[sdiy] Advice

[mark verbos]

By adjusting the attack and release times, one can get the compressor to 
let the attacks through and compress the not bodies. That technique can 
make the sound have more dynamics and make, for anstance, an 8 bit 
sampled snare have an attack and decay rather than just a big blob that 
turns on and off. Mixes will mesh together better if the tracks are 
comressed. That's why large format mixing boards have a comressor on 
every channel and in most cases almost all of them are used to some degree.


Speaking of which, have you guys seen the SPL transient designer? It's a 
box made to take all the guesswork out of getting more attack or decay 
to sounds. It has a envelope follower that is then split and sent to 2 
different slewing sections. Then the slewed versions are subtracted with 
the original to get a CV for the attack section and one for the release 
section. This Cv then controls a THAT CORP VCA. The front panel controls 
are simply attack and decay. They are level controls with + and -. This 
thing is a miracle worker. It can take the worst drum sounds and make 
the punch. I always thought that it would be cool to make a sort of 
dynamics modular. Where there's a panel with envelope followers and rise 
and fall slew and VCA's all independantly. You could then patch up 
feedback compressor, feedforward compressor, gate,  whatever.


this is way off topic now I think.

mark



Ingo Debus wrote:

>
> Am Montag, 02.02.04 um 20:33 Uhr schrieb Cornutt, David K:
>
>> The other problem often seen in home recording is that the
>> playback level is low, the mix is noisy, and the sound is
>> indistinct and lacks dynamics ("punch").
>
> [...]
>
>> Second tip: do try a compressor,
>
>
> Seems a contradiction to me. A compressor lowers the dynamics, so it's 
> no good if dynamics are already lacking.
>
> IMHO many recordings lack dynamics *because* of the over-use of 
> compressors.
>
> Ingo
>
>