BroKen_H
Re-member
Sometimes it helps to "duck" the signals. If you side chain compress the bass guitar from the kick signal, (1ms attack ~250 release 3-4:1 ratio set threshold to taste) the bass still sounds natural and the kick shines through better. Ducking the guitars from the vocal signal will do the same, but you'll want a slower attack and quicker drop off (3-10 or maybe more ms attack, 100-200, or even less release). These are settings I use WHERE NECESSARY. Nothing is guideline or set in stone...
There are leveling compressors, which bring the quiet notes up while leaving the hot hits alone. You need to use a regular compressor afterward (or before), because it basically just lets loud through and doesn't care about clipping or whatever. The one I use is called Sellig Leveler, but of course it's an RE, and I don't know if it's available in AAX or whatever.
One of the hardest lessens I've learned is to not over do things. It's fine to run a glue compressor at 1.1:1 into a leveler to bring up the bottoms, and then into a C1-L1 to pull the top down and still have a final compressor and limiter on the main bus, but getting them all to play "nice" takes a lot of patience and (at least for me) a bit of finesse. The first comment I used to get on ALL my mixes was "overcompressed". But yeah, I've learned to use volume instead of compressor and just put a glue compressor on the vocal bus or the drum bus or whatever just to keep the clipping out.
There are leveling compressors, which bring the quiet notes up while leaving the hot hits alone. You need to use a regular compressor afterward (or before), because it basically just lets loud through and doesn't care about clipping or whatever. The one I use is called Sellig Leveler, but of course it's an RE, and I don't know if it's available in AAX or whatever.
One of the hardest lessens I've learned is to not over do things. It's fine to run a glue compressor at 1.1:1 into a leveler to bring up the bottoms, and then into a C1-L1 to pull the top down and still have a final compressor and limiter on the main bus, but getting them all to play "nice" takes a lot of patience and (at least for me) a bit of finesse. The first comment I used to get on ALL my mixes was "overcompressed". But yeah, I've learned to use volume instead of compressor and just put a glue compressor on the vocal bus or the drum bus or whatever just to keep the clipping out.