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RE: Behringher UltraDrive DCX 2496 as a compressor

When you compress something. the differences between quiet sounds and loud sounds becomes less. Quiet sounds get louder, loud sounds get quieter so to speak in simple terms.

Every scenario is different so me posting my settings would be completly useless to anyone not in the same room with the same PA etc.

But you are right about the frequency ranges. when you compress say 500-5K everything in those bands gets louder in relation to everything else. With a paging application this helps everything in those ranges be heard at low volume levels. and helps limit loud surges. Everything below is at a lower volume level and I usually do a little EQ to roll off the bottom end anyway to protect the speakers.

Lets say you have a snare drum. everytime the drummer whacks that drum there is a very large peak. if you try and record this. you have to turn the level way down so those peaks don't distort. If you put a compressor in front, then those large peaks get squashed a bit and what happens is now you can turn the input to your recorder up a bit more before it distorts. everything else in the background then comes up with that level. the difference between the quiet background noises and the peaks is now much smaller.

For guitars this can help bring out harmonics and help hold sustain longer.

In the instance of my singer. he is used to hearing the monitors compress a bit when they get real loud. so to trick him, i set the compressor lower in overall volume level. he hears the compressor kick in and he thinks its louder then it really is!!!

The overall compression in the DCX is frequency independent. the frequency selective section you can compress frequency ranges and bring the overall level of that range then up or down. so i squash a section then bring that level up to to compensate or sometimes higher to bring that section to the front. this is all old school sound guy tricks that i picked up years and years ago by guys that really knew how to get the most out of old altecs and 30 watt mac tube amps for PA use cause thats all they had!


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