Audio Recording Tips

I received a letter from one of the blog readers asking me for tips on how to compress lead guitar in the mix. I would like to share this to everyone in order for others to know.

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Hi Tony,
Thanks for contacting me. Compression techniques are actually an art, it depends on creativity and how you are going to set those settings in order to achieve the best sound you want. So that means, my settings in the blog are a little more of guide only. To answer your question, lead guitar frequencies are often high so compression techniques should be: Lead guitar: Fast attack, Slow release

This is an opposite to bass guitar which is slow attack and fast release. The primary reason is that for bass are low frequencies which means that their period is long (Frequency = 1/Period), the higher the period , the lower will be the frequency, so to have the best compression effect we will wait until it near reaches its maximum amplitude in the wave then there we will start compression (start of attack).

To simplify, picture it as a wave:

Start of wave : amplitude =0
Middle of wave: (max) = 1
End of wave: back to zero since it is cycle.

Slow attack is applying at the middle or towards the end of the wave, So it means that start of compression(called “attack) is high amplitude then we release it suddenly (release), the resulting sound is BIG. Lead guitar is fast attack and slow release, so same concept applies but in the opposite. Since they have high frequencies, the period is small (milliseconds). In order to make it stronger, apply compression immediately and release it near the end. The primary reason is that the period is small and to have a stronger sound, longer period in the sound wave are to be applied with compression.

Again settings are for references only; you can start trying at my suggested settings here, General Audio Compression Tips.Try to experiment….remember that if you set compression ratio at 1:1, it is no compression at all while 2:1 is that the compression factor is twice. The higher the compression ratio it tends to equalize all volumes in the sound wave, “over compression” is bad since you do not have silent areas anymore and all sound waves are now at the same level, resulting in unnatural sound recording.

Thank you so much.

Sincerely,
Emerson R. Maningo

From Tony:
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hi, i was reading your article with interest about compression setting.especially the guitar settings. ive bought a behringer composer pro mdx2200 rack compressor. im recording some lead guitar onto backing tracks. would i be better treating the lead guitar the same as the vocal settings you have
listed, or should i keep the settings you have for guitar. i know nothing about compression hence the question. ive read that some say the ratio should be about 2/1 with a fast attack and slow realease. to keep the sound on a clean guitar transparent, and not squashed, but i dont know. would
appreciate your opinion on this. also on the attack dial it reads from 1 to 150 ms and the release dial reads from 0.05 to 5 secs. i know you may think
this a silly question but could you tell me how this is read. im reading it as, the attack 1 is fast and 150 is slow. and on the release 0.05 is fast
and the 5 is slow. it also has a expander gate with the threshold from off to +15 and ratio from 1 to 8 with a fast and slow release button. could you
give me any advice regarding this. i know ive asked a lot of questions but i am a real novice at this. hope you dont mind me asking. regards tony