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Using Compression to add "warmth"

Hi there.

I'm quite familiar with most aspects of production and my knowledge of compressors is okay, I mainly use them to control the peaks and increase the perceived loudness.

I often hear people on here talking about using such and such compressor to add warmth to a sound/track. And recently, somebody commented on one of my tunes saying they thought the compression was a little tough and cound do with being warmer instead.

Can anybody tell me

1)the definition of "warmth" in this context

2)what sort of settings to achieve this (as oppose to tough compression)

3)possible compressors to do the job (I hear vintagewarmer is excellent for this - any others)

If anyone could post up a sample of a before and after to show me what this so called "warmth" sounds like, that would be great.

Cheers

Greg

The act of compressing itself doesnt introduce any warmth, but most compressors have different characters, some of which can be 'warm'. Yes, VintageWarmer is one of these. Some other compressors though are more transparant, they dont add any warmth but when used at quite high compression can have harsh results...

Most saturation or distortion plugins will work by compressing or clipping the audio while adding various different algorithms of 'character' or 'warmth' too...

I'm not that familiar with compressors, but what I've noticed is that by bringing up certain frequencies while lowering others, you make the sound more full by making more frequencies easily audible. I've been able to get a more organic and cleaner sound out by compressing. I usually set the threshold pretty low with a ratio no higher than 4:1 and usually soft/medium knee.

quote:

Originally posted by newbie dewbie I'm not that familiar with compressors, but what I've noticed is that by bringing up certain frequencies while lowering others, you make the sound more full by making more frequencies easily audible. I've been able to get a more organic and cleaner sound out by compressing. I usually set the threshold pretty low with a ratio no higher than 4:1 and usually soft/medium knee.

this is an advantage to using light compression, great example. however with a too much compression you loose a lot of dynamic which can take away from the overall sound of your track (and can muddle or distort in high enough quantities).

well it is true that some compressors do add warmth in some way...but most just dont do it for me...I have a HHb Radius 30 compressor(hardware) that is a tube compressor. This thing actualy does add characteristics to the sounds you compress. It is the best damn thing for percussion. I wouldn't use it to put some compression on a full track but for drums it add a nice warm characteristic because of the tube technology. Some people compress every track adn some people only compress very few...on the other hand, others dont even use compression at all.

Re: Using Compression to add "warmth"

quote:

Originally posted by G-Con Hi there. I'm quite familiar with most aspects of production and my knowledge of compressors is okay, I mainly use them to control the peaks and increase the perceived loudness. I often hear people on here talking about using such and such compressor to add warmth to a sound/track. And recently, somebody commented on one of my tunes saying they thought the compression was a little tough and cound do with being warmer instead. Can anybody tell me 1)the definition of "warmth" in this context 2)what sort of settings to achieve this (as oppose to tough compression) 3)possible compressors to do the job (I hear vintagewarmer is excellent for this - any others) If anyone could post up a sample of a before and after to show me what this so called "warmth" sounds like, that would be great. Cheers Greg

Warmth is the coloration of sound by the cirquitry of the analog compressor.
In other words it is noise. This added noise often makes the tracks less thin and more full.
This is the case with vocals drums bass ect.
Musically speaking it is the distortion of the second harmonic.

Although the ultimate goal of recording was to capture the most accurate sound possible
engineers realised that these side-effects contibuted a lot to the listening experience and that some tracks were benefiting from the saturation.
So when software came out alogorithms were used to emulate these side-effects.

In the software world I recommend:

Waves renaissance compressor
TC works Compressor/limiter
vintagewarmer
And the higher end sony compressors also have a mode that emulates hardware (not 100% sure but I think this is the case)

quote:

Originally posted by newbie dewbie I'm not that familiar with compressors, but what I've noticed is that by bringing up certain frequencies while lowering others

A compressor has nothing to do with different frequencies, it simply lower the volume above a certain threshold. Unless you're using a multiband compressor of course, but with multiband compression unless you really know what you're doing you can do more harm than good...

Oh but it has more than enough to do with frequencies. Different compressors have different algorithms and thus have a different impact on the sound. There are transparent compressors which tend to keep the sound as much like the original as possible. But there are also colouring compressors which add their own touch/transients/colouring to a sound which might just add that little sparkle to the track.

if its a tube compressor maybe

get some vintage warmer on the case

quote:

Originally posted by Storyteller Oh but it has more than enough to do with frequencies. Different compressors have different algorithms and thus have a different impact on the sound. There are transparent compressors which tend to keep the sound as much like the original as possible. But there are also colouring compressors which add their own touch/transients/colouring to a sound which might just add that little sparkle to the track.

They dont 'bring up certain frequencies while lowering others' though, they simply add a bit of random(ish) distortion...

quote:

Originally posted by Sanguis Mortuum They dont 'bring up certain frequencies while lowering others' though, they simply add a bit of random(ish) distortion...

Certain frequencies are at different volumes in a sound. A compressor effects volume. Thus compressors effects frequencies. compressors are used for adding warmth to vocals, because it brings the low frequencys up closer to the high frequencys in your voice.. that's where the idea of warmth from compression comes from I think.

turn off your compressor and try getting the track sounding warm without any compression on the master output. i think they probably meant that you were compressing your track too harshly. maybe a too high ratio? or a threshold that is too low? if you disable your comp then does your track sound massively different? if it does then it probably means you are compressing too much. as said, the warm idea comes from compressing the harsh'cold' frequencies from vocals, and making the lower'warmer' freqs more prominant. a suitable compressor may add a perceived warm character, but i belive it is in the mix and eq where the warmness is acheived..

quote:

Originally posted by mysticalninja compressors are used for adding warmth to vocals, because it brings the low frequencys up closer to the high frequencys in your voice..

No, a compressor does not do this. Unless it is a multiband compressor it affects all frequencies equally.

quote:

Originally posted by Sanguis Mortuum No, a compressor does not do this. Unless it is a multiband compressor it affects all frequencies equally.

Yes, a compressor does do this. This is common knowledge among engineers. You don't know what you're talking about. All a multiband compressor does is allow you to have different compression settings on different ranges of frequencies. Do you not understand that all the frequencies in a sound are at different volumes, so compressing obviously brings them closer to the same level? RichG101 agrees with me, and he has an album out. I'll go with his word, thanks.

quote:

Originally posted by mysticalninja Yes, a compressor does do this. All a multiband compressor does is allow you to have different compression settings on different ranges of frequencies. Do you not understand that all the frequencies in a sound are at different volumes, so compressing obviously brings them closer to the same level? RichG101 agrees with me, and he has an album out. I'll go with his word, thanks.

You are wrong, if any part of the wave goes over the threshold, for example some sudden high frequency content, the compressor will compress the entire wave, which will lower the amplitude of this high frequency content and will also equally lower the content of any low frequency content that is present at the same time.

I dont care whether RichG101 has an album out or not, he is wrong. There are plenty of extremely (musically) talented producers who yet dont really know how a compressor works...

Of course though, compressing a vocal is usually a good idea and can help to lower certain harsh parts like sibilance, but the way you're talking about it shows you really dont understand how it works. A compressor works on dynamics, making loud parts quieter and quiet parts louder, not on frequencies. There might be certain frequencies in your vocalists voice that will come out louder and harsher than compression can help lower those parts while raising the rest, but in those parts, when the compressor kicks in, it will be compressing all frequencies, high and low, equally...

If you want to make certain frequencies louder and others quieter, then this is simply a job for EQ...

Not true. I'm going to school for recording engineering, and one of my teachers, who has been assistant engineer and engineer for many big mainstream albums, has been teaching us compression this week said the exact same thing RichG said, and even showed diagrams explaining how a compressor helps bring out the lows in vocals. Of course it won't make the lows come out on everything, if the low frequencies are louder than the high frequencies, when you compress it will bring up the levels of high frequencies. I will admit though, I thought the same thing you did before going to school.

quote:

Originally posted by Sanguis Mortuum You are wrong, if any part of the wave goes over the threshold, for example some sudden high frequency content, the compressor will compress the entire wave, which will lower the amplitude of this high frequency content and will also equally lower the content of any low frequency content that is present at the same time. I dont care whether RichG101 has an album out or not, he is wrong. There are plenty of extremely (musically) talented producers who yet dont really know how a compressor works... Of course though, compressing a vocal is usually a good idea and can help to lower certain harsh parts like sibilance, but the way you're talking about it shows you really dont understand how it works. A compressor works on dynamics, making loud parts quieter and quiet parts louder, not on frequencies. There might be certain frequencies in your vocalists voice that will come out louder and harsher than compression can help lower those parts while raising the rest, but in those parts, when the compressor kicks in, it will be compressing all frequencies, high and low, equally... If you want to make certain frequencies louder and others quieter, then this is simply a job for EQ...

im afraid to say (tho i am not trained as a music engineer) that your argument is flawed. if you have a vocal where the s's (ess) are very prominant (the loudest part of the vocal track) then the single band comp will compress that highest volume sound. end of! so it will lower the highs. now use the make up gain to bring the volume back to original - and the highs will be dulled, and the make up will have brought the stuff that was not hit by the comp up to a more audiable level. this is such a simple and logical example i cannot believe you are arguing. i think you will find that careful use of compression and eq together would be the answer.

the treshold you set is what the compressor affects. its simple

quote:

Originally posted by Sanguis Mortuum They dont 'bring up certain frequencies while lowering others' though, they simply add a bit of random(ish) distortion...

Try it for yourself, buy decent respected compressors. Blue Tubes, Waves Rcomp, or from the UAD range of effects the Urei 1176 clone, Fairchild 670 compressor ot LA2A compressor/limiter...

I agree with mysticalninja and Leng. If a peak at a certain frequency rises above a specific threshold, it's gonna be compressed. Anything under that threshold will be untouched. Because those frequencies that are untouched they become louder relative to the newly compressed frequencies. That's how you soften out peaks in the frequency spectrum.

all compressing does is squash the dynamics. they dont add warmth.

Your simplistic idea of compression may just be the reason you start posts like this, And why the track in your sig sounds so stale.

come on mysticalninja, that's low to insult someone's music.

I wasn't insulting it.. I'm commenting strictly on the technical side.

All a regular (digital, non-multiband) compressor does is lower the gain when the threshhold loudness is reached.

Non-multiband compressors don't change the relative loudness of different frequencies. They change the loudness of parts of a track compared to the other parts. A compressor lowers the gain of a signal when the signal reaches the threshhold. Within that span of time when the gain is being lowered, the loudness of the different frequencies relative to one another stays the same. Of course, the frequencies present in that span of time might then be quieter relative to the other parts of the track where the compressor isn't lowering the gain, but again, within that span of time when the compressor is lowering the gain, the loudness of those frequencies relative to another is the same as it always was, unless you're talking about multi-band compression.

Think of it like this: make a track with just a ton of claps and hi hats in one part, and a ton of kicks in another part. Then go into an audio editor and lower the part with all the hi hats and claps. You've just changed the proportion of frequencies within the track as a whole, but the "compression" you just applied didn't change relative loudness of the different frequencies within the hi hat / clap part of the track.

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