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November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | Can someone explain what compressors do? We have one in our rack at church but it's never been hooked up. I guess one of the previous music directors thought it was a must for live vocals. |
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Joined:
January 2004
Posts: 1225
Location: Lake Hiawatha, New Jersey | A compressor narrows or "compresses" the dynamic range of a given signal, thus reducing the difference between the highest and lowest volume range. It works much in the same way as a funnel works with liquid. This helps to even out the volume level of the signal. Some people like the effect on a guitar signal in order to improve sustain. It is very useful to even out choppy vocals as well. Most units allow you to set the parameters or "threshold" of the compressor which allows you to control how much compression is put on the signal. It is definately something that should be used sparingly. |
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Joined:
May 2004
Posts: 2850
Location: Midland, MI | They use pistons to take air at ambient pressure and 'compress' it to higher pressure. Hence the term, compressor.
Or maybe they take an audio waveform and when the level his to high, brings it down, when it's too low it brings it up. Think of it as a magical little elf living in a metal box. The elf has two tools, a big hammer and a big lever. When the signal is over a limit, the elf smashes the heck out of it with the hammer, bringing the level down to a predefined value. When the signal is under a limit, the elf jumps on the lever and it forces the signal up to a predfined value. Thereby, our little elfen friend is compressing the peaks and valleys into a predefined dynamic range.
Maybe. |
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Joined:
November 2002
Posts: 1300
Location: Madison, Wisconsin | Does that mean it would help with a group of singers that had some ver strong voices as well as some weak ones? |
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Joined:
January 2003
Posts: 1498
Location: San Bernardino, California | This manual has some good basic descriptions of compressor use. (starting around page 15)
http://www.alesis.com/downloads/manuals/NanoCompressor_Manual.pdf
BTW I use one of these on my bass rig sometimes. |
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Compressors
