working with fundamentals and rogue notes

[dobro]

Multiband compression question.

I've started experimenting with frequency analysis and multiband compression as a way to tame just the loudest frequencies of a track, rather than compressing the whole track.

Sometimes that 'loudest frequency' is a fundamental or overtone, and sometimes it's just a kind of rogue frequency that doesn't have so much to do with the fundamental. Taming those rogue frequencies makes sense to me, as long as the result sounds good.

Okay, here's my question, and I'm afraid it isn't very clear, because I'm confused. Given that you have to listen to things to make the final decision, how often do you apply selective compression to loud frequencies (bass and kick, for example), and how often do you leave them alone, because they carry so much of the energy of the instrument? I'm talking especially about fundamentals and overtones.

[littledog]

Seems like you answered your own question: "given that you have to listen ...to make the final decision."

I don't think any statistical analysis of how often various people compress various frequencies is 1% as useful as just trying what your instincts tell you and listening to the results. All those "other people" didn't have your particular raw tracks to work with.