I have never seen a Maximizer (as in like the BBE unit) used for anything in a nice studio istyle. NEVER!!! This whole concept of "band width" compression seems to be exclusively a more low tech solution for mixes that have no life. Essencially, that is what the maxixmizers do, compress low and high end so and add lower and higher frequecies to it. Nice idea, never heard work to well myself
Mostly, compression will tend to "muddy" the sound. The distortion byproducts of compression will affect higher frequencies because they are so delicate in the first place, and make up so little of the over volume. When you compress, you are usually compressing because the low end got out of hand. If you are compressing to take care of the occasional high frequency transient that seems to happen most on vocals and snare drums and horns, then you are using compression properly. Often, the distortion caused by compression is what makes the frequency sound smoother, not the actual level regulation.
So, if you are finding yourself compressing a sub-mix, a bunch of induvidual tracks, then the whole mix, well, you are bound to have some pretty mushy sound.
Concentrate on getting the induvidual instruments to sound right in the mix just using volume adjustment first. Next, use cut eq to get the kind of "presence" that is needed to make the mix come together. Next, apply ambient effects to add shades and interesting sounds to the mix. If you are finding a track that just needs to stay put dynamically, then insert a compressor on it, but only after doing the above. Then do all of this again, then again, then again, then again.......After about, ohhhhhhhhhh, 8 hours, your mix will start taking on a life that is wholesome. At this point, you can consider a tiny bit of compression over the whole mix. But, if you are getting any more than like 3db of gain reduction at the loudest part of the mix, then your mix just isn't right. You need to step back and really evaluate the mix and seek out what is causing the dynamics to jump so darn much. Often, with a little break for lunch or dinner, you will come back and see that things like the bass guitar is way to loud, and that the solo instruments are slammin' big time, and the snare is buried, and the guitars sound like mush with to much low end. Make the adjustments quick, your ears are going to get back to hearing funny again in no time at this point. You should take lots of breaks.
Also, don't try to listen too close to any one particular thing. Listen to the mix. Make compromises. You are not going to get everything you want out of a mix. That is the way it goes. If you concentrate on one thing for too long, the rest of the tracks will suffer. Don't let this happen. Do the best you can and leave it alone. Remember that your ears will fatigue after a while, so, what sounded good 2 hours ago still sounds good, it just sounds different now. That is usually not because it is the wrong thing, just that your ears are playing tricks on you. If you fall for this, you will start boosting the lows, and over compressing everything, then you have mush. Bad boy
Hope this helps.
Ed
