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#1
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Compressor for open mic live sound?
Although I have used a DAW compressor, I have not used one in a live sound setting. I host a weekly open mic in Windsor, CT. It seems I always get a few people with tremendous dynamic range where they go from almost a whisper to screaming vocals. Any one use one for that type of environment? Danielle |
#2
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Compressor for open mic live sound?
DanielleOM wrote:
Although I have used a DAW compressor, I have not used one in a live sound setting. I host a weekly open mic in Windsor, CT. It seems I always get a few people with tremendous dynamic range where they go from almost a whisper to screaming vocals. Any one use one for that type of environment? Yes, it can work. BUT... remember that when it's quiet and the compressor is wide open and you have all that make-up gain going on, you have just reduced the system gain before feedback by that much. So you need to start out with a quiet system that has plenty of room before feedback in the first place. You may find limiting is more effective than compression, depending on the performer. You may not. A judicious hand on the fader and a copy of the score is still required no matter what... the use of compression does not eliminate the need for the operator to pay attention to what they are doing and ride the faders, but it can make that job easier. It can also make it harder. Try it out and see. If you have huge amounts of gain before feedback and unskilled performers, one solution can be to use an area mike pulled way back from them, like a 441 maybe two feet away from their main mike. For singer-songwriters in a small room this can work very well, you just mute the main mike and get a very natural sound from the distant mike, and bad mike technique of all kinds becomes less of an issue. --scott -- "C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis." |
#3
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Compressor for open mic live sound?
DanielleOM wrote:
Although I have used a DAW compressor, I have not used one in a live sound setting. I host a weekly open mic in Windsor, CT. It seems I always get a few people with tremendous dynamic range where they go from almost a whisper to screaming vocals. Any one use one for that type of environment? Danielle Leave those people to their foolishness. Turn it down to the point that their lower passages might get lost, just to avoid clipping the system when they go berserk. You can't use a compressor to make an expert out of a beginner or an ignorantus. At some point people who are serious about singing into a PA will dig in and learn something about mic technique. In the past few years I have been astonished how many experienced, successful, touring folkies have no clue about it. -- shut up and play your guitar * http://hankalrich.com/ http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpqXcV9DYAc http://www.sonicbids.com/HankandShaidri |
#4
Posted to rec.audio.pro
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Compressor for open mic live sound?
DanielleOM wrote:
Although I have used a DAW compressor, I have not used one in a live sound setting. I host a weekly open mic in Windsor, CT. It seems I always get a few people with tremendous dynamic range where they go from almost a whisper to screaming vocals. That is how vox humana is. Any one use one for that type of environment? I've used it for speak at a horseshow, a prehistoric ADR Gemini Compact (1978) with a fabulously working automatic limiter setting, fast release for the first 6 dB and slow below. The requirement for speak at a horseshow is that all those far away also should hear it all, the same kind of necessity probably does not apply for open mic, but unexperienced mic user is. A caveat: a compressor-limiter turns the gain up when it gets quiet again. THAT is more often than not the artistic use of it, using it in side channel compression mode can be very advantageous if that is the problem you use it to solve. You should imo use one to protect your gear and the ears of the audience, but set it to kick in when things get extreme and only then and REMEMBER that you need to ensure adequate headroom in the gain stage before the insert-point in the channel. Get it wrong and you get more distortion and more feedback than you would have had without it. There is NO replacement for playing with the equipment you want to deploy and learn how it works well in advance of the show. You may end up having to ad lib a setup with unknown sonic implements, but do not insist on so doing. Danielle Kind regards Peter Larsen |
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