How to use compressors the right way (audio inside)?!

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Posted by wizniz on Jul-18-2006 03:39:

depends on the genre, too

i write electro house... i use a shitload of compression.
and it sounds great to me! its all about volume control

Posted by Storyteller on Jul-19-2006 15:28:

Today I used a compressor as an expander (Ratio is less than 1:1).
Doing the opposite what a compressor is meant for can give you the results you want as well so it seems

Posted by zenperson on Jul-19-2006 22:11:

You really should compress instruments separately in order to preserve their dynamic range. Each instrument has unique transiets above the set compressor threshold that will trigger compression and mostlikely will dampen the transients and dynamics of whatever it is you're grouping with that instrument.

Make sure you're not overcompressing... Even if you compress a single instrument, it's possible to over compress and cause a flat response that will kill the natural dynamics of your instrument. Now, compression can cause some awesome effects where vocals start to distort and feel very confined...

The bottom line.. don't over compress or you literally will starve your mix of dynamics.

Posted by Atlantis-AR on Jul-28-2006 16:03:

Re: How to use compressors the right way (audio inside)?!

quote:
Originally posted by Dance123
I was wondering how compression is being used on tracks like this:
click here to listen to full track streamed and enjoy! Track is Nitrous Oxide - Frozen Dreams (Anjunabeats).

First of all, I'm surprised a track with such a low quality would come from a label with such a big name. I'm really not sure you should be using this as a reference, as the master is really quite shocking and the kick far too loud in the mix.

quote:
Taking the above track as our example.. how are different types of sounds grouped for compression.. like I believe percussion + bass are always compressed together, but what about the other sounds like pads, lead, the sequenced sounds your hear etc.. are they all grouped together or multiple seperate groups or how?..

I'm not sure what makes you think compression is key here, but it all sounds pretty standard to me. Usually you just want to compress the individual instruments where needed, with perhaps some group compression (particularly the kick and bass), and maybe some further compression on the master. The master really sounds too compressed to know where and how much compression was used in the mix, but it does sound like everything was compressed quite deeply.

quote:
How should you group them.. or did they only use a compressor on the entire mix which would be weird cause I don't think a pad should be compressed together with kick and bass, am I correct or not?..

There are no rules as to how you should do these things, but it's often a good idea to compress the entire mix just a little during mastering to maximise the dynamic range across the sound. Focus on compressing the individual sounds though, and you'll have much more control over shaping the final output - just don't compress things as much as they've done.

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