Compression Question

L

lowlow42

New member
Hello, I have a question about compressing the "final mix". When I compress my song, it ends up looking like this...
***(Please See mywave.gif)

When studios compress songs, they look like/or similar to this...
***(Please See studiowave.gif)

The preset I use to get my songs to what they look/sound like, I use this (B.T.W., I use Audition a.k.a. Cool Edit)
***(Please See graph.gif)

How do I configure the Dynamic Processing settings, so that my songs will not only look, but sound like real studio's mixes (No clipping too, obviously)? How much has to do with the level of the vocals and the doubles and the instrumental, etc... during the mixing stage?

Anyhelp is greatly appreciated, please let me know. Thanks in advance...
 

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Put a limiter on it and crank it up if you want the wave.

Send it to get mastered (just the way you've got it now) if you want the sound (if it sounds good to begain with that is).
 
Put a limiter on it and crank it up if you want the wave.
Click to expand...
Makes sense...
Send it to get mastered (just the way you've got it now) if you want the sound (if it sound good to begain with that is).
Click to expand...
I'm trying to do the best I can at my house. But, the way pro studios do it, you get the sound and the waveform look. (I'm just trying to compare the 2 by the waveform, because I know if I get my waveform to look almost like the studio waveform, they will most likely sound the same. Right?)
 
lowlow42 said:
Makes sense...

I'm trying to do the best I can at my house. But, the way pro studios do it, you get the sound and the waveform look. (I'm just trying to compare the 2 by the waveform, because I know if I get my waveform to look almost like the studio waveform, they will most likely sound the same. Right?)
Click to expand...

Wrong.

Try it, and you'll hear what I'm talking about. Trying to emulate frequency curves from other recordings is another mistake some folks make, and will not make recordings sound the same. They may be a little closer in the ballpark, but there are too many variables to try to sculpture audio by visuals. Even if two tracks show the same RMS level, one may sound louder than the other.
 
Oh, ok I see...

Well I played with the "Hard Limiting" feature, and I think I may have stumbled upon my solution...

I got the nice rich mix, and the waveform looked similar to pro studio waveforms... and thats all I really wanted.

Please see picture, are those settings safe/fine?
 

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lowlow42 said:
Oh ok...

Thanks (everyone) for your advice!!! If "Hard Limiting" isn't what I should be doing, please let me know.
Click to expand...

Hard limiting is one of the elements, but not the complete story. Hard limiting is used for keeping stray transients down so that you can raise the overall level. Compression is used for adding "fullness" or density. It's the combination of the two that you want to use in most cases. I would also lower the maximum amplitude to -.5 db to help insure that it won't distort on some D/A converters.
 
Oh ok, I read somewhere the equalization and compression stages in mastering are the most important. So I will try to learn more about these in detail.
 
Read... Lots... Don't EVER judge a mix by "what it looks like" as opposed to what it sounds like.

Personally, the "studio" wave "looks" like it would sound like clipped sh*t.
 
Believe it or not, before 1990 almost no one knew what their song looked like. They had to concentrate on what it sounded like. Stop looking at your music and start listening to it.
 
Lol, Ok, I will... Perhaps I'll throw a clip/sample up, and let the "experienced ears" on this board be the judge of what I need to do.
 
Farview said:
Believe it or not, before 1990 almost no one knew what their song looked like. They had to concentrate on what it sounded like. Stop looking at your music and start listening to it.
Click to expand...
Of course they knew what the mixes looked like...

A long band of blackish plastic. :D
 
Massive Master said:
Of course they knew what the mixes looked like...

A long band of blackish plastic. :D
Click to expand...

There used to be something that you could spray on tapes to temporarily "see" the magnetic fields. I forget what this was called.
 
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