Acoustica User Forums

Hi,

How to use compression please?

I use a compressor stomp box for miking a harmonica through, it sounds great. That's about it.

If I dial in compression on my mixer for vocals it just adds 'hiss' to the track, am I doing something wrong?

Thanks

Not trying to be glib but you could spend years learning about compression, years......

I'd suggest checking YouTube, tons there, or maybe a book like Mixing Secrets by Mike Senior or The Art of Digital Audio Recording by Steve Savage.

Recording has been my hobby for a few years now and I'm still learning so much about compression, like I've scratched the surface but still have SO much to learn.

M

Thanks,

Glad its not only me with a question mark over my head.

Beats me why someone can't produce a compressor with 'de-hiss' built into it?

Compressors come in all colors but many of the more popular ones are emulations of older/classic models so the analog sound is there, some have analog off options. There are plenty of clean comps out there even free ones have gotten much better.

M

Are we talking two things here? As I read it OP is using a stomp box compressor - so assuming comp is pre DAW.
Second paragraph mentions 'If I dial in compression on my mixer for vocals it just adds 'hiss' - is that the Mixcraft mixer with a compressor plugin?

In the meantime I found this which may shed some light on the subject..

https://www.sweetwater.com/forums/showthread.php?26356

Thanks. It was a general question, I run my gear through an analogue mixer into an M-Audio interface, into Mixcraft. My mixer has volume, gain and compression dials, I noticed compression adds hiss to the signal. So I'm not using the MC7 compressor here.

The stomp box compressor is separate, I only use that on a live amp, it adds dirt to an amplified harmonica sound which is cool.

Focusing on:

If I dial in compression on my mixer for vocals it just adds 'hiss' to the track, am I doing something wrong?

I think I would start by focusing on the hiss. IE: Is it coming from the chosen compressor? Is adding compression making an existing hiss more apparent? (Both very common problems.)
If it is the former, does the compressor allow for turning off the noise? If no, you need to use a different compressor if the noise is undesirable.
If its the latter, the first thing I would consider is pinpointing the source and learning if there is a way to minimize or eliminate it at the source, as dealing with it later is always more complicated and difficult.

As to:

How to use compression please?

Before diving into the deep end of that, I would start by asking-
1: What are you doing currently? What are you using specifically?
2: (Very important IMO), what are you looking to acheive by using compression? What is the goal?
3: What is the style and genre of the music and what are you referencing?

Compression can be used for SO many different things, from subtle to extreme.
Leveling out dynamics, altering tone and timbre, ducking, gain reduction, etc. etc. and the list goes on.

And yeah, as others have mentioned- I've been studying pretty intensely for years and generally feel like I am really only just recently grasping bits of it confidently.

To make matters worse, I feel the specific audio in question can call for very different approaches than another, so without some knowledge of that...... any answer would probably be generalizing and guessing.

Ric, your last post snuck in there before I finished my reply.

But it doesn't change much of my answer. The question remains as to whether the hiss is caused by the mixers compressor or does the compression simply make it more apparent.
It could be a mic, a cable, the boards preamp, etc. and adding compression just makes the hiss louder. It could also be the boards compressor itself.

Maybe try turning off the boards compressor and using a plug in. Trouble is, some of those add hiss. For example the DTC compressor is hissy. You might try several. If the problem still exists I would next suspect the boards preamp. Many are noisy. Especially at higher gain settings.

Thanks,

Probably using too much gain, and the compression is making things worse.

Need to experiment more - am biased towards analogue instruments which I tweak with plugins afterwards.

Will turn the gain right down (on vocals) next time and see what happens.