compression

  • Thread starter Thread starter WEBCYAN
  • Start date Start date
WEBCYAN

WEBCYAN

New member
In another forum someone asked how much compression is in most pro quality cds. They answered their own question by saying the word compression like 30 times...

So, um, what is it? Clearly its important. So, what is it?
 
Ever heard any of tom lord-alge's work with blink 182? That stuff has so much compression in it. I read an article that says he uses as much as 20 db of compression on the vocals and he uses compressors as effects, not so much to level out the sound.
 
thats cause Blink 182 lacks the musicianship needed to make a studio record right.....
 
I know Im coming off as such a newbie, but....

Ive been able to grasp every concept thrown at me lately but Compression is totally eluding me.

Does it raise the volume? Lower it? Or make it all the same level? what...? :(

I know Im ignorant about this, but I suppose I need to know.
I recorded a little vocal track on Cool Edit and applied one of their preset "Vocal Condenssors" to it and it made the waveform jump to the max evenly and it made it much louder and clearer, but there was some shifting back and forth from the left channel to the right.
 
Didn't you read the Shailat's article link I posted???

It explains it all clearly and concisely - with examples even......

Bruce
 
compare a song to a room and each track to a ball in the room.....each ball is bouncing at different heights, the higher the bounce, the louder the sound.....

compression keeps a ball from having such a big of a bounce....say a ball bounces from the floor to 20 ft high....say your threshold is set to 10 ft bounces, a 10:1 ratio would make the bounce 11 ft......a 5:1 ration would make it 12 ft., a 2:1 ration would make it 15 ft....and it accomplishes this by bringing up the floor of the room....so with that 5:1 ratrio, the ball will be bouncing from where 8 ft was (now the floor), to the original 20 ft....so if you can picture that, the ball is still bouncing as high as it was(loud) but its a much smaller bounce.....

limiting would keep the floor where it is, but just specify that a bounce cant go past a certain space say 15ft.....sound a 20 ft bounce would go from 0 to 15ft then....

now if all your tracks are getting heavy compression, you go from a room full of pretty balls boucing in various heights, to this little small room with tracks not bouncing as much...all this loss of space(headroom)kinda makes the room dull.....

so compression is best left just to tame that sdtray ball or two of wild bouncing.....

whats the pros know ahead of time is to envision what you want the room to look like, and bounce the balls right in the first place, as opposed to taking a bunch of wildly bounced balls and trying to compress them into what you want.....
 
Okay, so let's see if I've got this right - if I want my tracks to have lots of balls, I shouldn't overdo the compression?
 
No, he's saying never compress your balls; or if you do - do so carefully. :eek:
 
I love you guys....really.....:rolleyes:

dobro, dobro, dobro....listen up because there will be a test.....

balls=tracks, so your theory that less compression will give you more balls is WAAAAAAAY off.....less compression wont give you more tracks......less compression means your balls will have more bounce......

so an overly compressed track is like wearing briefs...your balls just dont bounce.....

a track with good dynamics (less compression) is like wearing boxers...your balls are just bouncing all over the place......

remember, your balls like gentle compression.......jim has the idea, he knows how to handle his balls.....
 
Back
Top