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Using Compression to add "warmth" (pg. 2)
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| richg101 |
| 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.. |
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| Sanguis Mortuum |
| 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. |
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| mysticalninja |
| 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. |
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| Sanguis Mortuum |
| 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... |
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| mysticalninja |
| 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. |
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| richg101 |
| 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 |
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| Storyteller |
| 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... |
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| azndragon0613 |
| 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. |
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| Krispy Kreme |
| all compressing does is squash the dynamics. they dont add warmth. |
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| mysticalninja |
| 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. |
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| azndragon0613 |
| come on mysticalninja, that's low to insult someone's music. |
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| mysticalninja |
I wasn't insulting it.. I'm commenting strictly on the technical side.
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