Compression Issue

so i've got this nice little beat going, and want to give the kick more oomph. so i gave it some compression, but when i do, the hats and snares and claps get all quiet, and the kick seems to "steal" all the sound. this also happens when i just turn up the volume of the kick. i've heard a lot of people compress their kicks, is this a good thing to do? and if so, why? in fact, when i turn the kick all the way down, the hats and claps come through crystal clear, and i want that same clarity with a kick going.

i think the solution to his problem might be to use side-chaining compression. i don't know what this really is, but i've heard it's useful to get that kick throbbing without effecting the rest of the mix. is this true? anyone know what's up with this and how and when to do it. i tried some eqing and filter trickery but alas, the kick covers all the sound when i turn it up. i don't necessarily need to turn the kick up either, i just want it more present. maybe it's a mixing thing too...

Watch your main volume. If you just want the kick louder then lower the volume of the hats and snares instead of boosting it all into red. EQ-ing helps a lot of course. below 200hz should makes the kick more present without taking anything away from the rest of the beat. Compressing does make it sound more badass, you could just put it in a different channel and process it seperately from the rest of the beat.

its all in the threshold of the compressor

but i agree about just turning the kick up or eq'ing it without compressing anything

You could just separate all the individual elements of the beat and compress/do whatever with those elements.

Sidechaining won't help, what that does is lower the volume of everything while the kick is going, so you'll still have the same problem.

EQing everything will probably be the most effective, give each piece of the drum kit it's own "footprint" in the spectrum, don't completely cut it though, but boost each bit in the spot you think sounds best, and you should be able to balance all the sounds like that.

Also if there are still issues, it might be the kick sample you're using. Try other samples, maybe the one you have has too much bass without anything else, and of course, I hear mixing kicks with snares helps too (I've never tried this though, so not sure how effective it is).

compress it and turn the gain down on the compressor?

depends what kick you're using. if it's a kicky kick rather than bassy bassdrum, EQing might do nothing. then you might need to layer a bassy bassdrum under the kicky kickdrum, then compress together. but what do i know

I think what you're experiencing is a phasing issue.

A compressor COMPRESSES the dynamic range, meaning all of the soft transients get louder and the loud transients get softer, essentially. When you bring the deep decay of the kick up, it's going to step on the other audio around it, putting the other percussion pieces out of phase. EQ, and shortening the release of the kick is the best way to get around it. EQ'ing the kick to be bassy and punchy is a lot better than trying to compress it to the same effect.