Practicing compression

L

Lomas

New member
I've been trying to get some knowledge of compression and I'm running in to problems. I've been using a plugin that lets me see what is done to the file as I change the settings. So I'm falling into the trap of trusting my eyes more than my ears (I don't trust them at all yet anyway).

I'm trying to think of ways to practice this in a way that it becomes easier to spot when I'm making the track better.

If I record my electric guitar and try to play it badly (inconsistently?) and then practice compression on it, would this help me or would it make me even more confused than I am now?

Just looking for more experienced peoples opinion on this. Since when I have a track that I record well (as well as I can play it that is) I can't really decide if it's improving or becoming worse from my attempts at compression.
 
It might be easier to hear the effects of compression at first by using a mic'd accoustic rather than an electric. Depends how you're playing I guess but there is a lot of dynamic range with an accoustic so you can notice much greater differences quickly than if you're using an electric. In my opinion at least. What are you using that shows changes to the file? Does it process the whole file at once before you play it or does it do it in real-time?
 
i see compression as serving two purposes:
1. Using the compressor to improve the tone of the recording while controilling dynamics (usually hardware compressors that cost $$)
2. Controlling dynamics to fit better in a mix.

#1 is probably out of bounds here.

So for your practice, i would say you would want to identify why you want to compress a track and then practice specifically for that. Here are a couple ideas:

A) Record a few tracks that are supposed to be together, get your gain staging so that the average peak it at -12 or so on two, and -18 or so (I am just giving general estimaions on these levels) on the other. try tweaking yor compressor to bring the quieter track up to a reasonable level.

B) reverse the situation with one track that is louder than the otehrs, compress to bring it down, and then try to bring the others up. keep in mind that you want the final average level to be low enough that you still have headroom towork with when mixing. Avoid using compressioon to just make your tracks sound louder and kill your headroom, turn up the monitors instead.


As for ears, one thing you can do to get a feel for what your compressor is doing is to take a track and compress the hell out of it. Turn the make up gain up, set a high ratio and put the threshold low enough where it is doing a lot of work. You will hear the track sounds like crap, with all sorts of "bending" of notes for lack of a better word. Ease off on the settings (threshold and ratio and gain) until it starts to sound less noticable. Then take the compression off and A/B the track with/without the compressor on it. Stick it back in the mix and see how it sits, etc.

Getting used to compression can be tough, because many stock compression plug ins don't sound that great and, i for one, tended to under compress, so i couldn't tell whether it was better, just differnent or what. I don't recomend that you overcompress then ease off as a general rule of thumb, but by seeing what really happens to the signal you will recognize the effect, then you can be more effective with some simple compression.

Daav
 
To be able to hear the compressor working I'd definitely start with a very clean guitar tone.

What compressor are you using?

Waveforms can be deceiving.
 
On acoustic, compression can be pretty obvious even if used sparingly. So practicing on a good acoustic recording/clean electric recording might help.

It also helps sometimes to listen to it while at the part in the song that has the most dynamic range, or from where the song goes from pretty quiet to real loud.
 
Thanks for the replies!

What I've used so far is something called gcomp, just because I can see what it does to the file. Yes it is in real time.

I also have blockfish 'casue I heard it was supposed to be ok, but I'm starting with this gcomp until I get a better overview of what each knob does to the sound.

I feel like I have read a lot about compressing and I think I know everything I need to know theoretically to at least get started. But it's a totally different situation sitting there with a track, trying to decide if what I've just done to it is actually improving it or making it worse.

I'm mostly doing it on an electric DI 'cause I'm in a terrible room and I haven't figured out how to record the acoustic decently. I know, I should learn that before anything else, and I'm on it. It's just that sometimes I need to focus on something else, so compression seems like the next step.

Oh, and I'm gonna get that book for sure, but not right now. I just ordered the recording engineer's handbook though so I'll have to wait a little longer.
 
Do a search in mastering. Southside Glen has a link to a download tutorial/lecture thingo that is very good.
 
Lomas said:
Thanks for the replies!



Oh, and I'm gonna get that book for sure, but not right now. I just ordered the recording engineer's handbook though so I'll have to wait a little longer.
Click to expand...


Cool, you'll thank me. It has a very practical section on dynamic processing that is put in a very understandable way. It's a very good follow up to the mixing engineers handbook.

I have the compression artical by southside Glen that Ray speeks of comressed as a win.rar if you want me to email it to you. I think it's called "compression uncompressed"

Let me know.

Good luck.

F.S.
 
I'll thank you already in advance :) Thanks! I recieved the engineer's handbook today and it looks really useful.

I think I found that compression thing in his signature, if we're talking about the same one. I downloaded it at home but haven't had time to look at it yet. At work now.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top