Compression Comparison
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Posted on May 27, 2006 01:18 am
ciinx
Member Since: May 15, 2004
Guys, all apologies for not being active nowadays. i do find myself in heptic schedules and unable being online all the time like i used to.
but here is something i just want to make sure about.
Ok, here's a wave.jpg and it's sample audio "Tonight's Music" by an old band Katatonia:
1.
2. lads.myspace.com/music/mu...k9uSmloZ2R0cz0=
*Notice the graphical difference between the verses and the choruses. It seems like the chorus parts are maxed to hit the almost 0dB but the verse is well maintained half than that. The song is quite dynamic I'd rather say while the vocals are well balanced between the verses and choruses.
Ok, now the question is how this can be achieved because when I tried to master my version, a cover of the same song (lads.myspace.com/music/mu...zWlU2bTl0ND0=), the vocals seems to be compressed down together with the instruments (
).
You can hear the vocal level jumps up during the first chorus.
I tried to put the vocals into the same track but the during final compression, there are no level difference between the verses and choruses, everything are maxed out.
Any ideas guys? Are there any extra techniques to get this done?
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Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 27, 2006 04:16 pm ciinx, I get a loading error when opening the audio player from myspace. But looking at the waveform it appears as though the audio in the louder parts is getting very squashed at the peak of loudness.
Are you compresing the vocal before all on its own? Meaning are you running a compresor on the vocal alone, and then again on the final stereo mix?
ciinxMember
Since: May 15, 2004
May 28, 2006 07:06 am uh sorry about the loading error Noize, i guess the player can only be opened from it's original pages.
OK here's the band's page: www.myspace.com/katatonia
and the one that i tried: www.myspace.com/ciinx
Yes, you're right.. i ran the compression on the vocal tracks and again on final stereo mix.. but i didnt compress anything during recording except for guitar tracks..
are you suggesting not to compress twice? i've never done anything like that for the vocal tracks .. thanks big man!
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 28, 2006 09:10 pm Wow, first off ciinx. Nice cover of that tune. And yes I know and have listened to Katatonia. I own an import of their first release and a couple others.
Honestly I do like the differance in the dynamics of the tune. And your does not sound like you really have a huge problem with the vocals overly compressed into the chorus part. I think maybe you can do a seperate compression setting for each part, verse/chorus.
I do that kind of thing frequantly with tunes that change from very quiet to very loud. I will actually load two seperate compressors (PHP Vintage Warmer) on the master stereo buss. I set one to work well with the lower or quieter parts and then set one to work for the heavier parts. Then I simply automate them to run at seperat times. One on during verse or quiet part, then I automate a fade between the two compressors. One goes off and the other goes on.
That might help solve some of the issue you are having.
AS for compresing twice. It is not uncommon to sompress twice. But you may want to lighten up on the second compresion on the final stereo mix. That as well might help things out during the loud parts.
May 28, 2006 09:36 pm hey man, i'm kinda havin' the same thing happenin' to me on a hip-hop track i'm dooin'.....for ruff mix's i just slap a limiter on to check on other systems....and this seems to flatten out everything more or less well, but there's a few occasions where the vocals pop right out, almost as if the mix buss limiter didn't 'see' the vocal track....on top of that, i learned i sucked the mids out WAY too much to make room for the vocals, dude it's like there's a hole in the mix, and when she dosn't sing, the mix sounds hollow....ick, i need to stick with rock....but i'm a learnin'.
oh dude i got your message on myspace, but i didn't have any speakers hooked up
ciinxMember
Since: May 15, 2004
May 29, 2006 05:18 pm Thanks Noize, I tried to look up PSP Vintage Warmer at KVR but i dont think i can afford it at the moment..
anyhow some dude at the KVR forum mentioned some similarity between the plugin and Digitalfishphone's Endorphine ( www.digitalfishphones.com...2&subItem=3 ) which is free and in my vst .dll folder. In my final stereo mix, ran realtime Endorphine, swithed the presets to "deep m/s compression" and voila!
The verse's vocal volume level increased slighty and the chorus part just reduced a bit.. making both volume levels more correlate and stable with each other... phew.. that has cured my asspain!
Yep Noize, i kinda like it having the slow and loud part after listening to it a couple hundred times more. i know sometimes extra creative engineers just do that.. but hey like WYD said.. we're all learning and the more tricks you know the easier things may become.
Cheers to the both of you! (I'm sticking with the prvious version of the song, yhe one that i posted, better dynamics hahaha)
Noize2uCzar of MidiAdministrator
Since: Apr 04, 2002
May 29, 2006 07:17 pm Oh ya, the Vintage Warmer is just my personal prefered bit of software. The Digital Fishphones stuff is very good at the same type of thing. And if you ask me it is much easier to run as well. The PSP unit is not for those who have not experianced the older style full on high end analog compressor's before. It is a very deep bit of software to learn. But it does have some good presets to start from for the newer user, so I dont want to steer anyone away from it either.
I think its a good choice to stick with the one you like in the end. It does get hard to judge your own stuff after hearing it for so long.
