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Compressors
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| Axolotyl |
OK, its occured to me by reading a recent thread that certain compressors are better for certain jobs and that indeed, some of you are compressing things more than once.
Anyone have any preferences for which compressors they use duing certain parts of the production process?
Are some better used for mastering, while others better used for sound designing? Does it really matter which one you use?
Soft knee... Hard Knee... are there particular uses for each one? |
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| aquila |
| there's probably an industry guideline to compression but like most art forms it's all down to playing with them and using what works best with the sounds you use. ie I like to use compressors with a slow attack for that 'snap' on drums. |
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| DigiNut |
I'm not an expert, but maybe I can help a little.
As for specific plugins, I use the (free) Kjaerhus Classic Compressor for just about everything, since it seems to have all the necessary settings. Not only that, but it's got presets for various different uses and they all work quite well for the thing they specify (drums, vocals, etc.).
The knee is important - a soft knee creates a more "invisible" type of compression. And you're less likely to get distortion or other artifacts. However, it also means that the compression around the knee area is very non-linear. If you're trying to really "squash" a sound and pump out the maximum volume, soft compression isn't going to cut it. Personally, I always use soft compression on pads or vocals, harder on stabs or drums.
For mastering you'll usually want a multiband compressor divided into 3 or 4 bands (bass, midrange, high, and possibly the "very high" above 8-10 kHz). Waves and Ozone both have exceptionally good ones. I'm not sure why, but I've never found the free multibands to be all that good.
There are also tube compressors. Those model the old vacuum tube amps, and they give a different "warmer" feel to the sound because they introduce distortion in the even harmonics (i.e. the non-evil-sounding distortion). Personally, I've never been able to find even a half-decent tube compressor VST... seems like hardware is the only way to go there.
I'm going to stop there since you might already know about things like attack and release and so on... those settings all do the same thing from one comp to the next anyway. Hope that helps. |
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| Axolotyl |
Coolio, thanks guys :) I did a bit of research myself and found an article with these standard settings for compressors. Probably been posted elsewhere on these forums but thought I'd share them for the sake of it.
Link to the full article.
SOURCE
ATTACK
RELEASE
RATIO
HARD/SOFT
GAIN RED
Vocal
Fast
0.5s/Auto
2:1 - 8:1
Soft
3 - 8dB
Rock vocal
Fast
0.3s
4:1 - 10:1
Hard
5 - 15dB
Acc guitar
5 - 10ms
0.5s/Auto
5 - 10:1
Soft/Hard
5 - 12dB
Elec guitar
2 - 5ms
0.5s/Auto
8:1
Hard
5 - 15dB
Kick and snare
1 - 5ms
0.2s/Auto
5 - 10:1
Hard
5 - 15 dB
Bass
2 - 10ms
0.5s/Auto
4 - 12:1
Hard
5 - 15dB
Brass
1 - 5ms
0.3s/Auto
6 - 15:1
Hard
8 - 15dB
Mixes
Fast
0.4s/Auto
2 - 6:1
Soft
2 - 10dB (Stereo Link On)
General
Fast
0.5s/Auto
5:1
Soft
10dB |
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| Atlantis-AR |
| quote: | Originally posted by Axolotyl
Coolio, thanks guys :) I did a bit of research myself and found an article with these standard settings for compressors. Probably been posted elsewhere on these forums but thought I'd share them for the sake of it.
Link to the full article.
SOURCE
ATTACK
RELEASE
RATIO
HARD/SOFT
GAIN RED
Vocal
Fast
0.5s/Auto
2:1 - 8:1
Soft
3 - 8dB
Rock vocal
Fast
0.3s
4:1 - 10:1
Hard
5 - 15dB
Acc guitar
5 - 10ms
0.5s/Auto
5 - 10:1
Soft/Hard
5 - 12dB
Elec guitar
2 - 5ms
0.5s/Auto
8:1
Hard
5 - 15dB
Kick and snare
1 - 5ms
0.2s/Auto
5 - 10:1
Hard
5 - 15 dB
Bass
2 - 10ms
0.5s/Auto
4 - 12:1
Hard
5 - 15dB
Brass
1 - 5ms
0.3s/Auto
6 - 15:1
Hard
8 - 15dB
Mixes
Fast
0.4s/Auto
2 - 6:1
Soft
2 - 10dB (Stereo Link On)
General
Fast
0.5s/Auto
5:1
Soft
10dB |
Note that those settings are intended for 'acoustic' music, i.e. music played on real drums and basses etc. Electronic samples and passages usually don't need that much compression, so in most cases you can safely reduce the ratio and GR (gain reduction) settings a fair bit. |
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