I'm retired and older! LOL ... but I love getting an exciting sound before I track is still lots of fun. My Blacktop Jazz (2 P pickups) sounds great through it, but I haven't tracked any guitars through it yet.
 
Resistance is futile! LOL
 

Wanna play toppers?
64, retired,  Navy Viet Nam vet, Agent Orange compensation(just diabetes type 2, well under control)...
 
I dunno that's about all I got, other than I play bass and rhythm guitar!
 
altho......
 
 
 I once made a  base line 3 pointer at the Forum during a pickup game after a Boston-LA game. The refs would shoot around during timeouts but couldn't make a thing. I was about 3 sheets to the wind, and started yelling BRICK after they shot. One of them waved at me to come down(we were close to the floor as most fans were long gone) and do better. So, I headed on down, tripped over a chair, and ended up on the base line. Ref threw me the pass as I was setting up in the corner. Not a clean swish but through the net! Got a nice ovation from the few in the crowd, and a high five from the ref. 
 
 
But I digress, and in full disclosure, I'm just messin around!
 

LOL
Then tonight's fireworks are in your honor! Thanks for your service.
 
Michael

charlyg
Wanna play toppers?
64, retired,  Navy Viet Nam vet, Agent Orange compensation(just diabetes type 2, well under control)...

We could do with some of that compensation over here. Good to see a number of Vets return here regularly to positive work. It's still in the groundwater around the Airport apparently. My school does a a number of activities to help those affected.

If the video is from the 80s or early 90s that might explain much about what they suggest. Back then lots of people were dipping their toes in the recording water, generally using the new-fangled cassette or disk multi-track recorders. People began to realise that studios used compressors, but there were all kinds of myths and misinformation that "lots of people just somehow knew". Like compressors are used to prevent feedback, or compressors (like overdrive on guitar) are there "to cover up musician's mistakes".

Most of those people would probably have never used a compressor in their life (apart perhaps from things like the Dynacomp which have no attack/release/ration controls). One of the hardest things for beginners to do is hear what a compressor is doing - often the reaction seems to be to "turn it up until I can hear it do something, then some more". The more transparent the compressor the worse the problem for the inexperienced. So you had/have to give them a starting setting that makes enough difference to be clearly audible.

Then there is hearing the changes different attack/release times make. Not easy unless you can really hear what the compressor is doing in the first place. After that comes VCA vs. FET vs. optical, sidechaining...

Nowadays we're swamped with compressor plugins, most of which are far cheaper than the hardware unit they are modelled on or cheaper than any hardware compressor full stop. And we can have as many of each of them as the computer can handle. Not even the best studio is likely to have 64 units each of 32 different compressors but with a DAW we can and do. If anything the potential for compressor confusion has increased exponentially since 25 years ago.

batsbrew
get one decent outboard compressor.
 
my vote,
for across the board purpose,
 
would be a FMR RNC
 
http://www.fmraudio.com/rnc.html

Thank you for pointing that out. I am just a part time hobbyist but always wanted an outboard compressor. I like the price. I have read up on it and they said it is not good for bass. I think they said it was too slow?

tlw
If the video is from the 80s or early 90s that might explain much about what they suggest. Back then lots of people were dipping their toes in the recording water, generally using the new-fangled cassette or disk multi-track recorders. People began to realise that studios used compressors, but there were all kinds of myths and misinformation that "lots of people just somehow knew". Like compressors are used to prevent feedback, or compressors (like overdrive on guitar) are there "to cover up musician's mistakes".
...
<snip>

I am curious, how does a compressor "... cover up musician's mistakes"? I have heard this before. Does it have to do with the picking hand? In that it levels out the picking dynamics?
 
Thanks

Yeah, leveling is the only area of mistakes it can "correct".  The phrase " apparent loudness" is the most impressive thing about them for me. To be able to bring a part into the mix without crowding other elements is the best reward of learning to use compression and limiting.
 
@ kamikaze     There really is no compensation for the impact of war. Perhaps, now with the internet and so many amazing documentaries being made, people can begin to understand the scope of war's aftermath.
 
Michael
 
 

Neat thread.  I've been trying to better understand all the dang plugins already bundled and acquired, especially the equalizers and compressors which are usually modeled after one type of hardware unit or another.  Though I'm not familiar with any of the hardware, I've at least been noting which of those famous units a plugin is based on so as to know for example, that the BT FA-770 is supposedly modeled on a Fairchild 670 type compressor.  Whether it's good or not, I'll leave to the pros.
 
Anyway, yesterday I was focused on compressors and in a video I watched it was mentioned that 1176 type compressors were often paired and followed by an LA2A type compressor/leveling amplifier.
 
I wondered if the PC76 U-Type compressor in Sonar is an 1176 emulation.  Apparently it is, and on those compressors 4:1 is the smallest ratio.
 
Just thought I'd toss that into the mix....

Yeah, that is what the PC76 U-Type is. Universal Audio =the U.