Bass noise when compressed

[Derykus]

Does this happen to anyone else when they compress their bass guitar?

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/3331450/bass noise.mp3

It happens with my hardware Comp-54 compressor and compression plug-ins. The example you hear is the stock Cubase compressor. It's a stock MIM Jazz bass played through an RME Babyface instrument in - happens with both my Babyface DI and my Pre-73 DI.

You can hear when the compressor kicks in - some annoying wobbly noise comes through. Is this just a normal side effect of heavy compression, or is there something wrong with my bass DI?

 

[BLUElightCory]

It's distortion. If it's not present without the compression, it's not your DI. You're doing something with the compressor that's creating some clipping/distortion. How do you have things set? The large volume jump when the compressor kicks in could be a contributing factor - ideally you want to reduce the output gain on the compressor so that the level is about the same with and without compression.

 

[Derykus]

It's not clipping - it does it at any output gain setting. This is super squashed, 6:1 quickest attack shortest release -20 threshold. It does it at less agressive attack/release times too. It doesn't happen at more moderate reduction and ratio levels - but it doesn't get that super compressed tone I'm addicted to.

I know I should get used to not compressing so much, but it makes the mix come together a lot easier and really adds some girth when stacking multiple compression flavors. This sound doesn't really stick out in the mix, but I would like everything as "clean" as possible.

 

[Charles J]

sounds fine to me.... if you want that super compressed sound thats what ya gotta deal with =D

 

[Terminus]

Use 2 compressors both with moderate settings, and dont have the attack set so fast.

 

[egan.]

quickest attack

That can definitely cause unwanted distortion on low frequency sources. Some compressors (and emulations) handle it more cleanly than others (but then some are slower than others even at the fastest setting).