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Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles You can put one on the master channel, but putting it on before you start to mix is stupid.

It's all about breaking the rules, innit?

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Originally posted by Zild I know dance music is really over compressed, but that just sounds ridiculous.

ever listened to pop or metal? metalica? thats fucking shameless compression

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Originally posted by Microlab It's all about breaking the rules, innit?

Yeah but you gotta know the rules, before you try to break them.

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Originally posted by DJ RANN Yeah but you gotta know the rules, before you try to break them.

fuck rules if it sounds good and it works then its game ball.

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Originally posted by palm ever listened to pop or metal? metalica? thats fucking shameless compression

or hip hop... tons of music excluding classical has popularly been over-compressed in the last 15 years.

sometimes I like to work with compression and limiting on my master channel even before i start my arrangement. And sometimes I don't. In my opinion, if it helps you get the sound you have in your head then do it. Who is to say that you should or should not do something that can creatively alter the sound of your song, and alter the process in which you go through to get your finished product.

I do think though, that instant results can fuel creativity.

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Based on this discussion, I decided to run my master buss through a hardware compressor just to see what it is like to work that way. I've never really tried to work this way, but we'll see if it produces good results. Personally, I have major problems with my mixes going totally out of balance when I get to the "home mastering" phase, so this might be an good solution for that problem. When I put compression on the master, I usually use very, very subtle settings (1-2 db max).

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Originally posted by meDina or hip hop... tons of music excluding classical has popularly been over-compressed in the last 15 years.

I find some classical music under compressed, in the sense that you'll be sitting there listening and enjoying it, and then suddenly it'll become so quiet that you can't hear it any more. That sucks as much as over compression IMO.

At the end of the day it IS all about breaking the rules, and any production technique is great as long as you understand the implications of what your doing. What ISN'T OK, is people throwing compressors and effects around without any real strategy in mind or any understanding about what they're actually doing with them.

Also, there IS heaps too much talk about compression. Its a utilitarian effect that you use to modulate volume automatically. It WON'T EVER save a mix, its not a magic button for professional sounding mixes. It doesn't make a mix "gel" better. Slamming five synths through a compressor is a lazy way to design, arrange and mix them and will end up sounding inferior to a well designed sound which has been well mixed.

People act as though its complicated, mysterious and incredibly powerful. It isn't. Its a simple tool with a simple function, and making it out to be the holy grail of effects is ultimately confusing.

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Compression is the act of destroying a sound. This is why they mention doing it in small doses

But as has been said a billion times... if you desgine your sounds properly you won't need to compress anything and you won't have any peaks for limiting...

Sending a track in to be mastwred is basicly asking someone else to fix the problems you were to lazy to resolve when you were producing the track

this only applies to 95% of the people who use compressors, some people know how to use the properly

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Originally posted by cronodevir Sending a track in to be mastwred is basicly asking someone else to fix the problems you were to lazy to resolve when you were producing the track

Not really, especially if you're talking about a track that's going to be pressed to vinyl.

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Originally posted by cronodevir Compression is the act of destroying a sound. This is why they mention doing it in small doses But as has been said a billion times... if you desgine your sounds properly you won't need to compress anything and you won't have any peaks for limiting... Sending a track in to be mastwred is basicly asking someone else to fix the problems you were to lazy to resolve when you were producing the track this only applies to 95% of the people who use compressors, some people know how to use the properly

wrong. any musical piece will have peaks, its music, not noise... i suggest you learn a bit more about these stuff..

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Originally posted by Existo22 No disrespect towards anybody here that disagrees but Olav basoski is a very good house producer with a lot of quality releases under his belt. Chances are he knows what he is talking about The idea behind this is simple. Do all your volume adjustments against the compressor setting so that the sound of the whole track does not change after you throw the master buss compressor on the final mix. All your relative volume levels stay how you wanted them. There is no right or wrong. If He likes working this way and the end product sounds good and it sells than I say he is doing a good job.

I'm sorry, but I will have to call bullshit on that guy. It's a personal preference to mix against a compressor I guess, not something you advise people to do through a "tutorial video". Half way into mixing he changed the threshold and the ratio (I think) on the compressor (on the master bus), because he didn't like the sound. No shit. That's the reason you don't put a compressor there at the mixing stage. So after he did that, the levels on the tracks got screwed up. No shit #2.

Again, I have no problem if some people do it that way, it's just that I've never heard someone do that before I saw him and I thought this is somewhat of a "standard" in EDM.

Also, I think that guy is clueless. At one point in the video he's talking about the loudness wars and then goes to say something like - and I0'm not shitting you -> "I don't know why people want their mixes so loud. If a track isn't loud enough you just turn up the gain on the mixer, that's why it's there." I'm not kidding you, I even think this is the exact quote he says. After I heard that I just scrolled through the video quickly just to end it.

Also he had clipping on almost every track in his mix. He did say something like how he doesn't care about "looking" at music, rather hearing it. So he says if he doesn't hear the signal getting clipped he doesn't bother lowering the volume. Which I guess isn't such a bad idea since every trance track I checked clips at least 10 times through the track - and I'm talking the likes of Tiesto, Armin etc... But he had levels peaking at something like 2.7db on the master or something most of the time. Even if you don't hear it, that might cause problems later (at least) at the mastering stage.

So a followup; I also get some clipping on the master in my tracks - mostly only when the kick hits in - and I'm not talking 2.7db here. As I said, I checked a lot of tracks from professional DJs/producers and almost every track has clipping in it. So should I worry about this if I can't hear it or just leave it?
AFAIK there should never be clipping on individual tracks, but it's kinda OK on the master? That's what I heard...

It just depends on how long the clipping is. You probably won't hear the clipping if it lasts for the length of a couple samples, but if it lasts for much more than that it will start sounding shitty. Personally I try not to clip my tracks at all, but I know that tracks that clip for the length of a few samples can still sound decent.

Also IMO a track can sound bad from too much compression even if it never clips at all, but that's really just my personal preference. Tracks with a ton of compression tire out my ears and make it hard to listen to them often.