Question about my compressor and waveforms...

[Relic]

Ive been meaning to ask this...

I have a Marshall mic runnin into a studio projects tube amp that then goes into my outboard compressor, then into PT.

I have noticed when my outboard compressor is not on I get some pretty lopsided looking waves.
For instance:
The waves on the top of the imaginary line in the middle(if you know what I mean) are higher/bigger than the ones on the bottom. I get this crappy distorted sound along with it..
Why is this?

What is the difference between the waves on the top and the waves on the bottom?
I believe that the settings on the tube amp have somthing to do with this phenomena which hasn't always been this way.
Thanks for the help Illfam!

 

[NobleWordz]

The top is the left signal and the bottom is the right. I'm guessing. Record in mono.

Try turning the gain down a little.

NW

 

[Ash Holmz]

yeah bro .. ur recording in stereo.... a mono file should have no "imaginary line."

 

[Relic]

yeah bro .. ur recording in stereo.... a mono file should have no "imaginary line."

Oh no mayne Im recording in mono..Believe me, this I am sure of..
I knew I would have a problem describing this....

Waveform looks like
shit theres nothing on this keyboard to simulate this...
ok pretend the waveform is on its side for the following example:

<--->
<--->
<--->
Say thats normal..Sometimes Im getting
<--->
<>
<>
<->
<-->
<----->
<--->
<------>

This too is a shitty example..But if you have PT you should be able to sorta get what Im trying to say..

I think Noble is right..
If I gotta Ill take a pic of it and post it.

 

[Ash Holmz]

ur prolly getting level spikes.. in other words ur recording too loud.... the compressor acts as as a ceiling and will squash anything above a certain volume and also raise the volume of a quiet sound... but if u take it off then there is no protection against overs... i think ur gain is set to high.. are u going into the red? when i record i record at pretty low levels for that reason exactly... im pretty dynamic so i need to record at low levels and with some compression or my peaks would be all over the place.. ...... or it could just be ur mic or preamp going bad... thats a possibility too .... its tough without really seeing the problem

 

[Relic]

True, I need to photo it, I leave the preamp on alot , that might not be good.
I record pretty low usually, its just somthing I noticed when I turn the compressor off that I get this "diff" look to the mono waveform and it tends to sound like shit in comparison to what it usually does.

 

[Hi-Lo]

you could also just try turning the compressor on but leaving it basically as a limiter or a very slight comp...like set the ratio as 1:1, threshold 0db, soft knee, etc. might still warm up the sound a little without much noticeable compression.

 

[Dysphuncktional]

I think you may be suffering from DC offset. Thats why the wave isnt symmetrical. Im not sure how to fix this at the amp end, it might have a dc offset filter on it. Otherwise try recording something and using your sample editor's dc offset correction tool to see if that helps.

 

[Dysphuncktional]

Im pretty sure you have DC offset. If you have a simple highpassfitler somewhere you can use this to correct dc offset in realtime. just set the cuttof really really low, like around 10-20 hz .

Also, if youre gonna turn off the compressor, then try disconnecting it as well and have the amp go straight to your rig without it in between, see if that helps. If thats the prob, then you should plug your compressor into an insert on your mixer, or always keep it on in 'bypass' mode if you dont want to use it's effect.

 

[Relic]

Wav isnt symetrical!! Thank you! thats what I was trying to say!

Thanks for the tip!