Compression, please help!

  • Thread starter Thread starter scottfisher
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scottfisher

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I made all acoustic music. Vocals, guitar, some piano. The guitar in the sample Im going to give you is a little more fierce than what Id usually do.

The vocals may be a little less fierce also.

What things should I compress, and if so, what should the settings be? Im new to all of this. Alsooo, what else besides compression is needed?

Example
 
Before you compress, adjust the EQ and the volume of each track where you want it. Compression's not like salt at a restaurant: you don't need to pour it on everything to kill the taste.
 
Yeah, I know. Im at the point where everythings EQd and at the right volume. Ive also added a small reverb. I just need to know if I should be compressing and how.
 
Asking to compress or not is not easy to answer.

Some people compress for the tone it brings some compress to reduce dynamic range and others compress out of laziness.

Concentrate on recording your tracks beautifully.

Then do as much volume riding as you need to before you apply the compression.

Compression is also used to bring the desired instruments more upfront than others also.

Its also used at the tracking stage to get a stronger signal (utilising bits)

You can also use an instrument to trigger a compressor with whats known as sidechain compression.

Best bet is to play around with them as much as you can and find out for your self what they bring to the table.

But dont be fooled by any process. they all ruin the audio's integrity.

Its up to you to decide if its for the benefit of the song or not.
 
I used compression most on vox to even out the dynamic range. Apply subtle compression say 2:1 and play around with attack and release.

How do you know if you need one? Well.... load the wave to wave editor, if the wave is uneven *dynamic range* then you need one.
 
staring said:
How do you know if you need one? Well.... load the wave to wave editor, if the wave is uneven *dynamic range* then you need one.
Click to expand...
That's not true.

Dynamic range is often needed in specific genre's of music. Folk music, Adult contemporary, love balads... etc..

Use of compression isn't a standard rule. It should only be used when and where it's needed to improve the overall quality of a musical composition. That includes vocals.
 
Thanks for the info.. it's great to learn something from expert.

I'm using compression most of the time... maybe the genre that I worked on were rock, alternative, and pop.

Scottfisher, just listened to the *example* song. It's nice song. I like the song. Did you apply compression? it seems it does.
 
This is someone elses song, who did apply compression. I gave the example to show the stlye of music i do.
 
i use the dynamic process to even out the levels of the vocals and then more into the EQ and than maybe add a reverb and after that pan/expand
 
scottfisher said:
This is someone elses song, who did apply compression. I gave the example to show the stlye of music i do.
Click to expand...

Ok... well you definitely need a compression for this type of song...
 
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