Stereo Vocals? Options

[jimmynitcher]

Hi,

I am confused about single output things such as mic's and the RNC comp I was about to buy - isn't it better to have their signal split into two by a compressor that has left and right outs? Why then, does such a compressor only have one out per channel?

bear with me,

thanks

J

[coldharbour]

is it more [I]desirable[I] to record a mic with two linkable mono's ?

If you're recording a mono source, like a normal condenser mic, you only use one mono compressor. When the source is monophonic there's usually no sense in compressing it with a stereo compressor.

But like I wrote above, most stereo compressors can act as two separate mono compressors. In this scenario you'd be feeding the signal into just one channel of the stereo compressor and outputting it mono.

If you don't need to record or process any stereo signal you might as well go with a single channel mono compressor. With the price of a stereo compressor you'll probably get a better quality mono compressor. I haven't used RNC or FMR so I can't comment on their performance.

then again, maybe I don't need a hardware compressor at all - I use Ableton Live and I can put one of it's compressors on my recording channel without any latencey... people speak of the quality of the RNC...maybe should I go for  a better quality plug in?

There certainly are some top notch software compressors around, but they also cost money. If you aren't in a situation where you absolutely need a HW compressor I'd strongly consider going all software.

I personally do almost all processing by software, but when recording vocals I use a hardware compressor and some other gear - just because I feel it is easier to quickly come up with the right settings when you have your hands on the actual hardware.

But in the end it's a matter of preference and taste, go for the setup that you feel suits you best.