compression starting spots

  • Thread starter Thread starter nate_dennis
  • Start date Start date
Daniel | Davis said:
So I read all of the stuff posted here. Great advice, thank you guys so much for dealing with naive people such as myself. I just also wish I was really better at visualizing waveforms. I can't tell see virtually any difference in the two shown here except that one's green and ones red, haha: http://www.killthepixelnow.com/solo_project/lesson01_basscomp.png
Click to expand...
Solo instrument tracks, and zoom.
Compare (and consider) the sharp rise and shape of a snare hit vs the peak of a vocal for example (at a given zoom level so the 'time span is apples to apples.
Bass guitar for example can be a bugger- fast enough to smooth at the note' level can also be fast enough to kill the attack edge.
:)
 
mixsit said:
Hmm. To accentuate attack, I think 'open the attack to let the transient through, then clamp down.
But then 'punch can mean different things at times. :)
Click to expand...

Yea, I need to be more careful next time..:o
 
The best spot to start is just experimenting and really hearing how certain attack/release combos affect the sound at a really low threshold at extreme ratios. You'll know what to hear by being exposed to exageration. Then try and make it so you JUST BARELY notice the effect. You'll probably start to use higher thresholds and much lower ratios on certain things and end up making more transparent mixes with more perceived space.
 
Daniel | Davis said:
So I read all of the stuff posted here. Great advice, thank you guys so much for dealing with naive people such as myself. I just also wish I was really better at visualizing waveforms. I can't tell see virtually any difference in the two shown here except that one's green and ones red, haha: http://www.killthepixelnow.com/solo_project/lesson01_basscomp.png
Click to expand...
It would be nice if your software had the option to display an extra pair of horizontal grid lines per track at either -6 or -12 dBFS on the display; this makes it easier to see/compare relative differences in waveform height and shape. You might want to check and see if your 'ware has that display option.

But there is a definite difference between the two tracks. Note the sharp transients (thin vertical lines) on the green track versus the fatter peaks with obvious decay slopes on the red track. Without being able to hear the tracks, it's purely a guess, but either the green track has been compressed with a slow attack letting the transients punch up, or the red one has been compressed and made up gain applied, with a fast attack and slow release causing the fatter, more gentile slopes on the peaks.

G.
 
You have to take into acount the instrument that you are compressing and the effect you want out of it.

ex
If you want a puchy kick, Late attack, medium release. this will compress the sustain so its more of an attack

When setting threshholds, you want to make sure that the meter is showing around say 3-6db of gain reduction, and you want to make sure the signal is always heading back to 0db (unity gain) if its not, either ajust the release to be faster or ajust the threshold.

Now that thats set

the ratio is what you should use to determine the amount of compression for the most part.

just remember ratio's 10:1 and higher are considered limiting. It may be what you want for some tracks though.

Release time should be used carefully to make sure that the signal always returns to zero in time to compress the next transient note, other wise you are compressing an already compressed signal, which is not what you want.

ex
If you want huge room drum sounds, Compress the room mics, around a 3-7:1 ratio( just a sugestion) with an instant attack time.
The release time is up to you, the longer the release, the more "reverby" but just make sure the meter reaches back to 0 in enough time.

Take into account the instuments attack and release when adjusting the attack and release times.

A bass guitar has a slowwer attack and release time than a snare drum. And of coarse this all depends on the manner it is played too. A staccato bass part played with a pick and muted has different characteristincs than a bass parth that is mostly whole notes and played with fingers.

And generally, not always of coarse,
Faster attack time to compress the dynamic range, slower attack time to make it more punchy.

Oh, as for the output/make up gain. Generally, you want the proccessed signal to be about the same level that it was before it was processed. You can tweak it though

Hope this helps
 
Thanks for all the responses. I think the confusion that I had and for some reason did not think to express is this . . . .

I read "Guerilla Home Recording" based on a lot reccomendations. Carl Koyat (the author) advocates compressing on the way in and printing it. So i guess I'm trying to figure out if I should try that and if so where to start. I'm a huge fan of dynamics so the more I consider it, the more I'm thinking I don't even want to use it most of the time. But I thought i'd see. Thanks guys.
 
IMO, there is no reason you would ever want to "print" the compression onto the track when you are this new to the concept of compression. 2 reasons... First, you'll continuously listen back to the printed track and realize how you could have done it better, albeit too late. Second, you'll likely forget how the compressor's settings were dialed on the way in, thus you're learning nothing from even using the compressor. Here's a good way to learn compression. Record a song or a bit of a song. Decide which track you want to compress. copy the track 2 or 3 times. Apply different compression settings to each track, then cycle through them one at a time. Then you can go.. hmmn... 2 was punchy, 3 was thin, 4 sounds great. I'll keep 4. Then you can open it up and go 4 sounded better in XXXXXX ways, it must be because control XXXX on the compressor was set the way it was. CLICK!
 
Yeah, the more I think about it, the less I like the idea of printing it. I understand his point and why he does it that way, but . . . . not for me. So, we'll play with it. Thanks for all the advice.
 
Starting point...

Sometimes to help me figure out the ideal attack/release settings for a given track, I set the threshold as low and ratio as high as the compressor will allow. Because this exaggerates what the compressor does at these extreme settings, it makes it easy to hear how much attack you want to have, for example when compressing drums, sometims you want to completely squash the transients and other times you want to let some or all of them to go through, so you will adjust the attack time accordingly. Then I'll work with release, again listening how much pumping there is. Once I am happy with the attack and release times, I will then adjust threshold and ratio, sometimes going back and forth between these controls to fine tune.

Basically using high ratios and low thresholds allows me to hear the compressor in a more pronounced way, which helps me with attack/release settings.
 
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