compression when recording

[Ricardo]

Hi All,
Just wondered what the general consensus of opinion was related to compression in the recording chain. I have recently acquired a couple of nice preamps and mics. I'm recording mostly acoustic stuff at the moment, mostly ac guitar and spanish guitar, including vocals. At the mo I have no outboard compressor and am using the vinco post XITE and pre tracking. But it occured to me that I might risk some clipping through the XITE. I haven't detected any real problems as such yet.
So what's best? And if a compressor is the way to go can anyone recommend a nice transparent module at a not too hefty price?
Thanks

[Mr Arkadin]

With so few sources I would say you don't need to compress at all on recording. Record at 24-bits and give yourself a bit of headroom you should be fine. Certainly the guitar should be easily controllable. The voice can of course have a huge dynamic range and you may want a nat's cock of compression or even just a sliver of limiting to limit before hitting 0dB, but if your singer has some mic technique they'll know to back off from the mic at those loud points anyway, plus if they stay close to the mic at those points you may get some unwanted distortion which no compressor will fix.

I would just go straight into the front of the XITE unless you have a particular pre-amp you like the sound of, the XITE's pre-amps are plenty good enough in my opinion.

[astroman]

definitely - they used quality opamps at that stage, no cheapos.
(heard about 8 Euro per chip, standard is 0.5 to 1 Euro)
I can't help about it, but for plain levelin' stuff I find the stock compressor very nice and not 'pretending'
Adern's Music pack is also cool, the EQ and FatCat, but not exactly transparent...

cheers, Tom

[ChrisWerner]

In todays digital tracking world I like to record everything unprocessed, because when you come back to the recordings one day,for a remix f.e. you could find it welcome that your recordings aren't processed.
Just keep an eye on a good leveling and rec.

The compression due recording is a relict from the good old analog past (IMHO) when you had to separate each track from each other on your multi track reel and get over the noise floor.

[garyb]

nope. using 2" tape, one never compressed when recording unless the source was super dynamic like a singer with no clue about using a mic. no real engineer worth his salt would just use compression without a very good reason. once it's on, you can't get rid of it. in the mid to late '70's "engineers" ceased to be guys who had at least four years in a institution of higher learning who knew all about acoustics and electronics. they became laypeople who had seconded on sessions or just bought stuff and opened a studio. it's the explosion of "independant studios" that opened the door to many dubious practices that have become standards...

analog tape compresses quite nicely on it's own when overdriven.

[Ricardo]

thanks everyone sharing your knowledge and helping me along. I'll not worry about the compressor.
I in fact have a XITE-1D, without the phantom power. I have an Avalon M5 (picked up at a great price) and some ribbon mics. They sound fantastic and am recording to 32bit, but the VU is going hay wire with the high gain, as you can imagine. There still seems to be enough head room. The Avalon is also very clean so as not to process the sound. I might try bypassing the vinco and see how the levels go to track.
@Gary: Interesting comment. I'm trying to learn good practise.