No Compression?

B

BALKI

New member
I've been recording lately. Alot of it has been (stereo mix) & it has been coming out great! I mean it just sounds perfect everytime I record it's just where I have my mic presence & emotion wise where i want it to be. I've messed up COUPLE of my songs i did trying to add compression to em when they didn't even need them.
 
BALKI said:
I've been recording lately. Alot of it has been (stereo mix) & it has been coming out great! I mean it just sounds perfect everytime I record it's just where I have my mic presence & emotion wise where i want it to be. I've messed up COUPLE of my songs i did trying to add compression to em when they didn't even need them.
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Um....what's the question?
 
Is it supposed to be some breaking news that material that don't compression shouldn't be compressed? Wow.. never thought of that.
 
Stefan Elmblad said:
Is it supposed to be some breaking news that material that don't compression shouldn't be compressed? Wow.. never thought of that.
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I add compression whether it needs it or not "compression is majical" you know

anyway what is the question indeed, if it sounds good flat & uncompressed...........just leave it be
 
I don't think there was a question. I think it was someone celebrating a cathartic moment of enlightenment.

Welcome to the pro playbook, Balki! :)

G.
 
Ah! So it was a EURIKA! (how the hell do you spell that anyway?)
 
Limit the scope of the answers you do when framing posts as a question, hmmm? The Jedi audio forum warrior has no need of questions. These are not the droids you seek.
 
Robert D said:
Limit the scope of the answers you do when framing posts as a question, hmmm? The Jedi audio forum warrior has no need of questions. These are not the droids you seek.
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may the gaffa tape go with you
 
Well, maybe this original post didn't have a question, but I've got a similar question to what this post sounded like it was going to answer.

So, upon analysing some CDs of the same genre, mostly hard rock/metal, I've noticed that while most or a lot of then seem to pull up a wave form that is quite squashed and almost maxed out, there are others that are quite the opposite...very much dynamic and huge differences in wave forms. And I'm talking Sony artists...both of the different CDs sound great, but how is it that 2 different mastering engineers would take such a completely different approach, and is it better to just do it so that compression is not needed in the first place?
 
rgraves said:
how is it that 2 different mastering engineers would take such a completely different approach, and is it better to just do it so that compression is not needed in the first place?
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Ok, those are two different questions...

First, my bet is that while it may have been the MEs who actually performed the tasks, the decision on how to maser each of those discs probably came from whoever their producer was, especially on the squashed one. The ME is doing what the 'client' requested.

As far as the second part of that question, when you ask about compression being needed or not, that can be answered a couple of different ways. First, there are two general rules which most experienced engineers (though not all) agree with; one that says you want to try and "front load" the engineering process as much as possible. What this means is to try and get the tracking as good as possible to keep the amount of processing required in mixing to only a required minimum, and then to get the mix quality as good as possible to keep the amount of processing required during mastering to a minimum. The other one says that - very generally speaking, and only if the engineer knows which end of a patch cable is up - the shorter one's signal chain, the better the resulting recording. (That last one is highly debated these days, but still has a valid kernal of truth within it.)

Second is the question of just how much mastering compression or limiting - with the purpose of increasing the average overall volume of a mix - is necessary. That brings up the whole "volume wars" debate where one side says ya gotta be loud to compete and the quality of sound is secondary to the consumer, and the other side (the one I'm on, BTW) that says the loudness of a final mix should be determined by the content of the song itself, not some arbitrary target number, and that if the music is worth recording and playing, people will listen to it and even seek it out regardless of it's overall volume, and that the current compression fad will disappear beofre you know it like every other extreme fashon in audio recording does sooner or later.

On that volume issue, make up your own mind. But evidence this thread's origins in a convert who has discovered just how good a lack of compression can sound.

G.
 
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