80's=reverb, 90's=compression, 00's=??

  • Thread starter Thread starter db51
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Eh...:rolleyes:

sjoko: correct me (again) if I'm wrong, but:
What do you do to make sth. loud without applying the 'Oasis-factor' of squashing? You limit it, right? That's what I meant. The Folks seem to want to get high volume levels without the artefacts, that compression brings along.

David.
 
No need for compression to produce artifacts, depending on what compressors you are using, and how you apply your parameters.

Limiting does what the name implies, it limits the signal from going over its accepteable level.

Lets use an example without going into technical crap.
Say you have a mix with an acoustic guitar and a vocal. The volume (or dynamic) ranges from soft to loud, and in the loud part the guitar is in danger of going over the peak.

- You want to keep the dynamics of the performance, keep the big difference between the soft and loud parts, and you'd like to keep the guitar volume at the level it already is.
Apply some limiting, so when the song reaches the part where the guitar clips out, the limiter kicks in - problem fixed.

- Now you apply compression. What happens? The overall dynamics change. The lowest volume parts of the song get louder, your dynamics are reduced. Compress more, and your meters will live against the 0dB region all the time.

Does that explain it?
 
To me its the "Heavy" use of computer editing.Pitch correction, time slideing,excesive sound replaceing.It gives the feel of a
quantized human.And to think that everyone used to hate drum machines.

Don
 
Although the autotune is certainly rearing its ugly head, I don't think we are quite yet done with over-compression...

The other night I was trapped in the car with Creed on the radio.. If there is ever a class on how to produce piss-poor mixes, Creed should be source material: Complete and total absence of kick, phoned-in vocals, guitars recorded through cans connected by waxed string, and compression so abused that an entirely new creation of mid range frequency was created: CreedkHz

..and for the most part, every rock tune since has used this very formula.

Cy
 
Listen to the "Linkin Park" album if you want to hear Autotune at its worst.
Click to expand...

Another classic example of Autotune gone horribly wrong is Kid Rock's "Only God Knows Why."

The guy's a rapper - nobody's expecting that he can sing on-key. Why even attempt to make it sound like he can, if it's going to come out so digital and crappy-sounding?
 
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