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Wednesday, November 06, 2019
Ask Casey About Church Sound: How Do I Use Compression?
ProSoundWeb: Think of compression being like an invisible finger on a volume control (fader) and you're already halfway there...
2 comments:
Elliot Queale
said...
Compression is one of the most important non-EQ signal processing topics that can drastically impact live performance. In the theatrical setting, it can be extraordinarily challenging to balance the volume fluctuation of a natural speaking voice, and then even more problematic in a musical when you jump into a number. The article does a decent job of explaining the main components of compression (threshold, ratio, attack, release, makeup), but I cannot believe they didn't provide an input-output graph! That is the easiest way to see the relationships among the parameters, and it can be challenging for someone who hasn't ever heard of compression to put those words into meaningful actions. I do, however, appreciate the laundry list of compression ratios for tons of instruments. Although these will always depend on your rig and performer, it is a great starting point if you've never worked with a particular instrument. The article is relatively thorough but lacks the visual elements I believe is vital to understanding compression.
Compression was one of the biggest things that I learned working as an assistant sound engineer in high school. In high school I worked as my schools AV technician and eventually as a Church AV for the super church that my parents went to but one of the biggest things that I learned from my experience with being a Church AV was compression. Once I was able to understand the dynamic functionality of compression in a room and on a system my work in theatre and on musicals that I worked on increased tremendously. It’s funny to because I distinctly remember never having used compression before working at my church as the room and the size was something I had never seen or dealt with before so I made sure to use and learn all the I could to best set up the situation. This article here also is a quick little intro into the topic.
2 comments:
Compression is one of the most important non-EQ signal processing topics that can drastically impact live performance. In the theatrical setting, it can be extraordinarily challenging to balance the volume fluctuation of a natural speaking voice, and then even more problematic in a musical when you jump into a number. The article does a decent job of explaining the main components of compression (threshold, ratio, attack, release, makeup), but I cannot believe they didn't provide an input-output graph! That is the easiest way to see the relationships among the parameters, and it can be challenging for someone who hasn't ever heard of compression to put those words into meaningful actions. I do, however, appreciate the laundry list of compression ratios for tons of instruments. Although these will always depend on your rig and performer, it is a great starting point if you've never worked with a particular instrument. The article is relatively thorough but lacks the visual elements I believe is vital to understanding compression.
Compression was one of the biggest things that I learned working as an assistant sound engineer in high school. In high school I worked as my schools AV technician and eventually as a Church AV for the super church that my parents went to but one of the biggest things that I learned from my experience with being a Church AV was compression. Once I was able to understand the dynamic functionality of compression in a room and on a system my work in theatre and on musicals that I worked on increased tremendously. It’s funny to because I distinctly remember never having used compression before working at my church as the room and the size was something I had never seen or dealt with before so I made sure to use and learn all the I could to best set up the situation. This article here also is a quick little intro into the topic.
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