Quote:
Originally Posted by alohachris  Aloha,
Compression is so over-rated & soul killing on acoustic instruments & many voices as well, IMO. Though an unpopular statement, I'd skip the expense of outboard compressor hardware & use digital compressor plug-in's very lightly if you must at all.
Too many people in the music business are far too happy to quash their music to death these days in the interest of reving up the volume to insane levels, IMO. I've backed off of most compression.
|
I think you have missed a serious point about compressors.
Most of the time they are tone-shaping & transient-shaping tools that bring lower-level elements of a signal more to the front...
...i.e. for emphasizing the "belly" of a snare without the the attack of it killing your eardrums.
And the difference between good hardware comps and plugins can be huge!!
Maybe you could also rent some and check them out (1176, LA2A or so) against your plugins - I bet you won't want to use plug-ins any more than necessary
But to not get to far away from the topic - Most of the time I think it works better to get a certain mic-pre with the sound you like and then a certain comp with the sound you like rather than buying all in one box and compromise about both...