Parallel compression A/B level matching

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PFC9

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I'm trying to get an efficient routing to level match/sound comparing between my drums bus and my drums+parallel compressed drums.
The whole point is to quickly switch between the two "status" without being fooled by level increased since summing of dry/wet busses. Any idea? :)
 
Not sure I know of a way. I am more curious as to why you are wanting that?

I typically just send the drums 'kick/tom/snare' to a second group channel, squash the shit out of them, then pull the fader up to taste. It's always going to raise the level by combining them.

I also send my uncompressed drums and the compressed ones then to a third group "All Drums' which then also has the overheads and such sent to it.
 
My usual routing is: all drums in a "drums" bus, pre-fader sends of individual tracks to "parallel" bus (so I can have less or no cymbals, and little less of kick/toms compared to snare and room). "Drums" and "Parallel" goes together in a third bus "Drums Main" so I can have further process/control/automation. Everything works well, but my purpose is to A/B test the "drums" signal and drums+parallel matching levels (since, obviousely, summed bus sounds louder and then "better")...
 
I guess you could place a limiter on the third bus, but then you are altering the signal to get to the volume match.

Not sure I can think of a way man. Just gotta use your ears in that case. Other than exporting both separately and changing the gain on the mixed one to compare - or manually riding a controller fader when you add the parallel group.
 
Limiting the sum of original and paralled compression wouldn't be that useful reference wise. The goal is to quickly listen to dry signal and dry+parallel switching between them without having level mismatch. Ex: Dry signal around -18dbFS/Dry signal + Parallel around -18dBFS. Maybe a copy of Dry with a slight volume boost?
 
Reaper gives you a mix option on plug-ins so that you can easily use them in parallel mode (look for the little rotary control in the top right corner of the effects window). Reaper's own compressor also has wet and dry controls which allow you to easily do parallel compression and to set the level to match the uncompressed level. When you want to compare the effect you can simply bypass the effect with a single tick box - or bypass the whole effect chain with a single button. You can also monitor the difference that the effect is making by right clicking the mix control.
 
PFC9 said:
I'm trying to get an efficient routing to level match/sound comparing between my drums bus and my drums+parallel compressed drums.
The whole point is to quickly switch between the two "status" without being fooled by level increased since summing of dry/wet busses. Any idea? :)
Click to expand...
That's an odd request - just blend the drums and pick the volume you want by adjusting the faders - or in the Drums case put them on a Group and level the faders accordingly - Parallel compression is an add in not the total sound.
 
I managed it: I've got 4 busses.

01_Drums (full drumkit), 02_Parallel (where I address send from shells in different values, pre fader).
Both routed to 03_Drums Main, so I can automate/compress again/eq, etc.

4th one is a copy of Drums, (04_Reference) level matched with Drums Main, used only for reference.

This way, I can evaluate the real benefits of parallel compression without being fooled by volume increased.
Hope this cand be useful to some other user.
 
Awesome! Glad you got it to work for you.

I bet once you understand what it is you are getting from parallel compression, you wont need to do that again. 8-)
 
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