Multiband Compression

RedStone

Member
Multiband compression is often used to destroy mixes in the mastering stage by home studio people like you and me. Ratios are set too high, and attack is often set too short and make-up gain is overused.

Here's how to use a multiband compressor in the mastering stage. Get ready for complicated! not ...

1) insert the multiband
2) set three and only three reigons. Region 1 ends at 160hz, region two ends at someplace between 3.5khz and 4.5khz. you choose.
3) Set all thresholds the same. Start at -16dB
4) Set all ratios to 2:1
5) Set all attacks and releases to 100ms. This is a starting point. Depending on the music, you may need to slightly lengthen or shorten the attack. This one time I used 125ms.
6) press play.

What you should notice is that the mix doesn't change a ton. If it does, ease back on the threshold.

The purpose of using a multi-band in mastering is to transparently control dynamics, especially of the Bass below 160hz so that it hits the limiter just right, without distorting. Usually you won't even see the MB doing anything on bands except for the bass band.

To test the settings, put a limiter at the end of the chain. Set the output ceiling to -1.0dbFS and then start lowering the threshold (or raising the gain depending on the limiter) until you reach your desired level of loudness. If you need numers, look for no more than 1-2db of gain reduction. If it's constant, you went overboard probably.

Back to the multi-band, solo the first band and listen. Do you hear a weird click sound when the kick hits, almost like the speaker is broken? This is a sign the bass is hitting the limiter too hard, or it could be a sign that there is too much tube-like saturation in the bass frequencies. Solo the second band to hear the mids. If you hear some nasty fuzz like distortion, it's a sign the limiter is being hit too hard and needs to be backed off of.

There you have it.
 
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i really dont like all pre-cooked recipes... can't say this one is bad tho it might be really good.. It might help someone learn something so i'll just stick to that :)
 
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