Finally used DensitymkIII on my master buss

I don't recall The Denity MKIII having good limiting ability. A good bus compressor, but not a limiter from what I remember. It has been a while tho.
 
I tried the Density compressor using the technique in the video, followed by the Kjaerhus limiter on a stereo rendered track, sounded pretty good. Found that by dialing back (up) the limiter, it never started squashing the track, but still did a good job of boosting the volume up to about 0.7dB.
 
mjbphotos said:
Can someone provide a snapshot/screenprint of their Density GUI so I can get an idea of the settings to start with?
Click to expand...
No snapshot nor video needed. Insert Density into the master buss, select the "glueing" preset (or "mix glue", I can't remember exactly), crank the gain until the first yellow gain-reduction led starts to blink in response to the louder sections of the track, adjust the makeup gain to compensate for the difference in volume (try to match the processed volume with the bypassed volume) and prepare for awesomeness.

Density is not a brickwall limiter, you'll still need one afterwards (to bring the track up to 0db and maybe chop off an adittional 2 or 3dB). I use L2 for that.



DISCLAIMER: all the above is written in a pop/rock context. If you are mixing classical acoustic guitars or something like that, forget about it.
 
There's a manual that usually downloads with the gui . It is pretty in depth , but simple instructions are in there. "All programs, Documents, Downloads". Open manual.... Just started using it . Works Great on 2 track Master for overall volume without squashing the life out your song with overcompression .. MS..
 
mark skinner said:
There's a manual that usually downloads with the gui . It is pretty in depth , but simple instructions are in there. "All programs, Documents, Downloads". Open manual.... Just started using it . Works Great on 2 track Master for overall volume without squashing the life out your song with overcompression .. MS..
Click to expand...

Not with Density, unfortunately.

But the examples on the video were celar, same as mam's words above given too late. I've been using this followed by the Kjarhaus Master Limiter and been pretty happy with the results. When I keep the peaks to 0.3dB, the files transferred to SOUndcloud no longer are suffering from the SC look-ahead squashing compression.
 
Are we talking about 'on the master buss' here (i.e. the DAW's stereo output at mixdown) or during the mastering process (not the same thing - quite an important distinction).

I've used it for mastering before - I found that even with the 'colour' dial at minimum it had a little too much colour (or not as nice a colour for mastering) as some other compressors I have. That said, it's an excellent buss compressor for drums, guitars, vocals, just about anything :) The having a controllable stereo link rather than on/off is a nice touch, but the attack/release settings are a little too limited for me to seriously use it mastering.
I'd consider some more contollable saturation (bootysy's Ferric TDS isnt bad) followed by a different compressor instead in most mastering situations...
 
I've been happy with how Density worked until a recent mix I was working on. This one has a sparce verse - single acoustic guitar and vocal, that then builds up rapidly to full band with drums, multiple harmonies and VST synths and Density was pumping everything too much at that point. The other mixes I tried it on had less dynamic variation.
 
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