Best Plugin for Compressed Audio

In the Studio
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I was able to record a band’s audio by getting a direct feed from the band’s FOH mixer, an Allen & Heath D-Live mixer. I’m sure that there was compression used and while it doesn’t sound too bad, I’d like to improve the quality.

Any plug-in suggestions appreciated. Thanks.

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There are certainly plugins that can help retain some of your dynamics, though there is no perfect solution. The trouble is these tools can easily more make it sound worse than what you began with too. So make sure you bypass and compare your processed version with the unprocessed version quite regularly.

I’d suggest starting with the C6 and the F6. The first one is a multiband compressor/expander, so you’ll be able to use it to expand your audio and restore some of those peaks. The later is a dynamic eq which can work a bit like a frequency specific compressor/expander and is good to fine tune key parts of the audio.

With the C6 I’d suggest to first start adjusting the parameters simultaneously together using the global controls and when you have a good “average” sound, then consider adjusting each band separately.

Waves might have a few useful videos showing you how to use them more specifically.
https://www.waves.com/videos

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