Using Compression to add "warmth"

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Posted by Derivative on Sep-01-2007 20:31:

quote:
Originally posted by richg101
the thread title 'using a compressor to add warmth' would suggest that the compressor 'make up gain' would be used. without it you just get a quieter signal.

if a track is cold sounding (with prominant midhigh's) then the compressor will take these cold sounds down in level. hit the make up gain and the sound is perceived to be warmer. its simple.

Yes. The thing is the makeup gain (output gain) when used can sometimes confuse people about what a compressor actually does.

This is the gain stage thats either solid state or tube electronics. Or in a software compressor tries to emulate the characteristics of either type of amplification.

Tube compressors cost a fucking bomb. If you have a DSP card you can get some emulations of tube compressors (like those Fairchild emus on UAD). But they are quite expensive and I've never used one so can't comment.

That 'warmth' people typically seem to attribute to compressors seems to me to come from using a compressor with a tube gainstage and using lots of output gain.

quote:
Originally posted by mysticalninja
Technically it doesn't, but it can make certain frequencies RELATIVELY louder, even though it's doing so via gain reduction.

Yes. The relative bit is important.

If you supress low frequency sound using a parapgraphic EQ (i.e. a highpass filter) it produces the following effect: It makes everything seem less bassy. Or more trebly. Its relative and can be perceived as both. But a highpass filter does 1 thing and 1 thing only: attenuate frequency below its cutoff - i.e. it eliminates low frequency sound.

Either way I hope the information was useful to somebody.

quote:
Originally posted by Storyteller
What it the track in question is very bass-heavy, this would mean a compressor would do just the opposite .

No no. This is important:

A compressor doesn't care about the frequency of the sound going into it. Only its loudness.

A low pass filter likewise doesnt care about the amplitude of the signal going into it. It only attenuates frequency above its cutoff. Everything else is meaningless.

The best way to describe this is with an illustrated example:

This is a stereo wav I imported into soundforge.

If you use a compressor on this .wav with the threshold at -6dB then it will compress everything above and below the red lines marked above.

Everything else stays the same.

This spectrum is a graph of amplitude (y axis) against time (x axis). A compressor is only sensitive to the amplitude of the signal going into it. The periodicity of the signal (its wave length or frequency) changes throughout the above example but the compressor doesn't care about it. It only acts on the stuff thats louder than its threshold.

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