Beatles Drum Compression

[Kon Alexiou]

I've been wondering...Is it likely the Beatles engineers recorded Ringo's drums with compression instead of adding it later?

Does one achieve a stronger recorded result (in terms of signal/tone) if drums are recorded with compression?

Thanx!

[barismanco123]

It depends on the compression settings. If the compression setting were only controlling the sllightest of peaks then technically yes there would be slightly better RMS levels going to tape - if the compression was quite strong, say a ratio of 4:1 with a theshold of maybe 4-5 dB then it would be fair to say there would be significantly higher RMS levels but this of course would be at the expense of dynamic range.

Some people "limit" bass/drums and so forth to tape, others do nothing at all.

I personally do not know if they used any compression other than that what tape naturally applies without a physical and sole compressor being used.

On eariler LP's I would say no but it's just my opinion and on later LP;s may be they did...

[Kon Alexiou]

Thanks. That's good food for thought.
What you said make sense. If you compare the drum sounds from early to late LP's there is a huge difference.

KA.

[barismanco123]

If you are having a go at some homage type production - I am jumping the gun here by saying this, but I firmly beleive that it's more about the instruments used as opposed to the effects used, if you use the correct instruments then the sounds you are looking for will fall into place so much easier.

Good luck with your production