Re: Using a laptop onstage: Dominic Frasca's take is misguided

[Per Boysen <per@boysen.se>]

>>  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


I had a reason to do some A/B testing here, by ear. Since long I'm  
the lucky owner of a RNC (Really Nice Compressor).
http://www.fmraudio.com/RNC1773.HTM

I use the RNC after the laptop/EDP to give a more dynamic feel to the  
general stereo sound, when playing live-looping sets. One rainy day I  
decided to see if I could get the same good sound from a software  
stereo compressor by simply slapping over the stereo output of the  
laptop software. I managed to get a better sound with the Sonalkis  
sv-315.

I worked hard on the built-in Ableton Live compression but could not  
get it to sound as good as the RNC. I also tried the PSP Mixpressor  
but did not manage to tweak it to sound better than the RNC. This was  
because the Mixpressor is not multi-band, as the RNC is. Even though  
the Sonalkis is not multi-band it brought out all frequencies better  
on my main stereo output (live-looping rigg) better than the hardware  
RNC. One thing I like with Sonalkis is the minimal latency; this  
software compressor seems to be able to handle all processes inside  
its buffer.

Anyway, I will still keep my RNC because it is small, light and does  
not bog down the laptops processor. And I like the hardware  
compressor for another reason as well: it compresses my direct  
instrument sound as well as the loops coming out of the laptop  
software. I prefer to run my instrument sound in a direct monitoring  
path to the laptop output and if I should use a software compressor  
on the software output I would miss out on the opportunity to "work  
the mix" in the compressor by my live instrument playing. When  
compressing a live-looping rig there is always a certain sweet spot  
level where you can play a little harder notes on your instruments to  
"push back" the general mix a bit, and when you go into mellow soft  
parts things like reverb and delay kind of grow into the open spots  
between your live playing notes. To use that performance technique  
with a software compressor on the main output I would have to play my  
instrument through the software, using "software monitoring, and I  
don't like that at all. So I'd say the software/hardware combo rocks  
(if combined the right way)

Greetings from Sweden

Per Boysen
www.looproom.com (international)
www.boysen.se (Swedish)
--->  iTunes Music Store (digital)
www.cdbaby.com/perboysen