how many of you use compressers ?

[Lonman]

Originally Posted by CerealKiller

Ok this is where I get confused "limiter" "compresser" a limiter sounds like one that would keep the screamers from overdriving my amp, right now I keep my fingers on the sliders. A compresser sounds like it would squeeze the vocals into certian frequencys, my mixer has a shape knob to control the freqs. I've been to many shows where compressers were used and it never sounded like my voice was comming thru in its true nature, do you think they just didn't know how to run things or was the compressor pulling back parts of my voice?

A limiter will stop the signal from getting over a certain level. Great for speaker protection.
A compressor will help level out those signals that go from soft to loud to soft to loud - where you can actually turn the fader up a little more to bring out the soft, but when they get loud, it will react like turning the fader down - without needing to ride the fader all the time. You can be out walking around & the compressor will do it's thing.
What's a 'shape' knob?
I don't think those shows that you heard your voice had anything to do with the compressor, more sounds like they had the effects set wrong. But if it was due to the compressor they obviously had the unit set much to hard for vocals.