Hi all!
I used to use plugins for compression, then I went out and bought myself the UA LA610 MKII. I love what it does, but, I recorded this acoustic guitar line with it for my song a while back and now I realize I used waaay too much compression! Here comes the ‘dumb question’… is there a way or a plug-in to UNcompress something?!? The guitar line was played well so I don’t really want to re-do it, also setting up for recording isn’t easy for me (small apartment with 3 kids!). So if I can alter what I did that’d be great, but I’m assuming since I printed that compressor in the original signal it’s going to be a write off? Thanks guys!
Pretty sure you’re stuck with it if you had it in place when you made your primary recording… no doubt you could do a bunch of processing on it and help matters, but at a certain point there is only so much you can do.
Textbook example of one of the reasons why so many people (myself included) work strictly in the box. Sorry you’re in this spot, I have been there myself (recorded a bit with a mic’d amp but found it absolutely had to be changed later despite being very happy with the performance… had to just re-do it).
Thanks, I had a feeling that was going to be the answer 
. As much as I love this hobby, it can be a pain in the arse! The more I learn, the more I cringe at what I’ve already done! It’s a never ending cycle of re-recording everything to a better version - I wonder if I’ll ever actually be satisfied with a final product?!?
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I know this feeling well too! My earliest recordings are just terrible. I have learned so much, and just about all of it right here in this group (at this site and the one we all migrated from after it went away). You’ll get there!
I hope so! I do ok with it some times but it usually seems like it’s due to luck more than skill! I’ll post this song for bashing when I can, I want to make sure I get it right, it’s one of my faves!
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Congrats! A serious professional tool there!
There actually is, but this depends on how bad you squashed it. Many times ‘over compression’ has more to do with the attack and release settings than it does the db of gain reduction. Sometimes pro engineers have to over compress to achieve a stringent level of dynamics management. A trick I learned from Warren Huart (that Yoad Nevo also uses) is to add a transient designer after the hyper compressed source to restore some of the squashed peaks. I usually start by timing the transient designers attack makeup to about 1:5x or 2x the attack of the where the compressor is set.
You may not be in as bad of shape as you think. Post a sample of a short part of the line with the guitar line mixed forward. Keep all processing off the guitar, and give us a rough balance of the instrumentation behind the guitar.
Thanks for the info! I know nothing about transients and transient designing, so I guess I have my next homework assignment! I will try and post a sample, that would be very helpful to hear some feedback…