I have a heavily strummed guitar which I like but I want to even the volume without attacking the peaks too much and I want to preserve the natural sound.
With compression I have tried a fast attack and medium release, threshold just barely touching it but it's not doing the job. I've also tried a slow attack and faster release but it sounds too processed.
Any tips please?
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So, I re-read your initial post, and have to say it's a little confusing. When you say "volume" it can mean different things, though I think most of us think of that as the average (RMS) level, even that can be measured in different ways. And, the average is always affected by the peaks, so changing the average without doing much to the peaks is going to be a challenge.
Hi Keith,
The original track is not compressed at all.
You are correct about the eq on the first bit - I decided it needed to be more dynamic at the beginning so replayed it and I probably moved off the mic slightly.
I can hardly hear the compression you did but it sounds good. I may try one of the levelling comps.
Ok, it's not compressed, but it doesn't have a lot of dynamic range overall, TBH. What it does have (first attachment) is a fair amount of variance in where the dynamics are, and you can see there's some at the beginning and a little more toward the end. So, now the question is whether this is what you wanted, or whether it's a problem with the performance. If it's the latter, then you can do as others have suggested, and that's to use some automation, or what I'd probably try is "clip gain" on the separate parts and compression applied only on the ends, perhaps to even out dynamics. However, that conflicts with your wanting to preserve peaks.
So, really, this is one of those places where compression might be an answer for some part of the track, but if you're trying to even out a performance that is not done right or recorded right from the start, it's not the best place to spend time. I'd just re-record it. *Then* you might want to use EQ and compression to make it sit in the mix. Starting with a track (like this, i.e., a rhythm, acoustic guitar) that needs something to make it sound the way you want it to,
outside of the mix, is something I do when I'm mixing a live recording and there's no other recourse.
Original MP3
SSL (plugin modeled) compressed MP3