Multiband compression

[frosty55]

How long has multiband compression been around, and what did they do before it hit the scene?

 

[Massive Master]

Digital maul-the-band compression? Since the 90's (just like almost every other plug I suppose).

What they did before it...

No one (well, "hardly anyone") uses it now much less then (no matter how hard the marketing guys try to convince everyone otherwise). It's occasionally handy to have around, but 99% of the time, it's a fix for something that went terribly wrong earlier in the process.

That said - "back in the day" you used multiple compressors and a crossover (just like the plugs are now). Every large-scale PA system on the planet has been run through what is essentially a multi-band compressor for decades. And once in a blue moon, something was wrecked enough to require it in the studio or during mastering. Thank goodness, it was rather rare.

Then the Finalizer came out and it turned into the flavor of the month and everyone was convinced that everyone had and always used a maul-the-band compressor.

 

[miroslav]

Late '60s/early '70s....and were in use by radio stations long before the DAW plug-ins came along, like how now everyone puts one on everything, and it's become part of the mixing stage too.

They are not a necessity (more like a craze these days)...so recording/mixing engineers got along quite well without them.

 

[RAMI]

Late '60s/early '70s...

I think you're getting mixed up. That's when the female orgasm was invented.

 

[moresound]

I think you're getting mixed up. That's when the female orgasm was invented.

I believe I witnessed one about that time!

 

[miroslav]

No...they happend together.
Some guy invented the multi-band compressor and it made the music sound so good...his wife had an orgasm.

Music and female sexuality has never been the same since.....

 

[moresound]

Can't find a video but maybe someone else can of the woman on a speaker within the Howard Sterns movie Private parts.

 

[PDP]

How long has multiband compression been around, and what did they do before it hit the scene?

I'm no expert, but for some reason sending the bass and kick to a separate buss with a compressor and EQ sounds way better than a multiband. I've never found a use for one either.

 

[Washburn100]

I think you're getting mixed up. That's when the female orgasm was invented.

I have to disagree. I've slept with 100's of woman since the sixties, and as far as I can tell, it's never been invented.

 

[guitaristic]

I believe I witnessed one about that time!

Was it made in America or was it one of those cheap Chinese lookalikes?

 

[NYMorningstar]

I think you're getting mixed up. That's when the female orgasm was invented.

That's when it was perfected with a little plug in.

 

[Washburn100]

NOW THAT MAKES SENSE!!
Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy wasn't about sex, it was about compression,
or, er, is it the other way round??