Compressor On An Aux Bus?, Can it take handle multiple sources? Options

[davidmacneill]

Being new to virtual effects, I'm wondering if I can bus multiple vocal and guitar tracks through DP4's plug-in compressor, bringing it back into an aux track. Will the compressor handle multiple signals simultaneously, or am I stuck with creating a separate instance of the compressor for each audio track I need to compress? I'm trying to save CPU cycles, as I have successfully done with my reverbs and delay plug-ins.

- David MacNeill

[ghess]

David,

You should use the compressor as an insert either on individual tracks or on the master fader. If you use an aux bus, you will be mixing the compressed signal on the aux with the uncompressed signal from the original track. This defeats the purpose of compressing it in the first place. You want to compress the entire signal.

ghess

[ADRIANF]

Hi David,
compressors are fine with mutliple inputs - it's great for getting the sounds to 'sit' together.
there should be no problem sending the signal to an aux bus. you can either send then whole signal or part of it. it is an audio technique to send some of a signal to a compressor.
as per overloading the compressor - you will have to keep an eye on the levels as it is possible to overload it, especially with multi inputs.
cheers
adrian