Compression confession, help me?

[Signa1]

Can anyone give me a little advice on tweaking frequency compressors.

I’ve only used the original type, compress everything within’ the signal, now in these times with the power of being able
to compress only certain dimensions of a signal, I feel music is going to get even more colorful. It will destroy the
concept of mixing flat.

Thank you,
Signal...

[Larry Sheehan]

I assume you're tlking about multiband compressors like come in the mastering processors? There's an article by dragon linked off the main page dealing with mastering which helped me a bit.

Treat them as a standard compressor with a narrow bandwidth. I've seen some which have adjustable crossover points, an analyzer will help determine where the natural bands lie, and where you might want the corssover points set.

Then for me, it's by ear. If the bottom is overpowering, I'll squish it a bit, if the mids sound too dynamic, I'll even things up by squiishing and makeup gain. And so on. I still don't have a ton of experience, and my natural insticts aren't developed yet. Bottom line for me is to try to leave some dynamics in and just smoothe things out a bit to get the overall level up.

[This message has been edited by Larry Sheehan (edited 11-30-1999).]