Compression....what a bummer

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Chess, I am in agreement with you on that one. Those movie sound tracks can suck without compression. Keep your remote in hand for sure. Either the dialog is too soft or the explosions knock you out of your seat. That is an extreme example. My earlier point is modern close mic'd music is less dependant on compression than we believe. The dynamic range does not go from a whisper to an explosion (mostly). It exists in narrower range than that.

TravinFlor, so much stuff today is very over processed for sure. The music of the 50s, 60s,& 70s was done with a minimal amount of processing. They used quality rooms, pres, mics and placement to the fullest. There was no multiband compression at that time and the stuff still sounded good. A small amount of compression on the main bus works only on the deepest part of bass peak continuousely anyway. The rest of the spectrum, drum smacks, a power chord, a vocal peak may breach the compressor threshold from time to time and so becomes a peak controller in that part of the spectrum. When you push the threshold down into the body of the mix, you are changing the dynamics from the way they were originally recorded, this is really a distortion of the original waveform. Your brain kinda knows it in a funny way.

Jimstone, limiting is a good tool for intersepting a single peak or two where the ear won't hear the change. It is somewhat similar to compression but limiting does not shape the peak, limiting stops it from going any higher. You can bring up your mix but you won't have the control over the bass range that compression allows you to have.


I have looked a number of MP3s I've downloaded and many are pushing the mix to the rails, the upper and lower peaks are nearly flat! I've even seen this on pro recordings. This was a big no-no in the old days. It causes distortion and ear fatigue. Even though the tools of limiting and compression have a very wide range, its really a low level use of them thats req'd to control obnoxious peaks. If you want color then get a Urei 1176.

Bob
 
chessrock said:
My personal bitch is that there isn't nearly enough compression or leveling on most television or movies. This kinda' stuff is story driven, so the most important thing is legibility of dialog at all times. I mean, yea, cool ... loud explosion ... neat. Thanks for waking up the rest of the house. Where's the remote, I need to hear what they're saying. Woops -- another loud explosion.
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It's not a matter of compression necessarily, it's that the sound fx and foley often get mixed too hot. It gets really frustrating when you've worked really hard on the music and then you watch the film later and the score is buried under sounds like a car driving down the street or the wind or any number of other sounds. Even directors have a hard time sometimes getting the music, dialogue, and fx balanced properly.

The mixers tend to like to mix the fx loud, louder than necessary. It can be a classic "more me" type of situation, as the mix house is often the same place that is doing the fx.
 
chessrock said:
My personal bitch is that there isn't nearly enough compression or leveling on most television or movies. This kinda' stuff is story driven, so the most important thing is legibility of dialog at all times. I mean, yea, cool ... loud explosion ... neat. Thanks for waking up the rest of the house. Where's the remote, I need to hear what they're saying. Woops -- another loud explosion.

Shit. Better turn that down again.
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That's what I use my Alesis 3630 for... perfect in that application
 
I use mine to keep my music from blowing away in the wind.
 
Some online articles

The overuse of compression in contemporary music has been noticed (and bitched about) for quite some time in the audiophile community. It happens to also be one of the reasons I don't personally care much for most of the music that was recorded after the 1970's. There was an article (or rather, a sidebar to an article) about this topic in the last issue of The Absolute Sound called "Dynamic Compression and the Loudness Race."

That article also directed the reader to three other online articles for further information. These go much deeper into the issue. Here are those links:

http://www.audioholics.com/techtips...ingtrendsP1.php
www.soundmirror.com/articles.html#current
www.geocities.com/mjareviews/rant7.html

Brad
 
Blake Johnson said:
the big question from the newbie....
is a compressor a necessity for a home studio?
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Since none of the more esteemed members of the board have addressed this question, I'll go ahead and take a stab at it.

I would say that, no, a compressor is NOT a "necessity" for a home studio. It depends a lot, of course, on what you plan to do with your home studio. If you just want to get some of your original songs down so that you can remember them, or take them in to teach to your band, then your recorder and a couple of mics might very well be all that you need.

But it's also generally a very bad idea for a beginner to buy stuff just because he or she hears that they're "supposed to" have these things. More often than not, that simply has the result that these tools are misused. And compressors are very easy tools to misuse, not just in the sense that we are discussing on this thread, but even on a single source of a recording, it's easy to get carried away with the effect and use settings which are much too extreme. This can squash the life out of your recording and alter the tonal characteristics of the instrument that is being compressed.

In general, if you can hear the compression being used, it's too much. This rule, as with all rules in recording, is made to be broken, but you should take the time to learn it and understand it before you break it.

My advice is that you do NOT buy a compressor right away. Instead, work on getting the best sound you can out of the equipment you have. In particular, you should focus the vast majority of your time and energy experimenting with mic placement. A tiny change in position can make a big difference in sound.

Eventually, you will start to become frustrated with problems that come up during the recording process. You will say to yourself, "Hmm. This bass player [or singer or whatever] can't keep levels consistent and that makes it a real bitch to record them." Or you will notice that the levels are jumping around so much that you, essentially, end up up with a different mix at certain places in the song, compared to the one you worked so hard to set up. At THAT point, you will understand what a compressor can do for you, and should start looking for one (or two) of them.

Hope this helps. :)
Brad
 
Hopefully we can get the word out to anyone subject to falling into this trap. My message is, if your gear is respectable, the dynamics are your friend. Sure, you may have to TURN UP THE VOLUME knob on your player if you're stacked against a mix that boosted volume using compression - but - in your mix, the drum smack, the power chord and other peaks will be as they were recorded - real. If your delivery is good, your stuff musical, even if you record with a Fender Champ, the musicality will shine through.

Bob
 
What I've found is that the important thing in final mastering is using
a LIMITER.

Really fattens and evens out the different tracks and frequencies
in your final track.

Of course, I direct record from a DSP, so...mic placement and all that is
something I have no clue about.

Just wanted to mention a Limiter...maybe someone with a lot of knowledge
will comment.
 
isnt that exactly what we are talking about being against of?

hah.

danny
 
These are all good tools. The problem is simply when they are overused or abused.
 
When you're dealing with amateurs, well executed compression can save songs.

Also vocals almost always benefit from some kind of compression.
 
I'm sorry but the posts in this thread are way too short. Could you guys possibly add another 3 or 4 paragraphs to them?

Good info BTW!
 
Reggaesoldier said:
I'm sorry but the posts in this thread are way too short. Could you guys possibly add another 3 or 4 paragraphs to them?
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Well, I'm trying to hold up my end.

But, I can't do anything about all those slackers that hang out here!
:D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D :D

Brad
 
Blame it all on the invention of the CD and the increased dynamic range that medium presented the recording community with.......

The old songs that were mentioned earlier did not use a lot if any compressioj because the tape format 'compressed" the music "naturally." As well Radioairplay was highly compressed as well.

I believe many today are attempting to capture the dynamic range of yesteryear without losing the edge and clarity the digital format offers using limiters and compression.

Try applying the final compression setting during mastering with some white noise in the back ground of the studio to simulate the SNR of a normal listening enviornment. If you can hear all the music your there...lol :confused:
 
TomBo777 said:
Blame it all on the invention of the CD and the increased dynamic range that medium presented the recording community with.......

The old songs that were mentioned earlier did not use a lot if any compressioj because the tape format 'compressed" the music "naturally." As well Radioairplay was highly compressed as well.

I believe many today are attempting to capture the dynamic range of yesteryear without losing the edge and clarity the digital format offers using limiters and compression.
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Huh? :confused: I disagree completely, particularly with the last. Wouldn't it be more accurate to say compression has always been used not only to aid in dealing with the s/n limits of vinyl and tape, but because it sounds good?
The current state has gone way past any of that. This is the realm of 'my stuff is bigger/badder/LOUDER than YOURS', sonics be damned.
On a possibly bright side, it looks like there could be an eventual turn-around.
http://recforums.prosoundweb.com/index.php/t/4024/0
One can hope yes? ;)
Wayne
 
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