>> * Why does an acoustic guitar need compressing? (...unless it's played unevenly...)

There are many cases where I can see a need for compression on Ac Guitar. As long as there are drums, bass and a full range of instruments, an acoustic guitar will most likely get swallowed up in a mix or else have it's transients poking out over the top and taking up a LOT of peak headroom in the overall mix. At least that has been my opinion from my experiences.

Perhaps EQ & Limiting would do the job better though.

For me it depends on:

1. The style of music - and more specifically, how intense the mix happens to be on the specific piece of music. If the mix is open and roomy, chances are compression wouldn't be too necessary, or just a peak reduction would be fine without taking away from playing dynamics (lulls and highs in the playing). But if the mix is really heavy and loaded and you want the Ac Guitar track to hold its own, it's going to need compression. But I agree, a 1.5:1 or 2:1 with a non-aggressive threshold should be good enough.

2. The style of acoustic guitar playing in the song:
- strummed lightly
- strummed heavily
- plucked, individual notes.. melodies, solo
- fingerpicked, or bluegrass style
- picked sustaining chords
- fingerpicked sustaining chords

I would treat an acoustic guitar differently for any one of these types of playing and there are countless other styles of playing.

For some acoustic guitarists, any compression would be sacrilege.

EQ is probably a better "across the board" treatment. Maybe shelving out lows so that the low notes don't boom and flub on crap stereos, old TV's etc...

A limiter would probably be better than a conventional compressor. Just to drop the peaks a few dB.

But with all o' that said, it's better to master the art of what compression really *DOES* than to focus on formulas for treating certain instruments in every case. No offense, but chances are, if you are using a 7:1 compression ratio, you should probably consider revisiting Compression 101. ;) That must've been a trip to Squashfest 07'!

thanks for the responses - i'm trying to do some light processing to prepare a mix for mastering. a bit of compression, and then normalization before i adjust levels - this is typical isn't it? the acoustic guitar is finger picked, so some notes jump out at greater volumes. hence the decision to apply some compression.

i took the advice and reduced the ratio and it no longer distorts. learning learning...

i'm going to check out those recommendations eric - thanks so much.

: )