the thing pumping to high heaven so that not even the least educated in listening can miss it, the level of technological understanding depends on the learners path so far and intended final outcomes. Obviously, it's important to have a basic understanding of the concept of attack and decay of a particular sound but my point is ratios and milliseconds can come later. I don't believe that you need to be able to see gain reduction slopes in your head in order to understand what is at it's simplest squashing of the loudest and quietest bits nearer to each other. In my simple version, ratios basically make the sound more or less "open" and thresholds set how often the squashing happens, again depending on the particular original sound characteristics. I know that to soundies, this perhaps seems too simplistic but everyone has to start somewhere and I don't think that mS and dB is it, which is why I encourage up/down knob twiddling, easier to do with a real knob. As mentioned already in this thread, it's important that if you are using recorded media that it has some semblance of a dynamic range left before you get it, something that I like about live sources if you can find a willing volunteer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ProtecAV Posted October 16, 2011 Share Posted October 16, 2011 why not buy one, & use it?Why not buy a car, and just hop in and drive without lessons? Yes, it's a bit of a different situation, and you'll not kill yourself with a compressor, but if you have a bit of an idea what you are doing, then your results will be much better. @ProtecAV, how about making some constructive, useful posts? @ the OP, I'd echo what has been said about the books and online resources. Bobbsy's suggestion of getting into a DAW such as Audacity is a good one too. :) David well! thats how I did it,, & I've worked on shows all over Europe. Since then I have given lectures at the local college for the sound production students My previous post wasn't meant to be flippant. It was a serious bit of advice. If you're thinking about paying good money for a course? Then spend that money on a good compressor & gate. I.e Drawmer I'm not suggesting you use any unit for the 1st time on the first song on the first nite. But in your own time. You'll have it cracked after a couple of efforts. Just follow the manual, & then your eyes and ears There's nothing like the realtime No licence required Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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