It was literally just a test beat in comparison to the dry beat i was kinda suprised how good it sounded just from the few minutes i spent quickly shooting through the ratio setttings!
I have a question about this subject though if anyone knows!
When using a compressor in this manner should i be running my drum machine as loud as possible or should i be ramping the gain up with the compressor?
I only ask this because i'm really new to hardware compressor and also i get a buzz from my Tempest using certain volumes which i recall once being told a long time ago to always use a loud original signal, at the moment though my gain knob on my soundcard is literally at its minimum level and i can't work out if this is a good or bad thing?
The gain meter on the compressor goes off the scale lmao, I mean, is this a bad thing like a car when its going over the red???
You're actually asking three different questions here. The first is about what level to feed your compressor, and the second is about noise floor, and the third is about gain structuring in general. I'll start with the last one and work backwards, since that would be the order in which you'd adjust these things.
With regards to the level you're feeding your sound card, ideally you want to feed it something close to a "unity" signal. Assuming your card has a VU meter, the ideal input signal would be one that has your gain knob somewhere close to its center position (most have some kind of "unity" marker or center-detent) and shows a
peak level on the meter bouncing anywhere from, let's say, -10db to -2db. This will give you the best signal to noise ratio, generally speaking.
As for where the Tempest's master volume should be, and the noise that you're hearing when you turn it up too loud, that is not as easy a question to answer concisely. First of all, the Tempest is just noisy, and that noise is going to show up no matter where in the signal chain you boost it. With that in mind, it's always better to have a stronger signal at the source, because the further down the chain you boost levels, the more noise you're going to accumulate from other sources. But the Tempest is a synthesizer, so gain structuring does not start with its master volume: it starts with how you build your sounds, and concerns every parameter from the oscillators to the amp... That's a long conversation unto itself though, so I won't go into that. As an example, however—and I do this for a living, so let's pretend that I know what I'm doing (smirk)—all my sounds are normalized such that I get a "unity" signal (from the
main outputs) when my Tempest's master volume is set around 12 o'clock (*that's without using the onboard compressor or distortion). But you also need to take into account the volume of your pads in the Tempest's mixer section (I balance all my sounds with the mixer channels all set to '100', so I still have a little overhead). All this changes if you use the individual voice-outs though, so you see, gain structuring within the Tempest can be a complicated task. Lot's of variables.
When it comes to the compressor, you first have to understand that compressors don't boost signal, they only attenuate it. So the unaffected signal going into the compressor should be responsible but nevertheless robust. Again, you're looking for a
peak level somewhere between -10db and -2db depending on how dynamic your source material is (just remember, it's the peaks that matter, not the average). From there, pick a ratio that suits you, adjust the threshold until you're seeing some gain reduction (*this and your attack and release settings are completely subjective and depend entirely on what kind of effect you're going for, so I can't advise you there without more specifics), then use the compressor's output gain to make up any lost volume if necessary, again keeping peaks just below "unity".
I hope that all makes sense. It's a deep topic with a lot of variables to consider.
Cheers!
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