[sdiy] Advice

[Scott Gravenhorst]

Glen <mclilith at charter.net> wrote:
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>At 10:32 AM 2/3/04 , Martin Fay wrote:
>
>>Ingo wrote:
>>>Seems a contradiction to me. A compressor lowers the dynamics, so it's 
>>>no good if dynamics are already lacking.
>>
>>That depends on how you use the compressor. Consider a sound with a
>>percussive envelope and running that through a compressor with a slow
>>attack. The start of the transient will go through, then the volume
>>will start to be turned down. The result exaggerates the dynamic!
>
>For that result, why not use an expander, a peak unlimiter, or even a
>carefully adjusted noise gate instead?
>
>I must admit that I don't fully understand the love some people have for
>compression. Some people seem to use it on absolutely everything. I've
>never owned a good compressor, but I've heard a lot of commercial music
>that I've thought would be a lot better without compression, or at least
>with *much less* compression. 
>
>Using a compressor for the job of *expanding* dynamics sounds a bit like
>the fellow who's only tool was a hammer and every began to look like a
>nail...   ;)
>
>
>later,
>Glen Berry 

IMHO it probably comes from an addiction to a technique that can be used
to reduce noise.  "If it's good for one piece, why not use it on all?". 
And then as you point out, it's a matter of degree.  Also, I think that
there may be some über-paranoia about noise.  I don't like noise either,
and we all know that it's impossible to completely eliminate, but if I
can't hear it, I don't care and I'd prefer to have unmodified dynamics.

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-- Scott Gravenhorst | LegoManiac / Lego Trains / RIS 1.5
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