cool compressor tricks

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gitrokr

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are there any unthordox ways you use your compressor other than limiting that peaks and all that??? is there any ways you use it more like an effect?? what settings do you set your compressor too?
 
:cool: One can severely squash the daylights out of the signal so that it sounds like it's coming out of a small/cheap AM radio or through the telephone.........



da MUTT
 
Use a high ratio, fast attack and fast decay so that it pumps with the tempo. You can do that to drums by themselves and get some cool effects for intros or breaks. Or mix that back in with the orginal uncompressed drums to help beef up the track. That can work with bass and vocals also.

You can also feed the dry track and a delayed or reverb effected track into a compressor all together. Works pretty cool on vocals and snare.
 
Use a high ratio, fast attack and fast decay so that it pumps with the tempo. You can do that to drums by themselves and get some cool effects for intros or breaks. Or mix that back in with the orginal uncompressed drums to help beef up the track. That can work with bass and vocals also.

You can also feed the dry track and a delayed or reverb effected track into a compressor all together. Works pretty cool on vocals and snare.
 
a high ratio, with a slow attack and a fast release is pretty cool... gives a POP to the attack. mix with regular signal... or use as is...

the RNC is really good at this cause the compression circuit is very accurate.
 
..Another RNC Stupid Pet Trick...
On a pair of kit mics, you can take most of the snare almost completely out of the picture (assuming it's the loudest thing on the kit, for more isolation on the snare mic or other reasons).
With a nice fast comp that has a decent WYSIWYG mode like the RNC, you get to mould the envelopes in pretty much any way you see fit.
Turn OFF SUPER NICE. Take CONTROL!
:rolleyes: :D
Wayne
 
gitrokr said:
are there any unthordox ways you use your compressor other than limiting that peaks and all that??? is there any ways you use it more like an effect?? what settings do you set your compressor too?
Click to expand...

Here is a neat trick:
Put your compressor on a table with a tablecloth. Now, pull the tablecloth as fast as you can and Bang! The compressor will stay on the table!!

Best trick there is. Practice makes perfect.
 
Fela said:
Use the key input.

I mean really.

*smug grin*
Click to expand...

You can do some cool stuff with the side chain. You can run the effects of a vocal track through the compressor then use the vocals for the side chain trigger. Whenever there are vocals the effects will be ducked and then come back up when the vocals stop. Cool for delays and big hall effects when you don't want them to muddy up the main track but you want serious decay. Works cool on guitar solos also.
 
a cool compressor trick is to try and make yourself not use one.
 
If you've got a guitarist that likes to palm mute a lot, you can put a compressor with a moderately long attack (around 25ms) to emphasize the palm mutes.
 
Jblount said:
I thought that the sidechain with a eq was to de-ess?
Click to expand...
Quite true, but anything you put there effects the compressor. Boosts, cuts, or with other signals.
Wayne
 
When you side chain a eq, dont you boost the frequency that you want to take out, so that it compresses that frequency more than the others. I am trying to figure out how that works.
 
Jblount said:
When you side chain a eq, dont you boost the frequency that you want to take out, so that it compresses that frequency more than the others. I am trying to figure out how that works.
Click to expand...

you cut the frequencies you do not want to compress.
 
Sidechain's are cool. I learned to De-Ess with boosting EQ in the sibilant range. You can also make a bass duck for a bass drum this way or just mangle tracks with other tracks as key inputs. If your compressor has a gate then the sidechain stuff gets pretty fun.

Do something like gate on a side chain with the bass drum as a key input and then run the bass thru the compressor. That way, the bass guitar is gated with the bass drum. Good for really tight funky stuff. You can tighten up metal that way too.

This is exactly how radio dj stuff is set up for talkovers when the asshat dj talks through the first minute of the song as well.
 
Fenix, is it best to use a parametric to cut the key input. or does it matter?
I arsk cuz, I can't seem to get it right-compressing the frequencies intended.

T
fenix said:
you cut the frequencies you do not want to compress.
Click to expand...
 
Not that I do this all that often, but I can see where either direction could be correct. If a comp is grabbing to much on the low notes of a bass but it's the upper ones I need to control, I'd try a cut in the lows first -but also boosting up top just increases the total effect.
The type of eq shouldn't matter much does it?
 
A parametric would be best for DeEssing or really fine control of the trigger but for just general shaping like Mixsit described you could use a graphic or shelf EQ.
 
Cool!! I've been using the eq at the mixer-which doesn't give me much control (at least not what I want), but have a Rane 5 band para. It also has shelving on the HF and LF bands, I'll give it a go. Hopefully it will give me better control of the key/trigger.

Hey maybe I can find use of this PE15 afterall, I haven't used it much since getting my Soundcraft board.


T
 
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