Why can you reach a much higher volume for a vocalist (without feedback) if compression is applied? This has been my experience so far, and I'd like to understand why this is.
When you add an input to a mixer, you're suppose to use the trim knob to turn that input up as far as you can without that input ever red-lining on the meter during the performance.
I was having difficulty maintaining that level for our vocalist. Instead of using the meter to adjust his level, I was having to instead base it on how loud I could turn him up without having feedback, and on the meter, his volume was so low that he was only getting 2 green bars.
I was having difficulty getting his voice loud enough compared to the rest of the band without feedback.
Then, I applied compression to his voice, and the compression feature had it's own gain knob that I could turn up. I was able to get his vocals loud enough by turning up this compression-gain (without feedback).
Later, when I imported the tracks of the practice into Audacity, and played them all raw, I couldn't even hear the vocalist at all until I turn his track way up. Fortunately, in Audacity I didn't have to worry about feedback while turning him up!
Maybe my mistake was that, after applying compression, I should have turn his trim knob up instead of that compression-gain knob found in the compression settings. Perhaps I would have been able to accomplish that without feedback after having applied compression, and this would have resulted in a normal level track recording (instead of a low amplitude recording).
I'm recording "pre" (raw) instead of "post". "Pre" recording is effected by the trim knob, but that compression-gain knob has no effect on raw (but probably would effect the recording had I chosen "post"), so the recording didn't benefit from that solution that seemed to work during the practice.
Next practice, I'd like to achieve a normal level recording on vocals (without feedback). Applying compression seemed necessary to avoid the feedback, yet I'm not sure that raising the volume using that compression-gain knob was the right way to do it. Please advise.