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How to use compressors the right way (audio inside)?!
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| Dance123 |
Hi,
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).
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?..
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?..
so for a mix like the above, how much compressors have been used.. on the individual sounds, certain sounds grouped, the entire mix.. that's what I would like to understand!
Anybody with good knowledge about this can give a good explanation about this, taking the above typical Anjunabeats melodic trance track and its sounds (has all kinds of sounds in it) as example?! Perhaps write a mini-tutorial or something, like experts on this forum have done in the past about other production stuff!
Thanks alot for all good info about this!! :) |
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| mysticalninja |
Hmm compress bass with percs.. Why? Anyone tried this with any luck?
Damn I want that bass drum.. |
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| Lokhèn |
| I usually don't use compressors at all.. From my experience it sounds better without, but that might very possibly be because of my ty compressor knowledge tho.. |
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| Dance123 |
| quote: | Originally posted by mysticalninja
Hmm compress bass with percs.. Why? Anyone tried this with any luck?
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Isn't it normal to compress bass with percs.. I always did that starting with ReBirth.. i mean isn't the point to get a thight mix so don't you need to group sounds when compressing? Or should you only compress individual tracks and not groups of sounds? All very confusing!!
Somebody here please write some good advice about all this cause I really want to understand this! Take the above track as example when explaining!
Thanks alot!! :) |
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| jahnlay |
| I always only compress individual tracks until mastering. To get that pumping compressed sound with the bass being compressed on the kick, use a sidechain compressor on the bass with the kick triggering. That way it squeezes the bass when the kick triggers and opens up in between. |
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| optik |
| as above - use a sidechain compresor - so your bass drum is controlling the ammount of compression applied to the rest. I usually route hats to another strip, so they aren't compressed with the rest of it. |
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| Dance123 |
Hi,
I am not talking about the sidechain trick, which is more an effect. I am talking about compressing trance music in general to get tight mixes.
So do most people only compress individual tracks? Aren't certain sounds being compressed together or is that not done?
How do you get you entire mix "tight" then?
I really hope the more experienced producers on this forum could tell more about how to do it right, cause this is really interesting! Perhaps also give some info on certain settings you use for specific type of sounds etc.. as starting point etc..
Thanks alot for all good info!! :) |
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| mysticalninja |
Sidechaining is totally different than regular compressing. Everyone knows about sidechaining bass with the kick drum, but what about compressing kick with rest of percs to balance out the levels? Since the kick is obviously louder than the rest of the percs I think the result would be the percs sounding like they lower in volume when the kick drops..
I mostly use comps on single elements like claps to make them alittle harder. Sometimes I use a comp on percs like closed hat + open hat if im having trouble balancing their levels out. |
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| optik |
it is possible to get away with compressing seperate tracks, in fact it's possible to get away with just eqing and leveling everything right (with automation) - and that is the pureists way of doing things - but you need a fair ammount of experience to be able to do that.
now - the other side of the coin is effect compression = i.e. compression to achieve an effect, like pumping - peoples gut reaction when they read a topic asking about compression is to say: don't use any - eq properly; cause this is what they have read, and it makes them cool (this doesn't refer to anyone above btw) - but if you want certain effects, like the sidechain pumping effect, you do need comprtession.
I eq ane level well now, and then at the end I'll ultramaximise slightly (top 1.5db or so) - ultramaximisation is a fancy name for a compressor.
most producers I know do this to get their mixes slightly hotter |
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| Centra Spike |
I tend to use compression on most instruments, sometimes in combination with a limiter. The reason is to get the instruments to sound louder without their peak level being too high. A common use is on kicks, claps and rides so the tail doesn't seem to fade as quickly. You have to be careful not to completely kill the dynamics of your instruments (unless that's what you want) or induce distortion when doing this but it should be quite obvious when that happens.
As for groups, I makes groups of percs (as if they were loops) and compress them together, but I don't ever group percs and synths or instruments that have a big difference in volume.
Another good use of a compressor is to put one on a crash or a synth after a delay unit, then play around with the threshold. The lower it is the more delays the compressor will affect. |
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| dEEkAy |
Multiband Compressor all the way.
Splits up your audio into 4 unique segments, each being compressed on their own.
In that case you e.g. avoid the bassdrum interfering with the overall signal. |
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