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Using Compression to add "warmth"
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| 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 |
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| Sanguis Mortuum |
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... |
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| 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. |
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| SPAWNmaster |
| 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). |
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| Limit |
| 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. |
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| Existo22 |
| 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) |
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| Sanguis Mortuum |
| 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... |
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| 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. |
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| mysticalninja |
| if its a tube compressor maybe |
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| djms |
| get some vintage warmer on the case |
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| Sanguis Mortuum |
| 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... |
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| mysticalninja |
| 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. |
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