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