Basically, this week is all about compression.
-controls maximum levels and maintains higher average loudness (soft becomes louder, loud becomes (relatively) softer
-specialized amps used to control dynamic range (distance between loudest and softest part of a waveform)
-Flutes: difference between loudest and softest is about 3dB
-Voice: difference between loudest and softest is about 10dB
-Drums: difference between loudest and softest is about 15dB
-our ears act as compressors, responding to average level of sounds
-detector circuits built in like our ears
-brick wall limiting: pre-determined level is the peak, absolutely nothing above it
-Multiband compression: compress different levels of frequencies sepearately
-optical compressors: use photocell resistors. Audio goes into a lightbulb. The louder it is, the brighter the light and vise versa. Light and photo resistor in light-proof box (super simple explanation). Then, makeup gain to bring soft parts up.
-Field Effect Transistor (FET): First to emulate tubes and the way they worked,. fast, clean, reliable.
-Voltage Controlled Amplifiers (VCA): Most versatile of compressors, most flexible. GREAT reaction time
-VeriGain: Circuit without the top three versions of compressors, pretty much.
-Digital Compressors: Exaggerated basically. Can get precisioon you can't get with analog compressor. Some have built-in delay.
-Ratio: way to express degree the compressor is reducing the dynamic range. Difference between signal increase coming in the output. 2:1 means that for every 2dB going in that are above the threshold, it's only going to sound 1 dB over. Going over 10:1 turns the compressor into a limiter
-Threshold: Level of incoming signal at which compression amplifier turns from a unity gain amplifier to a compressor-reducing gain. The higher the threshold, the lower the input. No affect on signal below the threshold. Once threshold reached, the dB over are reduced based on ratio. Knees are where the audio hits the threshold. Hard knees are sudden and abrupt, soft knee is more gradual over the threshold. Changing the knee changes the envelope (ADSR), more specifically the A&R
-Attack time: Time it takes to compress after threshold is reached. Range from under 1ms to over 100ms. Affects tone in terms of brightness. Fast attack clamps on signal. Depending on how you adjust it, the compressor acts as an EQ and a reverb.
-Release: the time it takes the compressor takes to return to unity once signal drops below the threshold. longer creates darker sound, shorter makes it sound brighter. So, compressor released from gain reduction. 20ms to 5sec is range of releases. Really depends on tempo, program material, instrument.
Tuesday's lab I had the first hour to myself, so I worked on grouping and recording stems some more, just to make sure I know what's happening. Then, when Andy came back in, we started experimenting with the outboard gear, and found some really interesting sounds using the Eventide and Distressor.
Wednesday we went into the studio and practiced using the Millenia and Distressor, incrementally changing the attack, release, ratio, threshold, and gain output. The patching we used was getting the track that is to be treated to the board using the line 1 inputs, then using the channel insert sends into the distressor, and then send it to a Pro Tools input onto a new audio track. Record, and compare. So, we did a lot of that, and it was a lot more interesting and fun than I thought it would be.
Thursday we worked more with the outboard gear. We did some of the critical listening with the compressor, but we enjoyed the strange mixing we were doing on Tuesday, and we decided to do it again. Not as many cool sounds, but we did learn a lot and have a good time.
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