Hi,
Hi,
I have an alesis 3630 compressor given to me by a friend. I want to configure it so that when I'm taking on the mike the music will play in the background and my voice will be heard loud and clear on the radio. I tried different settings and I can't seem to figure it out. Would you please help.
My setup is as followed:
Mixer ---> EQ ---> 3630 ---> Transmitter
|
|----> Mike
I have two mixers: Xenyx 802 and 1002B. I could use either one of these for the settings. My question is how do I hookup the Mixer + 3630 for ducking. If this setting isn't recommended what other hardware I could purchase (to add to what I already have) to achieve the same results?
Thanks,
Jude
Instead of spending more money for hardware why not try your hand at controlling the levels yourself. You have a mixer and a microphone, all you need to do is practice fading the music down and the mic up to the point where your voice is over top of the music. This is the way I learned to work a mixing console and has worked well for me, not to mention it's helluva lot cheaper too.
In your diagram above, i did not see your program source (computer, cd player etc) so i am assuming you have music fed into one of the channels on your mixer. If not then may i suggest you feed your music source (s) into the mixer. This will save you a lot of trouble and give you more flexibility. You should be able to watch the meters and adjust according to the levels and the sound through your headphones.
With a little practice, mixing will become so routine you will hardly notice your doing it.
Thanks!
You are correct all audio source are connecting to the mixer. I thought I could make use of the side chains on the back of the compressor. Or at least I would know how to do it and how it works. May be someone has done it in the past. I would love to learn from their experience.
Once again thanks a bunch,
Jude
I use Sam Broadcaster with my mic and basically you hit talk and it lowers the volume automatically, and sounds good too. you can even have it lock the mic on, and the music stays down.
There was a plugin for adobe acrobat that would duck a track down as well.
at the radio station i work at, the PD always told me music should always be used as a bed and never compete with your voice. I usually set the music about a 1/4 away down on the slider from the mic level, because compressors usually raise the volume even more.
happy part15ing
Hi Jude,
I'm lazy, I just use my software's crossfade, which also attenuates the vocal input which comes through another app, but ....
Read the manual if you have one ... pg, 11 in fact. And if you don't have the manual then get it here:
http://www.alesis.com/stuff/contentmgr/files/0/3cc655bd8252b3248e88913d155a2bbd/file/3630_manual.pdf
Compressors and EQs are Dynamics processors as opposed to reverbs and the like which are Effects processors. Generally, this means you want to Insert dynamics into mixer channels, groups, or mains, as opposed to Aux sends for Effects (although I prefer to run Effects outs to unused channels for more control over wet/dry signals ... but I don't want to confuse that issue with Dynamics processing).
So you have your stereo music channel inputs panned hard left and hard right as appropriate, and a mic input. There is more than one way to skin this cat, but the 'normal' way is this:
Assuming your board has Insert jacks for each channel, to do it this way, you'll need 2 sets of Insert Cables for the two stereo channels (music source) and one 1/4" TS cable for a side chain (for one mic), plus a dummy 1/4" cable to kill the side chain input to the other channel. In the 3630, this causes the mono mic channel to affect both sides, i.e., both channels, of the compressor (see manual).
Set up your Insert I/O for the Compressor channels, and the 1/4" cables, one from the Mic channel output to one of the Compressor's Side Chain inputs (Note: This is just for control, i.e., the compressor has no effect on the Mic signal itself in this case, which is routed unchanged to the mixer's Mains/Mons), and the dummy to the other Side Chain input.
The mic signal should trigger the compression of the music.
Now, you need to play with the Threshold (level at which the processing begins to take place), Ratio (amount of compression), Attack (speed at which the Side Chain [mic] affects signal attenuation), and Release (speed at which the Side Chain [mic] lets the signal return to the nominal level). Again 'normally' ... you want attack to be fast and release to be slow enough to 'hang' between words, so it doesn't sound like a pump (best example of which is French Disco ... OK for loud music dancing, but wrong for VO work 😉
That's it.
Hope this helps instead of confusing things for you.