Compressor limitors

[David Delgado]

Our pastor has a wide range of volume when he speaks. Very soft to very passionate.

If we turn it up, the louds are too loud
and if we turn it down, the softs are too soft.. Specifically for the recording.

I have been looking at compressor and limitors.

If compressors, will take the edge of the top,
will it not do so for the softest part?

I dont understand what it does.
But i think we need one?

Your help is welcomed!

[tedanderson]

A compressor essentially shortens the dynamic range of your audio. In layman's terms, it brings up the volume level of very low signals and it brings down the volume level of very high signals. A limiter will prevent the audio signal from exceeding a certain level.

By what you are decribing, you definately need one. Expect to pay between $300 to $500 to get good results.

[kbob]

a compressor essentially lets you set the volume higher, and gradually lowers the volume for you as the signal goes above a certain threshold. So it allows you to make your quietest parts louder, without blowing out the loudest parts.

A limiter would additionally let you cap the loudest sounds at certain level, with a very large amount of reduction at any point beyond that.

Some units let you do both-you could set the compressor at around 2.5 or 3 to 1 for your pastor. then cap you levels off at the loudest you want him to be on the limiter portion.

The two taken together work almost like a normalizer on recording software.

Gotchas-the voice can sound like the loud & quiet portions are pumping-if so, lower the compression ratio.

If it sounds too squashed, like all the levels are being limited instead of just compressed, then either lower the levels at the board, or bump up the threshold setting on the limiter. Of course, that can result in a lower peak volume...

Hope this helps.

[waynehoskins]

Yep, it compresses the peaks, allowing you to raise the overall level (and thereby the quiet parts) a bit, still keeping the peaks below the 'ouch' threshold.

Compressed is much easier to listen to, the peak level isn't super much greater than the average level .. whereas uncompressed, the peak level of a normal person preaching is much greater than the average level. A compressor essentially lets you bring down the peaks and bring up the quiet passages.

[David Delgado]

Do other people use compressor /limiters with their pastors?

We went to a CD recorder so now I just rip and upload the mp3.

I don't want to have to edit it too? Although that might help and solve the problem,
if I can get it into the CD recorder like that, than time is saved.

D

Originally Posted by David Delgado

Do other people use compressor /limiters with their pastors?

You mean like compressing his/her sermon into a shorter time... or limiting it? That would be a cool invention....

[Jerry Carter]

Originally Posted by David Delgado

Do other people use compressor /limiters with their pastors?

We went to a CD recorder so now I just rip and upload the mp3.

I don't want to have to edit it too? Although that might help and solve the problem,
if I can get it into the CD recorder like that, than time is saved.

D

We have 2 mix points for our services - one FOH and one for recording. We use compression/limiting on both. FOH helps to keep from blowing out the congregation when he gets really fired up during a sermon; for recordings it helps to make him sound more 'like himself'. Of course, that a combination of EQ and compression. We have had to tweak the gain on his wireless to insure we don't get an already distorted signal at the boards. Then we let the compressor/limiter take care of making sure the volume stays reasonable. Obviously, you don't want to clamp down the volume so much that he can't make his points loudly when he needs/wants to.

[kbob]

yes, we do. but ironically, not on the feed they give us from the sound board-bleah...We had an Alesis micro compressor something...but it went out on us after three years or so.

So, now we're ripping to wav and levelator'ing it. Audacity + Levelator equals near FM radio station compression, if you want it. Much easier to listen to than uncompressed or normalized audio.

Using a compressor limiter setup live will be much better than what you have now, but not as good as normalizing it ( a la levelator or other products) in a quick post edit. We had a trial run this week-ripping to wav then levelatoring it, then ripping it to mp3 took about 12 mins for an hour long sermon. Yeah, I said hour long sermon...lol...and no, no music, just the message.

[jflash]

We have the same problem, and we do use a compressor. To be specific, we use the Behringer Composer Pro-XL MDX2600. It does a great job for us, and it has a few extra things (particularly the de-esser) that we enjoy having about as much as the compressor/limiter itself.

[TMcKellar]

I think you'd do fine with the Behringer MDX2600 jflash mentioned. I've personally got a a Composer MDX2100 and an Autocom MDX1600 from Behringer and they are both solid units that won't break the bank. I tend to like to use a limiter when I'm recording stereo like for a church service but it would mostly depend on what I'm using. The limiter mostly if I'm recording to a computer so I can use a compressor on the software side with settings more tailored to what the current service calls for. I'm not too fond of Audacities compressor as it is a little too slow for my liking. The compressor in Ableton Live is near perfect though. Works a lot faster too as the exporting, all the effects I've applied, and normalization are all done at the same time.

I've been in the situation where I've used a cd recorder as well and although I've never used a bonified compressor with it, my Behringer Ultramizer did quite nicely in place of one. The unit being digital, after a while I was able to dial in a few presets so I could set it up for basically any style of service I needed within seconds.

[tedanderson]

Originally Posted by Tim Eason

You mean like compressing his/her sermon into a shorter time... That would be a cool invention....

That technology actually exists and they use it in television and radio broadcasting all of the time. There are also cheap software programs (like Wavelab) that will go through the audio file and remove all of the "dead-air" pauses. It comes in very handy in those rare occurances when I have to squeeze a 90-minute sermon on to a 74 minute CD.

Originally Posted by tedanderson

That technology actually exists and they use it in television and radio broadcasting all of the time. There are also cheap software programs (like Wavelab) that will go through the audio file and remove all of the "dead-air" pauses. It comes in very handy in those rare occurances when I have to squeeze a 90-minute sermon on to a 74 minute CD.

I was talking about in real time... Like human software...