compression

help, i never used compression, only once or twice, whats so special?

turn it loud up African American

  chunky said:

help, i never used compression, only once or twice, whats so special?

A compressor, in a nutshell, compresses the dynamic range. In effect, the loud parts get softer, and the soft parts get louder. Useful for when you have a singer that can't control the volume of their voice [they keep getting loud and soft randomly]. A compressor can really help this dilemma.

ask clark

You always need compression, or else your insanely overdriven bass kicks and dito lines will clip all the time and ruin your amp & speakers.

Braintree had a pretty succinct description of what a compressor does. Compressors can be very important in the development of your mixing style. A big part of what defines a recording engineer's style is their use of dynamics and, therefore, their use of compression. It is definitely worth getting comfortable with at least one compressor. There are subtle differences in how each unit works and sounds, but I wouldnt worry about it until you get a good feel for how different compression settings sound in the first place.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_level_compression

here you find everything you need to know about compressors:

http://www.tweakheadz.com/compressors.htm

mix well, limit gently, serve.

I try to use compressors as little as possible. I definitely do use them to increase the volume of certain synths, or to allow a drum to take up as much room in the mix without clipping, but yeah, it's overused these days. If you use too much compression people will just get a headache when they listen to your music. Unless it's a 1 minute song or something.

Basic compressors do the same thing as automating the volume of something.

thanks i can understand the need for vocal compressor

still not sure about synths and shit

if the synth sound wasnt right id probably try another synth or sound

anyone got some more examples of when you needed a compressor?

loads of drum and bass uses compression right? does it help for the dance floor and stuff?

say youve got a sine wave or hoover bass line, how does compression help?

if it`s already ripping better not to touch it isnt it

any advice is good ta :D

compression probably is used too much though... lol :D

cheers

Besides what everyone has said, a heavily compressed channel tends to dominate the audio output, and (just like square-wave distortion does) it makes it seem louder than it really is, so it great for a chunky drum line with a high end melody on the top, because it will bring the bass drums and hat to the same level...making a very powerful drum line.

Also, it doesn't seem to have been mentioned yet, but subtle side chaining of drums can make things clearer in a song.

Don't overdo it though, because then it sounds bad (like with any other effect pretty much). Of course, I suppose it would have some uses.

  Braintree said:

  chunky said:

help, i never used compression, only once or twice, whats so special?

 

A compressor, in a nutshell, compresses the dynamic range. In effect, the loud parts get softer, and the soft parts get louder. Useful for when you have a singer that can't control the volume of their voice [they keep getting loud and soft randomly]. A compressor can really help this dilemma.

you've got it completely backwards. it makes the loud parts louder and the quiet parts more quiet. as far as sine waves and hoovering basslines....sidechaining in conjunction with compression is the idea. i've always had good results using compressors on send/return tracks and using the send amount on each track to control how much I want that particular instrument to cut through the mix in relation to the others.

there is an art that is applying compression.

its easily one of the most important and most mis-understood of dynamics processing.

it can do wonders for your tracks controlling dynamics/peaks etc... but also be used as an effect when used with extreme settings.

I tend to use compression most on bass, vocals, drums, and wild synth's and synth leads.

but the fundamental concept in the past and old school of thought was to control dynamics and effectively level out the signal by reducing peaks in order to bring up the overall volume of the track.

the biggest mistake you can make is to use a limiter for everything just cause you don't understand how to use a compressor. fkn nubs that maximize/limit everything should diaf.

what does sidechaining mean?_

it kind of sounds like

  Quote

hey mate it was a good laugh sidechaining your missus last night!

  epsy said:

you've got it completely backwards. it makes the loud parts louder and the quiet parts more quiet.

no it doesn't.

  chunky said:

what does sidechaining mean?_

it kind of sounds like

  Quote

hey mate it was a good laugh sidechaining your missus last night!

sidechaining, or ducking, is when you use the peaks of one sound to control the volume or compression level of another sound.

the most obvious example of this is adverts, when the voice over comes in, the music in the background gets quieter, but the overall level stays the same.

you can use this to make a part slice through the rest of the track, but if you overdo it, the rest of the track will sound awful.

  epsy said:

you've got it completely backwards. it makes the loud parts louder and the quiet parts more quiet.

WAT??

I mostly use compression as just a way of creating weird effects, I like the way you can add lots of reverb to a heavily compressed channel and it sounds like the reverb sort of "spills" of the sound and evaporates.

In a submarine.

  Velazquez said:

In a submarine.

I will not record in the rain.

I will not record on a train.

Not in the dark! Not in a tree!

Not in a car! You let me be!

I do not record in a box.

I do not record with a fox.

I will not record in a house.

I do not record with a mouse.

I do not record here or there.

I do not record ANYWHERE!