Yet Another Compression Question
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Posted on Nov 25, 2003 11:47 am
MUSIC4LIFE702
Member Since: Nov 24, 2003
I understand the use of compression to control an instruments dynamic range going to tape. But after you have all your tracks recorded and ready to mix down, do you add compression again to say the bass with a compressor plug-in? If so, why? Just learing about compression and any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks!
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Nov 25, 2003 11:52 am I use just enough compression while recording to get a nice even and workable sound to the recording media, be it tape, hard disk or whatever.
Then, during mixdown there are situations where it becomes apparant you need additional comproession on any given channel, or group of channels...at time even compress while mastering...it's all up to the engineer...
Nov 25, 2003 11:53 am thanks dB Masters. I appreciate it.
Nov 25, 2003 11:53 am It all depends. Compression does more than just smooth out dynamic range. It also adds that "Compressed sound" to your mix (Most notable on drums). Keep in mind that different compressors sound different. They aren't all the same. You might also want to add a little bit of compression to the entire mix as a whole, as well. This makes all the instruments sound more together and can give the mix more punch. The bottom line is experiment.
Nov 25, 2003 11:59 am Do you mean compress the drums as a group or add a plug-in to each drum seperately? I have Waves Platinum Bundle. Are the compression plug-ins in that bundle good stuff, cause i really don't have the money to go buy a bunch of compression boxes.
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Nov 25, 2003 12:01 pm Subcompress the drum group - it will make the drums sound more punchy as Porp said.
Nov 25, 2003 12:02 pm the only drums I ever compressed are the kcik and snare...
Nov 25, 2003 12:06 pm i think i heard about something along the lines of that. Something about leaving the oringial submix alone and creating a new submix and compress the hell out of it and bring it up underneath the dry channel.
Jues, i was thinking of buying the Focusrite TwinTrak Pro. I can just use the compression on that for recording. But then are the Waves compression plug-ins good to use for the final mix or to use on tracks that have been recorded. Sorry, just new to this. Thanks for all the help from everyone.
Nov 25, 2003 12:22 pm The Waves plug-ins are awesome. Just compress lightly on the way in and then compress more with the software depending on how you want it to sound. The way I compress drums is I use a separate compressor for the snare, a separate one for the kick, and then a multiband compressor on the rest of the set (overheads and toms) which I have set to a subgroup.
Nov 25, 2003 12:33 pm PorpoiseMuffins, just one last question. When you compress say the overheads, I'm assuming the frequencies get squashed too. So would you put the EQ after the compression in the chain to bring those frequencies back out? Or am I on crack?
Nov 25, 2003 12:37 pm Haha... Well, it depends on how much you compress it. Don't compress it too much. You might want to add some more eq if you want, or if you're using a multiband compressor, just bring up the hi-frequency band in volume. Whatever sounds good. You might not even want to compress the overheads at all. I've never found it to be a problem, personally.
Nov 25, 2003 12:40 pm Right on...thank you!
Nov 25, 2003 12:43 pm In Waves, there is a C4 Mulitband Parametric Compressor....is that what you mean?
Nov 25, 2003 02:20 pm Sounds like it. Basically, it allows you to compress different frequency bands at different amounts. This way if you want to compress the low end but not the high end as much, you can do that. The parametric eq also helps prevent compression "pumping" effects which are not desireable most of the time.
TadpuiI am not a crook's headMember
Since: Mar 14, 2003
Nov 25, 2003 02:30 pm What exactly is "pumping", anyways? I hear that a lot in reference to compression.
juesContributor
Since: Dec 30, 2002
Nov 25, 2003 02:40 pm try:
quick attack, quick release - medium 4:1 ratio and drop the threshold.
your mix will now sound like it's trying to breathe with a bit of luck.
jues.
Nov 25, 2003 03:28 pm Yeah, pumping is when the signal goes from loud to soft and back again. It's usually a result of the attack and realease not being set properly for the material. It's much more noticeable if the threshold is really low. Sometimes it can be used as a cool effect-- I think jues had a song up a little while ago by a band he recorded where he used the effect when the drums first came in. It sounded really fat and juicy...
