Hi all, this might get long-winded, apologies in advance...
I currently track through a Focusrite Saffire Pro40, and tend to do whole band live at once (usually a range of jazz and improvised music things). I've been contemplating getting an RNC compressor to experiment with, perhaps on drum overheads and I was wondering the following...
1) Does anyone know where the AD/DA converters are in the flow of a Pro40? If the mic signal is coming in, then back out to the compressor and then finally back into a different channel, does that all happen in the analogue world, even though the routing is controlled from the computer? Or does it get converted a bunch of different times? Which I guess is something to avoid if possible?
2) Does anyone here track through a compressor? I'd like to experiment, but I also kinda think that as long as the signal isn't clipping, then I can do everything afterwards right?
Kind of a compressor noob (if you hadn't already spotted), so apologies if these are stupid questions.
Comments
That's not in itself a reason not to do it - multiple conversions only matter if you can hear them doing damage, it's unlikely that you will.
The alternative is getting an outboard mic preamp to put in line before the compressor's input, or finding something like the Audient ID series - the 22 and 44 have insert points which are after the mic preamp but before A/D conversion.
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Good knowledge on the converters too, I think you'd be right that I'm unlikely to hear the difference, so that's encouraging for trying it at least.
Signal flow is usually:
Microphone -> mic preamp -> compressor -> EQ -> converter
or
Microphone -> mic preamp -> EQ -> compressor -> converter
Be careful with over compression to disk- it is hard to undo with an expander plugin.
One approach to take his to mult the signal (using a signal splitter or a patch bay with half normal capability) and record the compressed and uncompressed versions of the signal.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
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Committing early to a sound forces you to make choices that moves a production onwards, rather than having endless options.
You can get plugins that sound as good as the hardware, for the most part.
Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
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Studio: https://www.voltperoctave.com
Music: https://www.euclideancircuits.com
Me: https://www.jamesrichmond.com