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Compressing Acoustic Guitar

2/23/2012

4 Comments

 
This conversation came up today on a music forum about compressing acoustic guitar tracks.  Turns out, this is a rather vigorous topic for discussion so I thought I’d post my response here.  I hope it’s helpful.

The first thing is to ask what is the acoustic guitar part? Is it a finger-style piece?  Is it a vigorously strummed fast rhythm track? What will the track sit in-rock song, folk song, classical piece, etc? Tools such as compression are used in different ways dependent on the source and style. 

Here are some general things to keep in mind about compression. 

Threshold: 
~The sensitivity setting of the compressor 
~The input level in dB when the compressor starts to reduce the signal 

Hard Knee and Soft Knee:
~Hard knee compression describes a sudden decrease in gain when the threshold is reached 
~Soft knee compression describes a gradual decrease in gain when the threshold is reached 

Ratio:
~The difference between the signal level increase at the compressor’s input and the level at the output 
~Ratio is a constant value 
~A ratio of 10:1 means it takes an increase of 10 dB at the input to cause the output to only increase 1 dB 
~A ratio of 1:1 is called unity gain 

Attack and Release Times:
~Attack time-the amount of time it takes the compressor to start acting upon a signal or how fast the compressor reacts to a signal above the threshold 

~Release time-amount of time it takes the compressor to return to unity gain ¥ (stop acting upon a signal) or how long the compressor continues to act upon a signal when it goes beneath the threshold 

~Both are measured in milliseconds 

~Attack and release times are the “meat and potatoes” settings of the compressor and are very important to the sound of the compressed signal 

Also, another good question to ask is whether or not to compress while tracking or compress during mixdown. Or both. Or neither.

If it is a finger-style piece a la John Renbourn and recorded in stereo (the guitar is the main instrument in the piece) I record with a level of -6 dB or so.  In this type of tune the dynamics are crucial to maintain for sure but there are fewer really spiky overs because of the playing approach (unless you're Bert Jansch!) are not significantly louder than the basic playing level.  A ratio of 1.5-2:1 is good.  The attack time will determine how much "nail" passes as the nail plucking the string is its transient.   

A strummed rhythm track has a very different approach based on the responsibility of the guitar in the song.  If it's just a rhythm track for, well, rhythm and percussive rhythm then I compress at the input and use a low ratio/low threshold, 2:1 with a -8 to16 dB threshold. 

I will start playing and bring the threshold down until the gain reduction meter starts knocking down the peaks. I use a slower release time that sands down the track by acting on the signal pretty much all the time and it's OK for there to be some gain reduction pretty much all the time.   

I usually don't rely on the soloed track for reference. I listen to the guitar in context and ask these questions:  How does the compressed track sit in the mix? Does the track do it's job? If I get the answers "it sits snugly and it's in the correct context of the song" then I feel pretty good about my starting point for mixdown. 

A point was brought up during this discussion that performers enjoy hearing the compression during monitoring. They seem to play/sing/perform into the effect and enjoy the sense of drive and the familiar sound of a compressed signal.  I try to give the performer the tune in his/her cans that is reflective of songs mix concept.  I will have a mix strategy before tracking so I have a sense of where the tune will go.  I've never had someone ask for more compression in the cans but I wouldn't commit the compressor to tape in that situation.   

I ask this question all the time-"How do I best serve the song?" That question helps determine everything about the recording process for the entire song including compression strategies. 

4 Comments

To CD Or Not To CD?

12/12/2011

2 Comments

 
_ One of the most animated conversations that comes up in my Your Music (Band) As A Business class is whether or not doing a big manufacturing run of CDs is a good idea.  Back in the day it was a necessity but in today’s independent music scene it is not the most sound strategy unless you are playing enough shows in front of enough fans to make it a wise business move.

If you do a manufacturing run of 1,000 discs the unit price can come out to somewhere between $3 (if you are extremely lucky) up to $6 or $7, depending on the options for the run.  Graphics, multi-panel inserts, jewel case liners, digipack features all add to the cost per unit.  

Musicians often don’t also include the actual cost of recording, mixing and mastering the music in the overall cost per unit.  If you spent $3,000 on recording, $1,000 or more on mastering the disc and then spend $2,000 to $3,000 on the manufacturing run itself one does not need to be an accountant to realize you have to sell a disc at your show for $15 to $20 just to have a decent profit margin. In a tough global economy that is a lot of coin to ask your fans to shell out for a dying medium (that is a topic for another day!)

Add in the costs of hiring a graphic artist for the artwork, maybe a layout artist, or any other number of incurred expenses and the CD run is quickly becoming a gigantic expense, like $6500 or something! Yikes! Unless you are really playing a lot of shows and moving a ton of units this is a prohibitive cost for most musicians.

Add that to the fact that way more people are downloading music online instead of buying CDs.  There aren’t many brick and mortar record stores left.  

This leaves us with fewer and fewer places to sell our discs, a fan base that has embraced the MP3 as the main music medium and dwindling prospects to move the merch.  And don’t forget the boxes of unsold discs in the attic! (I still have a bunch of those myself!)

So, what are we Indies supposed to do?

I recommend doing short runs of CDs these days, maybe 100 or so at a time.  Short runs are burned instead of replicated.  The process is quite different.  I won’t go into the details here but the setup cost to do a replication run is quite costly.

Here are a few reasons why short runs are a good idea.

One, you don't have to pay thousands to manufacture. A short run of 100 will run a couple of hundred bucks. Usually you won’t get a fancy package but your fans are just going to rip the discs for their iPods anyway.

Two, offering download cards is really becoming a popular and cost-effective alternative to carrying a lot of inventory. Download cards from CD Baby cost about 50 cents each and you can sell them way cheaper than CDs (because the overhead is next to nothing compared with a full manufacturing run).

If you sell a download card for $7 or $8 you make a profit of $6.50 to $7.50 per unit sale. Even if you get 1000 of the things it still will only cost you $500 as opposed to, what, $5,000? 

Three, there is way less plastic in the landfills from the discs, jewel cases, etc.

Just as with any small business, professional musicians need to really pay attention to the bottom line. I had a graphics client once who manufactured 1,000 CDs based more on old perceptions of the industry as well as the feeling of having 1,000 CDs. They thought it was cool to have that kind of inventory. The band lost a lot of money.

2 Comments

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