compressor check

Paul de Goede · **Voice Talent** Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

hi all,

I have the following set up:
Studio Projects C3/rode nt1a
Studio projects VTB1 tube amp, line out
Soundcraft spirit ES analog mixer, analog out

Finalizer 48k
Aural Exciter BigBottom 204

out to the 1212 emu card in PC

Recording with wavelab, audicity and other.

Now I am tweaking with the knobs on the Finalizer to get the compressor, gate and limiter correct.

Do you have suggestions on the setup.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

www.pauldegoede.com

Devon Bowman · **Voice Talent** Joined: 27 Jul 2007 Posts: 7

Paul,

A general way to set up a compressor would be as follows:

Set the Threshold to the units 0vu setting. This should be listed in the manual under the specs. I tried to look it up on TC's website to no avail. Most digital gear should be somehwere in the -18dbFS range. So youd dial the threshold to -18 in that case.

Set your ratio to about 3:1 for typical applications. If you want a more in-your-face or radio/trailer sound you can crank the ratio up to 6:1 to 7:1.

Now start performing into the mic and start adjusting the gain on your preamp and watching the levels on the compressor. Adjust the preamp gain so that the compressor is 'kicking' just slightly.. ie a small amount of gain reduction on normal speaking levels.

Once youve got that set, start recording and check you levels in your recording app. If need be, add some make-up gain on the compressor to get a hotter signal going into the computer... but not so much that it will make the limiter go off.

Set the limiter to go off a couple of db below clipping.. say -2dbFS. Now perform LOUDLY into the mic and watch all your overload lights and the limiter. The limiter should be catching the transient peaks so that they dont distort on the computer. If your over lights on the preamp go off, pull the preamp back and perform again. Setting up the system this way will make it so all you should have to do is adjust your the preamp

As far as a gate goes.. Id avoid using that on tracking unless absolutely neccessary. Gates can be finicky, and if you lay down a perfect but the gate is too slow and hops ff he irst yllable f very ord.. youre screwed. You can always post-process gating.

Have fun.

Dev

Jacob Ekstroem · **Voice Talent** Joined: 23 Jul 2007 Posts: 721

A TC Finalizer for voice processing....??? Shocked

Jesus, Paul... was that your own idea, or was the salestalk just very convincing?? Very Happy

I'm kinda proud, though, being Danish Laughing

Don Randall · Posted: Sun Oct 28, 2007, 20:07 (GMT) Post subject:

Paul de Goede · **Voice Talent** Joined: 21 Jun 2007 Posts: 2

Thank you all for the replies, I realy appreciate this.
With regards to the TC....got it cheap, I am Dutch Very Happy