I'm recording acoustic guitar and male vocals for a country ballad
tomorrow. I'm doing so through an AT2020 mic into a Studio Projects
VTB-1 preamp into a Zoom 1608CD digital multitrack studio. I like the
sound I'm getting into the Zoom, but even with my lousy ears I hear an
unpleasant distortion of the signal once I use the internal compressor
or limiter, even when the compression is set as gentle as possible.
So I was just about to go to Sam Ash to buy an RNC to patch in before
the Zoom to avoid having to use the internal compression later, but a
thread here made me hesitate. Although it praised the RNC for what it
can do for the price, the thread described a sparkle-killing effect
even when bypassing the compression.

I also don't know if I should take into account RNC's unbalanced jacks
for coloring/degrading the signal.

And I'm wondering if I should be compressing at all. I think I can keep
the peaks down enough during tracking not to overload anything and
still maintan a decent level, but to give the mix a finished sound I
assume some compression can help.

Would it be advisable to make up for the lack of decent compression
during mixing by tracking with compression?

The Zoom has mastering algorythms for the touching up the final mix,
which at this point I'm hesitant to use because of the distorting
compression.

I realize there are other compressors besides the RNC, and if you think
I need a compressor which would you suggest for around the same
price($190)?

Any comments or suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
Jeff