My Name is Barrett and I'm a Compression Addict...

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Bguzaldo

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I am strong enough now to admit I have a problem! (step 1 to sobriety). Here's my dilemma, if any of you have heard any of my recordings I've posted around here its very easy to hear that I have a terrible problem with compressing the fuck out of drums mainly. I know this is bad and I'm aware that it sounds awful, its gets muddy and cluttered, but It just seems like when I don't the drums sound so weak and wimpy.

They just don't seem to cut through as well. When they are compressed they seem to be more full but the tonal quality and the dynamic suffer.

I've been doing a TON of research on Eqing and I'm starting to learn what makes which drums pop out of the mix better and that's helping but it's still not adding the punch and presence I'm looking for.

Please help me help myself!

Thanks,
-Barrett
 
Welcome Barrett!
My name is Guido, and I too have trouble controlling the "squeeze" on my mixes.
It started out just a little on vocals, just to help them "stand out" a little.
Then it spread to the drums. Then Bass.
And now I'm mainlining my 2 bus :eek:



My problem is; I don't WANT to stop!
 
Have you tried parallell compression?
It's becoming a pretty widely used technique amongst 'the pros'

Basically, duplicate the drum track and compress the crap out of it while keeping the original track dry. It really to gives you that extra 'oomph' (plus, you don't have to kick your addiction!)

You could also set up a bus with a compressor and send your dry track to it.
 
guido #2 said:
Welcome Barrett!
My name is Guido, and I too have trouble controlling the "squeeze" on my mixes.
It started out just a little on vocals, just to help them "stand out" a little.
Then it spread to the drums. Then Bass.
And now I'm mainlining my 2 bus :eek:



My problem is; I don't WANT to stop!
Click to expand...

Hahaha "if it sounds it IS good" applies I guess. But the squeeze factor doesn't compliment the styles of music I record unfortunately so i have to kick the addiction.

Thanks for the reply Guido!
-Barrett
 
d.bop said:
Have you tried parallell compression?
It's becoming a pretty widely used technique amongst 'the pros'

Basically, duplicate the drum track and compress the crap out of it while keeping the original track dry. It really to gives you that extra 'oomph' (plus, you don't have to kick your addiction!)

You could also set up a bus with a compressor and send your dry track to it.
Click to expand...

Very cool, this sounds like it could be a fitting solution. Do you know of any parallel compressor plugins? Or is there a way I could do it on my DAW? I run Cubase SE 3.

Thanks so much for the help
-Barrett
 
Just set up an aux with a compressor on it.

That all said -

True - A lot of people just reach for the compressor. Just don't do that and you're done. Bring up the mix - Automate volume on whatever you can (which you should do before even considering compression on anything) and then go back to basics... Compress things that have a dynamic range that's too wide for the mix.
 
I use compression to actually change the sound more than anything. That's how I shape my bass drum, and it fattens up my snare. I use it to smooth out rhythm guitars, etc.
 
Massive Master said:
Just set up an aux with a compressor on it.

That all said -

True - A lot of people just reach for the compressor. Just don't do that and you're done. Bring up the mix - Automate volume on whatever you can (which you should do before even considering compression on anything) and then go back to basics... Compress things that have a dynamic range that's too wide for the mix.
Click to expand...

Thanks a lot man, I guess I've just been compressing things for the wrong reason. Thanks for the advice!

-Barrett
 
Seafroggys said:
I use compression to actually change the sound more than anything. That's how I shape my bass drum, and it fattens up my snare. I use it to smooth out rhythm guitars, etc.
Click to expand...

Yeah I think that's how I started out and then things got out of hand :confused:
 
So I got the basics of parallel compression down. I assigned the drums to a wet buss where I applied the compression. The only problem is when I turn the wet track up enough so it has an audible effect, I get a pretty bad case of phase cancellation. I would normally tend to this by doing the phase reverse processing on a track but I can't process a buss.

What now?!
 
send the drums to another buss..... so you have your compression buss, reverb buss, and dry buss. Your aux's probably have a certain amount of latency, so you need to give the dry/not overly compressed drums the same amount by adding the dry buss.
 
Hi,

Instead of compressing the whole kit as one, try this.

Compress the overheads, using a stereo compressor keeping the left and right separate.

Compress the snare, mono compressor only the top mic in a snare bottom has been used.

Compress the kick, mono compressor.

All compression post eq.

You will find that the compressed overheads need to be experimented with as this changes the sound drastically. It all depends on the desired drum sound and the type of music.

If you then want to you can add a drum buss compressor but you will find it does not have to work so hard and just a bit of mild compression will be enough.

Cheers

Alan.
 
witzendoz said:
Hi,

Instead of compressing the whole kit as one, try this.

Compress the overheads, using a stereo compressor keeping the left and right separate.

Compress the snare, mono compressor only the top mic in a snare bottom has been used.

Compress the kick, mono compressor.

All compression post eq.

You will find that the compressed overheads need to be experimented with as this changes the sound drastically. It all depends on the desired drum sound and the type of music.

If you then want to you can add a drum buss compressor but you will find it does not have to work so hard and just a bit of mild compression will be enough.

Cheers

Alan.
Click to expand...


You know it never occured to me how ridiculous it was having the snare and bass go thru a stereo compressor! Wow, thank a bunch for pointing that out to me, I'm sure that's a big part of why my drums sound so messy. The snare and kick are being stretched!

Thanks
-Barrett
 
Can someone tell me if I am using a buss?
For example I do click on the effect or vst to get my compressor working from the midi track (clicked from the main audio-desk window) of the kick in cubase. Is that a buss?
:o
It takes a lot of CPU. That's why I wonder if I am doing it right - sometimes my cpu gets overloaded and freezes. It's not a bad pc either.
 
nzausrec said:
Can someone tell me if I am using a buss?
For example I do click on the effect or vst to get my compressor working from the midi track (clicked from the main audio-desk window) of the kick in cubase. Is that a buss?
:o
It takes a lot of CPU. That's why I wonder if I am doing it right - sometimes my cpu gets overloaded and freezes. It's not a bad pc either.
Click to expand...

If you open up the edit window on the right side there should be a bunch of empty boxed(kind of like lines), you can click there and select a buss which is basically like an output channel. Open up the mixer and all the way to the right are your output busses.

hope that helps
-Barrett
 
Looking back, my problem used to be that I used very short attack/release settings when compressing drums. While it did help to make the drums sound fuller, it also made them sit further back and lose punch.

Now, I find myself using slower attack/release settings which while helping the drums gel together well, doesn't mess with the attack transients.

Although, there are times where I'll bounce the drum stem and copy it to 3-4 tracks, compress (or not) each differently, then send the whole mess to a group/buss and compress there.

It really depends on what I'm trying to do and try to analyse the sound as I move forward.

The most important thing is not to be afraid to scrap it all and start all over. Oftentimes I'll have a copy of the drum mix on a muted track that is not effected and A/B the effected and clean versions to judge whether I'm making things better or just louder/yet messy.
 
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