There are still acoustic bass players who insist an amplified acoustic bass is sacrilegious.
... - they "can hear the difference between tonewoods even after the sound has gone through their custom wound baby's hair pickups and 10,000 watt Marshall quad stack"
- they can all play just like Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page and Joe Satriani. At once.
...
"custom wound baby's hair pickups"
Ik find dat look!
Ah you're right, but not exactly. It's the very fact that it's compressing and reducing dynamics that is enhancing the output in your example. Reducing the volume difference between loud and quiet so that it is all heard.
All those who have magic fingers must also play with utterly perfect musicians who are also in control of their own dynamics. Which explains why I've never found them - they're all already taken!
According to Wiki :
"
Downward compression reduces loud sounds over a certain threshold while quiet sounds remain unaffected.
Upward compression increases the loudness of sounds below a certain threshold while leaving louder sounds unaffected. Both downward and upward compression reduce the
Invalid Link Removed of an audio signal.
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An
expander performs the opposite function,
increasing the dynamic range of the audio signal.
[3] Expanders are generally used to make quiet sounds even quieter by reducing the level of an
audio signal that falls below a set threshold level. A
noise gate is a type of expander"
So, how can a compressor which bring quite passage and way too loud passage to more audible/manageable level isn't killing dynamics ? Dynamics is the hability to play as a whisper and then scream and everything in between ... just like in classical music or early jazz music.
But you agree that if you use a compressor to even things out and then on the recording they compress it again, you end up having a playing without any nuances, monotone, without any inflection like a humain voice, pretty much a robot always on the same note, same velocity etc
"But you agree that if you use a compressor to even things out and then on the recording they compress it again, you end up having a playing without any nuances, monotone, without any inflection like a humain voice, pretty much a robot always on the same note, same velocity etc"
That is the fallacy right there. Who says it has to be compressed to the point of being flat and lifeless? If that's how the compression is being used it's using compression incorrectly, full stop.
Yes, the signal gets squashed, but without it, the super soft passage wouldn't even be heard at all – that's the point. So physically, yes, the signal is "squashed", but perceptually people actually get to hear all the
soft nuances of your playing AND if you've set your compression
correctly the soft stuff will still be quieter in volume than the loud stuff, and the super loud stuff will be attenuated enough to stop clipping your pre-amp and still
SOUND LOUD.
So, do you want to play true dynamics whereby 90% of the audience does NOT hear your beautiful symphonic like barrage of harmonics and ghost notes because you refuse to use a
small amount of compression?
The whole point is to connect and communicate with people, how can you do that if your audience doesn't HEAR what you have to SAY?
There are still a bunch of people who completely misunderstand how compression enhances your dynamics. Here's a simple explanation.
Let's say you have a bass. Volume wise it goes from (an arbitrarily chosen) 1 to 20. It basically has a dynamic range of 20. Let's say your general playing volume with a normal attack is 10, but with a soft attack you can go to 1 consistently. With digging in you can get a consistent 20.
Now let's say you're playing a song and it benefits from a nice softly played bass passage so you go to playing at 1. Your volume has now dropped to a small fraction of your regular playing. Your band still drones on. You're now unheard by the crowd. Even if it were the case that the rest of the band drops to 1 with you, now the crowd cand hardly hear the entire band. Everyone hates you.
Alternatively there's an awesome chorus. You go up to 20. Your gitarist now can't hear himself play and wants you to die. Or if everyone goes to 20 the crowd goes deaf. You just destroyed your fanbase and there's sadness all around.
In comes the compressor. It's set to keep your sound from staying between 5 and 15. Now all of a sudden your soft passages can be heard in the mix. Sure they're softer, but only about half so. And if you turn up the attack you are about half as much as loud. The guitarist will allow you to live for now.
Dynamics are enhanced because you can use every single bit of your dynamic technique. You can play from 1 to 20 but still be heard. In comparison without a compressor you'd be limited to staying within 5-15 yourself, thus not being allowed to coax every possible sound out of your instrument that it's capable of. The enhancement of dynamics is in their usability, not their range.
That's ^ what I was trying to say in my first post in the thread, people missed my point, I tried to bring it home again above; but you've managed to succeed, I think, where I failed to get this point across.
... However with your above statment that can still be done with a compression pedal.
I play with some very dynamic drummers and one of the guys I play with switches from light Indian percussion to full kit, in the same set. My MXR M87 is on the whole time. I can change my hand technique and Im able to match him with no issue.
I'm not challenging You and I'm just stating for edecutional reasons to other players it can be done.
This was my situation when I just opened for Stu Hamm at NAMM and I had no issue.
Thank you.
+1
I'm astounded with how many players here who are wearing their ignorance on their sleeves and don't seem to understand one of the most basic production aspects of their chosen craft.
I think you described this in very realistic and practical terms. If a singer has compression on his or her voice and they reach a passage in the song where they whisper, compression isn't going to change the fact that they are whispering. That's going to be obvious to anyone listening. But it's going to make the whispering audible.
Exactly! Thank you.
The audience can "perceive" the dynamics.
************
When I first read the OP, I was amazed that someone who uses compression could establish what is basically a troll thread, even if unintentionally. Only the OP knows for sure if it was intended or not as such.
For the most part, the trolls and the misinformed have left the thread, and what I see now is the Pastors preaching to the choir.
Alas... No amount of logic nor education found within this thread is going to change someone's ears when they've got ear-plugs in and aren't willing to listen.
