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Old 10-11-2019, 01:21 PM   #118
Stews
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Quote:
Originally Posted by TabbyCat View Post
Sure, compression was used on them like crazy. But - some things to consider:
  • Recording to tape at higher levels will automatically induce some "gentle" compression that many find pleasing, without the need for a dedicated compressor....and the 70s were all tape. They got a little bit of compression "for free", so to speak.
  • Tape has much lower headroom than the average DAW - when recording you need to be loud enough to get "out of the noise", so compressors helped with this. Digital has no noise however, with 24 bits you have 120+ dB of headroom so you can print at lower levels and just deal with it later. This eliminates the need to compress at input.
  • You can make adjustments to your recordings right on the timeline in Reaper, for example you could select just the first few notes of a chorus that are too quiet and bump them up. People working with tape didn't have the luxury of being able to "look" at the result and make edits - so compression was a brute force way to make sure everything sat it where it needed to - not too loud and not too quiet.
I mention these because while compression was used a lot in prior decades, it's quite possible to work without it these days due to the difference in tech - you shouldn't get insecure about it

Having said that, there are solid reasons why you might want to work with a compressor, for creative / artistic reasons. Some people just like the sound. For example, track the same guitar part several times and smoosh the takes together in a compressed wall of voodoo. Chris Lord-Alge was mentioned earlier in this thread, he uses it like nuts. But - this is a creative choice that achieves an intended result, not a necessity. Don't lose sleep if you're not doing it.

Put differently: "If it sounds good, it IS good." -Duke Ellington
While I don't disagree with any of the facts TabbyCat has posted here, I do have different advice and that is not to avoid compression for the reason that it's easier to avoid something than learn how to do it properly.

Don't feel like you ever have to do it for any reason if you think something sounds better without it but I think you'd be doing yourself an injustice by avoiding it just for ease.

If you like rock music, if you took 10 of your favourite sounding tracks and were able to see the mixing session, it's likely they'd all use plenty of compression - it's 100% a benefit to at least have the option of it for that genre and you'll probably find yourself using it a lot once you've got used to it.
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