RNC Compressor Hookup

Posted on Jan 08, 2003 09:19 pm
bmeador
Member Since: Nov 03, 2002

I got a great gift for Christmas, an RNC compressor for my home studio. I’ve been playing around with it and am looking for some advice on the ideal setup given my equipment. If anyone here could help I would greatly appreciate it.

Obviously I'm a newbie to this, so go easy on me...

I’ve got a Yamaha MD4 4-Track MiniDisc Recorder. It has a single channel AUX Send with a dual AUX Return. The RNC has got two output and two input channels. The left channel is used for mono connections.

Now, it’s pretty easy to figure how to apply compression to one track at a time using this setup – I just run AUX send to the mono input on the RNC, then run a single channel back to my recorder. This is working great when I want to apply compression to one track at a time. However, in an ideal world I’d like to use the RNC to compress all tracks at mixdown. Is there a way to do this with only one AUX Send out of my machine or, for mixdown, am I going to have to run my stereo outputs from the MD4 into the compressor and directly into my master recorder? Any advice you can give is greatly appreciated.

To complicate matters further, I’ve got an Alesis MidiVerb4 thrown into the mix - I’ve tried running from the MD4 AUX Send to the Left (mono) Alesis Midiverb4 input. Then using the Alesis stereo outputs into the RNC and back to the MD4, but I’m not getting the results I want. Plus, I think that, ideally, I’d like to have the compressor first in the chain so that I’m sending compressed signals to the effects box rather than the other way around.

Hopefully this is not too confusing and I’ve given enough information. I’m relatively new at this recording thing, but I think I’ve got a fairly nice set-up for an amateur and I want to make sure that I’m getting the most out of it.

For further information, I'm mostly recording acoustic guitars and vocals, and I suspect that 90% of the time I'll use the RNC post recording, though sometimes I might want to apply some slight compression to vocals as I record them. You can check my profile for a list of all my gear.

Thanks for the help,

Brad.

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jues
Contributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002

Jan 09, 2003 06:33 am

Hey Brad,

First off, let me set you straight - you don't want to be sending the signal to the compressor via the AUX send. The AUX send is used to processors that generate a "wet" signal (eg: Reberb) that will be mixed back with the original "dry" signal (eg: The channel you are opening the AUX loop on). A compressor does not generate a "wet" signal so to speak - instead is changes the signal's dynamics and therefore should be placed before any EQing or AUX sends.

Right, I did a bit of research into the MD-4 unit and I'm pretty sure that they DO have insert points on channels 1 & 2 - this is very good news.

An insert point is a single 1/4" jack connection which allows you to place a signal processor directly after the mic-preamp. You will however require an insert lead - this is a very simple bit of cable which will split the insert point's single 1/4" jack into 2 1/4" jack cables - one for the SEND and one for the RETURN. You can pick these cables up in any decent music shop.

Say, for example, you are mixing an acoustic guitar that you have just recorded on channel 1. Plug the Insert cable into Channel 1's insert point and then connect the SEND to the Compressors LEFT input (left is nearly always used for mono processing) and the RETURN to the LEFT output. You can now twiddle away on the compressor, apply and EQ and then use your AUX loop to send to the reverb unit. (Hook the AUX out to the LEFT input of your MidiVerb and the Stereo AUX return on the MD-4 can be hooked to the STEREO out of the MidiVerb)

When you are happy with the sound, you may wish to bounce the result back to another track - so as to free up the compressor for another task.

You mentioned that you also wanted to use the compressor to affect the entire mix before it gets sent to your laptop. Well, the bad news is that there are no Mix Out Insert Points on the MD-4 - as a result you are stuck with connecting the outputs of the MD-4 into the inputs of the Compressor and then running the outputs of the compressor into your Soundcard. When you do this, be careful with the master-fader - any adjustments made to it will change the input the compressor is recieving.

Once you have setup the compressor on the Main Mix, you should use the compressor's Output Gain knob to get the best level into the latop.

Right, I've waffled enough - hope this helps.

jues.

bmeador
Member
Since: Nov 03, 2002

Jan 09, 2003 01:14 pm

First off, I want to say Thanks, jues, for the quick and competent reply. It's posters like you, who do things like like up manuals to help facilitate an answer, that make this board extremely useful to the rest of us.

That said, unfortunately I've got an older model MD4 - there are no insert points to be found. Tell me if this is an option for applying compression AFTER THE ORIGINAL TRACK HAS BEEN RECORDED: I continue to use the AUX send and AUX return on my MD4 to go to the compressor, set equalization to zero on the track that I am compressing, turn the AUX control for the individual track all the way up, turn the AUX Return level control all the way up (to insure I'm receiving a 100% signal from the compressor rather than mixing with the dry signal on my track) and bounce to a new track, the new track should be the 100% compressed signal I'm looking for. Right?

Assuming this is a decent alternative, does something like this work during recording of the track as well, or do I need to find a way to rig my signal from mic preamp to compressor to MD4 to insert some compression pre-4-Track.

Just looking at the MD4, I've also got some direct track out connections. I suppose I could find a way to run a signal from there to the compressor and back into a new track - but I think that's the same as my scenario above. There might be something worth playing around with here, though...

Thanks for lighting a candle to illuminate my darkness.

Brad.

jues
Contributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002

Jan 09, 2003 07:20 pm

That's cool man, it's no bother at all.

Right - The way you are doing it (connecting the AUX ouput to the Input of the compressor and the output of the compressor back into the MD-4 on channels 3&4) will work fine - but am I correct in assuming that the MD-4 only has one AUX out - therefore you will loose any stereo information (unless EVERYTHING you compress is mono) - I would reccomend going out of the direct outs into the compressor, and then from the compressor back into channels 3&4 (or 3 if you're compressing a mono source)

As for the recording of the track - hmm, took a bit of head scratching, but the most efficient way would be the following:

Microphone -> MD-4 Channel 1 input -> MD-4 Channel 1 direct output -> Compressor -> MD-4 Channel 2 input

This means you are using Channel 1 to introduce the correct amount of gain to feed to compressor and Channel 2 to actually record the track. You will want the usual amount of gain on Channel 1 to make the signal hot enough for the compressor to work efficiently (about -3dB under is what you are looking for in this scenario) and channel 2 to do the actual tracking onto the Minidisc. As a result, channel 2 should be set with no added gain (or maybe just a small amount to bring the signal up to a steady -1dB).

--jues.