Bob's Mods
New member
Having fussed around with home recording for some years now, I have begun to realize I fell into the "compression" trap. Compress a track here, mastering compression there, multiband (thinking of which just gives me a headache), vintage, analog, etc. It seems when I get rid of all but a small amount of compression on the bass track only, the mix sounds best to my ears. I have tried a number of different software compressors using every imaginable combination of insertions and settings possible and it just don't seem to be happening. If you need to compress a track to give it punch then maybe it wasn't recorded right in the first place. If you compress a track to bring it out, then its not quite right with the other tracks in the mix any longer. It doesn't really fit right anymore.
Weapons of Mass Desctruction posted some of their stuff recently and their recordings sounded really good and they used no compression to speak of. For some kids in a basement, they did a great job of demonstrating just how good digital recording can be just by capturing some real room verb and using mic placement for eq.
As I strip out the track and/or main bus compressors on some of the stuff I've done my ears say yeh, thats natural. As I have modded my gear, those mods improve the dynamics, the transients jump! When i use the compressor, it works to soften the dynamics I've worked so hard to bring out. The natural sound of dynamics seem to sound best in my mixes.
There has been the on going newsgroup chatter about how hardware compressors may have an edge over software compressors. And of the hardware compressors, only those in the $1k and up range separate the men from the boys. Well I don't want to buy a $1k hardware compressor. Someone posted a mix where they used the UAD-1 compressors and I thought, "Great song but you sqwashed it too much". When I can hear the compression, then I know its too much.
My current software compressor is the Kjaerhus Audio Golden Compressor. Its very flexible and supposedly analog modeled but I'm still not hearing the magic that is supposed to be compression. I do understand compressors and know how to use one properly but that magic is just not there. My ears tell me a different story and that is that my mixes sound best with no compression (a token amount on bass only). The full dynamics sound real, almost like the listener is there in the room. I'm really beginning to think that although compression has been employed in a professional environment for years, it seems in a home studio digital world, it may be a little over done. Trying to sound pro at home using some software does not work as well as just sounding as natural as possible without it. When you apply compression you are changing the natural way that waveform was recorded, its a kind of distortion of the waveform.
I think the tracks I record sound great without it. Thats not to say some high end compressor couldn't tweak it better, they sound fine without it now though. The only touches I do require is a touch of EQ and a touch of digital reverb/echo for more space and thats it.
Turn up the volume on your monitoring and listen to your stuff with compression then turn off the compression and remix and listen again. The natural dynamics are really cool to hear! I can actually hear the sense of "room" and "live" that compression seems to reduce.
I'm beginning to believe that the benefits of compression, at least for a home studio, is over hyped and way too easy to go overboard with. Less is more I think. None seems to work just fine too.
Fools gold? Snake oil? or the goose that laid the golden egg? And what are your tales from the compression crypt fellow reader?
Bob
Weapons of Mass Desctruction posted some of their stuff recently and their recordings sounded really good and they used no compression to speak of. For some kids in a basement, they did a great job of demonstrating just how good digital recording can be just by capturing some real room verb and using mic placement for eq.
As I strip out the track and/or main bus compressors on some of the stuff I've done my ears say yeh, thats natural. As I have modded my gear, those mods improve the dynamics, the transients jump! When i use the compressor, it works to soften the dynamics I've worked so hard to bring out. The natural sound of dynamics seem to sound best in my mixes.
There has been the on going newsgroup chatter about how hardware compressors may have an edge over software compressors. And of the hardware compressors, only those in the $1k and up range separate the men from the boys. Well I don't want to buy a $1k hardware compressor. Someone posted a mix where they used the UAD-1 compressors and I thought, "Great song but you sqwashed it too much". When I can hear the compression, then I know its too much.
My current software compressor is the Kjaerhus Audio Golden Compressor. Its very flexible and supposedly analog modeled but I'm still not hearing the magic that is supposed to be compression. I do understand compressors and know how to use one properly but that magic is just not there. My ears tell me a different story and that is that my mixes sound best with no compression (a token amount on bass only). The full dynamics sound real, almost like the listener is there in the room. I'm really beginning to think that although compression has been employed in a professional environment for years, it seems in a home studio digital world, it may be a little over done. Trying to sound pro at home using some software does not work as well as just sounding as natural as possible without it. When you apply compression you are changing the natural way that waveform was recorded, its a kind of distortion of the waveform.
I think the tracks I record sound great without it. Thats not to say some high end compressor couldn't tweak it better, they sound fine without it now though. The only touches I do require is a touch of EQ and a touch of digital reverb/echo for more space and thats it.
Turn up the volume on your monitoring and listen to your stuff with compression then turn off the compression and remix and listen again. The natural dynamics are really cool to hear! I can actually hear the sense of "room" and "live" that compression seems to reduce.
I'm beginning to believe that the benefits of compression, at least for a home studio, is over hyped and way too easy to go overboard with. Less is more I think. None seems to work just fine too.
Fools gold? Snake oil? or the goose that laid the golden egg? And what are your tales from the compression crypt fellow reader?
Bob
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