In article ,
Arny Krueger wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Arny Krueger wrote:
"Dave Plowman (News)" wrote in
message
For recording speech you want a mixer with a half decent
compressor/limiter.
They are relatively rare, particularly if you're talking equipment
that is not fairly expensive.
Still?
True.
I'm not terribly up to date on the cheaper end of the market but
expected 'they'd' have got this sorted by now.
While there are a lot of cheap mixers with EFX, its all reverb-oriented.
I think that the only mixers that Behringer makes that has built-in
compression/limiting are digital.
Although I can quite understand Behringer expecting you to buy an
outboard one from them as well.
A lot of mixers are used for live sound, and compression and limiting
can make live sound very complex and hard to manage, when feedback
starts being an issue.
Oh indeed. But I wasn't saying it was compulsory to use one - all those I
know can be switched out of circuit. But even in a 'live' situation a
limiter can prevent over driving the power amps and possible damage to the
speakers, etc. I also think foldback chains should have a catcher again to
prevent nasties down the line when things go wrong.
Most compression and limiting I see used for SR is packaged as amplifier
management, along with the crossovers.
Ah.
Although those are often far to complex for a simple task like this.
That's just it. The OP's basic need could be filled by a sub-$100 mixer,
particuarly if he didn't have clients he wanted to impress with an
expensive piece of equipment.
Even for the most simple sound recording on location I use my SQN mixer.
The compressor /limiter on that is either off or on. It's really just a
'soft' limiter. And I really wouldn't be without it. For more complex
stuff I have an 8 channel Audio - that too has a built in limiter.
All you have to do is listen to a large percentage of interviews on TV
news etc to realise just how essential a *decent* mixer with limiter is.
And of course an operator who knows how to use one.
--
*All generalizations are false.
Dave Plowman
London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.