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Re: Using a laptop onstage: Dominic Frasca's take is misguided
On Jan 4, 2006, at 4:18 AM, Warren Sirota wrote:
BTW - when I buy a vintage compressor, I get 2 channels of great
compression. If I buy a really great compressor plug-in, I get as many
channels as my computer can handle. And when I upgrade my computer, I get
more channels of really great compression automatically.
Not to disagree with you, but one other side to this coin is that in many case you will have to pay for software upgrades, to keep your SW compressor current. (waves has just pissed a lot people off my doing this) Also you are correct that you get as many instances of that plug in as your computer will handle, but you are also bound to that recording platform. A good hardware compressor is useful with a VST, or TDM system as well as all analog formats and any recording format that will be invented in the next 20 years.
Can a digital compressor be as good as an analog one? I haven't auditioned by ear, because
I usually don't have any reason (or maybe don't know that I have a
reason...) to be that picky about compression quality, but it seems that at
least in theory, digital compressors can be far better because they can look
ahead in time, while analog is still bound by reality.
My experience while subjective is that software has a long way to go to catch up with great analog compression (some others disagree with me). Your statement about the advantages of look ahead processing are absolutely correct if you are talking about brick wall limiting but does not really hold true with compression where most musical applications of compression do not really take advantage of look ahead limiting. Brick wall limiting is the one areas where digital processing has surpassed their analog counterparts (although some argue that this had led to a decline in the over all quality of records) In virtually every other instance I believe software lags behind high quality analog counterparts.
Take all this with a grain of salt. I am a studio rat and obsessed with quality, and understand that in my world high quality analog compression is one of the great tools for making great sounding records.
Ronan Chris Murphy
www.venetowest.com (Production & mixing: King Crimson, Chucho Valdes, Steve Morse, Terry Bozzio, CGT...)
www.homerecordingbootcamp.com (Workshops around the world teaching the art and craft of recording )
www.livesofthesaints.net (The hottest ambient noise duo since Sonny & Cher)
