Audio-Technica Demo: 'Loud And Clear'

[Olli H]

imagine the scenario...recording engineer adds compression, mixing engineer adds compression to the track and/or some tape saturation, then perhaps a compressor on the group buss for glue. the mastering engineer gets hold of it and adds yet more compression. the accumulation of all this stuff? it's so easy to forget about dynamics..

Good post Dave,
One thing I like to add to it. One of the best and most natural compressors is the air between the source and mic. In old days and big studios today that is used quite much. But in budget studios everything is miked too close to prevent leakage. And to tame that signal one must use quite many tricks mentioned in your post.

Also it could be said that the best de-esser is the air between mic and singer. Closer the mic, more unnatural are the esses.