. You know how it is, you’ve a studio full of the most tasty outboard with compressors coming
out of your ears - or maybe that should be going into your ears, I digress...
But you still can't quite get that super lo-fi compressor sound that’s so vicious it leaves teeth
marks in the lovingly veneered surfaces of the studio monitors.
Try this:
Get hold of a ghetto-blaster or boom box with a line-out, most will have an auto record mode
that will attempt to vary the input gain to match the in-coming signal. Put it in record pause
and send it the signal you want to destroy. If you send it a little 'hot' it's feeble little brain will
hopelessly attempt to keep up with the stuff you feed into it. Bring the output up on a channel
or two of the desk and mix it in with the original signal - you may be pleasantly
surprised.
Of course it may sound like complete dog do but you never know...
You’ll probably not be choosing to use this technique on the latest orchestral recording but
from my experience it can sound pretty wild on drum loops and the like. You should listen to
some of the compression used on the Portishead album for examples.
Any how if it doesn’t suit your needs you can always use the boom box for checking mixes.
Toodle -pip.
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