In this video interview with UK Engineer/producer Dave Eringa on his most recent recordings with the Manic Street Preachers an interesting proposition caught our attention. Making a record without compression.

Considering how preoccupied most of the audio community is with compression in all its forms, the idea of recording a guitar band without compression either in hardware or software form at every stage seems unthinkable!

No Compression - Really?

Well yes and no. In the interview, Dave explains how struck he was when working on a project, which involved recording to tape, something he hadn’t done in a long time. As well as the well known “Head Bump” boost at the bottom end and the saturation caused by hitting tape hard, tape also naturally compresses the dynamic range of loud signals recorded to it. This happens because tape is inherently non-linear. As signals get louder there is progressively less and less magnetic flux available to represent this rise in level and this results in a progressive reduction in dynamic range, much like a soft knee compressor.

Soft Knee Limiting

During this particular tape-based project Dave explains that they were monitoring the tape machine through Pro Tools and while tracks were clipping Pro Tools when monitoring the input of the tape machine, playback off tape was peaking up to 8dB quieter. And the sound of this tape compression was an uncomfortable reminder that tape, despite all its inconvenience and expense, sounds fantastic!

In the case of the Manic Street Preachers project, rather than working to tape, Dave used the Roger Mayer 456HD Analog Dynamics Processor which is a hardware tape simulator. Dave swears by these units, claiming that plugins just don’t do what this unit does in terms of adding that tape “magic”.

According to Dave, this is a case where plugins just don’t react the same. Do you use tape? Would you agree?

Genelec 8351B SAM “The Ones” Monitors

Also coming in for particular praise from Dave are the Genelec 8351B three-way coaxial DSP monitors, which he describes as “a revelation”. Previously not a Genelec devotee, he first heard a pair of these very clever speakers at Metropolis Studios and having had them set up in his room by Andy Bensley of Genelec, a guest on our recent podcast on Speaker Calibration, using Genelec’s GLM software, he describes them as both distortion-free and capable of “career-threatening” playback levels!

We recently tested the bigger 8361A and were impressed with the coherence of the design. The Ones really are a case of form following function and the results are every bit as impressive as Dave describes them!