preamp to compressor advice

[Bad Mac]

I have a good preamp and just ordered a compressor. was wanting to smooth out the vocals a bit on the way in. I usually would just use the pre and then compress with a plug in, but i found i had lots of automation edits to do. So i am wanting to just smooth it out just a bit, same for bass guitar. So here is my question: do i need to eq before the compressor or should i be ok without eq? Like i said i am not planning to use heavy compression. just level a bit.  Thoughts?

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

Which preamp you have?

[Sheens]

my thoughts as whole

 

 

 

 

 

Edited February 10, 2021 by Sheens

[Bad Mac]

4 hours ago, Bruno de Souza Lino said:

Which preamp you have?

ART DIGITAL MPA II

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

While the MPA 2 doesn't have a proper eq, you have some adjustability over the tone with the impedance, tube bias and other adjustments. For example, you could clip harsh transients by driving the preamp harder with the the circuit on, for example. That would produce a warmer sound that could be voiced with the impedance switch and so on.

[Zargg]

You should be ok without an Eq. As mentioned above, you can change the tone some with different settings.

When I use Eq on the way in, it is usually with "broad stokes" to get the tone as close to where I want it (as the only Eq's  I have are the Eq's on my preamps).

I do use plugins afterwards 95% of the time.

[Shane_B.]

7 hours ago, Bad Mac said:

ART DIGITAL MPA II

I have the Reference Series non-digital version of that unit. It has blue backlit VU's and upgraded tubes from the factory. I don't like the VU color to be honest. It sticks out too much. It is a great unit though. Fantastic when you consider the reasonable price. I have it and the Pro VLA II compressor (See my sig). Just running a signal through them both chained together and setting all the compressor settings so they have no effect significantly improves guitar and mic tone, imo. 

To answer your question about smoothing out the vocals a bit first, the best way I've found to do this is use a plugin by Melda called MAutoVolume. Here's a video showing it being used. Skip ahead to 4:40 to see the results. You can use it on instruments too. But you would have to record the vocal part first then throw the MAutoVolume VST in the FX Bin. I prefer that rather than manipulate the signal too much before it's recorded. You have more options that way. Waves also has a Vocal Rider VST that does sort of the same thing but I refuse to have anything Waves related on my system.

[Bruno de Souza Lino]

A good piece of advice offered by Shelly Yakus is not waiting to do all your processing during mixing. Pre-production is there to help you determine how the end result should sound like and, that way, you can already start with somewhat "pre-mixed" sources. This is not so much a matter of "digital sounding" or "overly processed" but more commiting to a sound and going for it. It's not uncommon to see songs nowadays with hundreds of tracks with all sorts of complex processing, you watch a video of the person demonstrating the thing, turning all sorts of effects on, removing bypass on tracks and you go: "I don't hear any difference."

Edited February 10, 2021 by Bruno de Souza Lino

[Tezza]

If the source has a horrid frequency attached to it, I like to notch that out on the way in. Doing that acts a bit like a compressor anyway. For example, with my vocals and mic setup there is a predominant and ugly frequency at around 2.6k. If I record that straight in then I can hear the annoying frequency but it also causes spikes in the waveform and makes the recorded performance more jagged in terms of volume which can prematurely trigger an overload when mixing. If I notch out that frequency a bit on the way in, the vocals sound much smoother and the waveform has less severe transients and also looks smoother. I do the same with the guitars.

I don't compress on the way in unless it's part of the tone of the guitar ie a pedal.

I do the same with mixing, like they say with eq, cut before the compression and boost after, unless your tone shaping ie the eq and compression is intended to deliberately color the sound. I think your working against yourself if you have a loud unwanted frequency and you run that to a compressor without notching it out first, you will need less compression if you notch it out.