Record compression on a track?

In DAWland, FX can only be applied after A/D conversion. Theoretically, you could apply FX to the digital audio stream before writing it to file (and I gather some DAWs do allow "printing" FX like this, but since the great advantage of working in digital is non-destructive processing/editing, there's little value in that. Input Gain is a little oddball in that it is only applied to previously recorded clips, and not live input whereas FX are applied to both. I'm not sure why that is.

Coming in, you couldraise a standalone instance of a plug such as T-Racks, Ozone,or, I believe Amplitube, and set the DAW to record the output of the plug as opposed to the instrument input.

Depending on you specs, you may notice latency/timing issues you'll need to correct.

Given unlimited tracks, I like to record both processed andun, but you're almost certainly going to see phase and comb filtering issues mixing processed and unprocessed tracks.

John
Digital tape can't have tape saturation unless the recorder is badly broken. Keep in mind that anything over 0 dB will clip, meaning it will go no higher. For your needs I would recommend a hardware compressor that is placed before the A to D conversion. 

 
I used the term "Tape Saturation" only as a description. More accurately, in the days of digital tape, a hotter signal meant a more accurate "read" of the data. So you would still want to aim above a certain level threshold going onto tape. And obviously, in a situation with a difficult noise floor situation it could also be important, depending, obviously, on what one was recording.
 

Jay Tee 4303
Coming in, you couldraise a standalone instance of a plug such as T-Racks, Ozone,or, I believe Amplitube, and set the DAW to record the output of the plug as opposed to the instrument input.

Depending on you specs, you may notice latency/timing issues you'll need to correct.

Given unlimited tracks, I like to record both processed andun, but you're almost certainly going to see phase and comb filtering issues mixing processed and unprocessed tracks.

By Joe I think he's on to something here! That might be worth a try, if for no other reason than to know I could do it if I had to!
 
Oh, and btw, one of the major reasons I would like to be able to do this is that I am working on voice over stuff myself, and when I'm recording I don't want to worry about levels at all once I've set them. Currently I have to record with plenty and plenty of extra room on top, so a compressor, or even a soft limiter, would help nicely.
 

As was already stated, there is really no point to applying a software compressor to an audio stream before writing it to disk. The only thing you could possibly achieve is degrading the audio signal permanently. The point of doing compression before recording in the old days was indeed to keep the
level higher without clipping the tape. Not only do today's 24 bit converters generally have plenty of headroom and a super low noise floor so that you can record at almost any level, but applying a software compressor to the signal will always, by definition, happen AFTER A/D conversion (when the only place where it MIGHT have made sense is BEFORE). You will literally achieve the exact same effect/sound by applying the compression after recording/file writing, with the exception that you'll be able to change your mind later and switch it off, or alter parameters.

In other words, if you really need to compress before recording because your signal is super unstable (and you're afraid your A/D converters don't have enough dynamic range, which would be relatively rare) the only way is still to use an analog (hardware) compressor.

When you're recording, assuming you're working with 24 bit  just make sure your meters stay around -9dB to -12dB and you'll be golden come mixdown.

I would still suggest, if you're frequently noticing the compressors kicking in, to turn down the input gain.

If 20+ years makes you "old skool", then what does that make me? Prehistoric School? Yikes.
 
So speaking as someone who's also from an old school, I gotta say that the ability to NOT commit effects when recording is the greatest advancement in recording since, well, digital recording itself. Once upon a time we printed effects out of necessity, but now have no reason to do so because we've got unlimited devices and oodles of headroom.
 
If you're worried about clipping while recording, that's going to happen in your audio interface and must be dealt with on the analog side of things. A compressor/limiter plugin won't see the signal until it's too late to mitigate problems. What you need is an outboard hardware compressor in front of the interface. Many interfaces have them built-in, but if yours doesn't there are plenty of inexpensive compressors or mic pres with compression.
 
If you can't afford an outboard compressor, or want to keep your setup simple and compact, you can always use the really-old-school method of closely watching recording levels. In the digital world, we've got so much headroom to play with it's no longer necessary to record as hot as possible. Set your analog levels low enough that there's no danger of clipping and do a test recording. If your peaks are between -30dB and -12dB, you're good to go.

This is top on my list to hook into my saffire pro for this very reason, nice discussion:
http://uk.focusrite.com/m...s/octopre-mkii-dynamic

The reason for recording post compression in times past was to keep the levels up.. away from the noise floor. Now however, given that the noise floor is significantly lower than in days past, that rationale is defunct so unless you have outstanding hardware gear that you want to use in your signal chain i don't see any reason to add a destructive element to the source material

Sidroe
Before I started using the Roland Studio Captures, I always had a dbx compressor inserted into the channel on my mixer to catch those peaks before they even went in to Sonar. With the Studio Captures, 12 of the channels have compressors built in the interface. I no longer even use the mixer! This sounds like a commercial for Roland! YIKES!

I have the Studio Capture also. I was under the impression the built-in channel compressors are after the preamps in the signal chain.
So couldn't peaks still clip on the inputs?