Need help with COMPRESSION!

[AnarkyMusic]

Hey guys, so i've been having a bit of trouble with compression (i know barely anything about it) and some of the samples and sounds i have in a track have a lot of random volume peaks (see photo 1) I was wondering if its possible for someone to explain/show me how to reduce/compress some of these peaks (like photo 2). If anyone knows anything about this your help would be much appreciated!
thank you!
-anarky

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Don't get hung up on how things look, focus on how they sound. Maybe it would be better to post an audio sample.

 

[miroslav]

Don't get hung up on how things look...

I think much of that these days come from the endless number of DAW sound wave images showing audio that's been nuked to death, and is pretty much a flat line...so that people getting into recording, are thinking that's how audio sound waves are supposed to look.

 

[Deleted member 196982]

[MENTION=103008]bouldersoundguy[/MENTION] said the important truth. Learn to use your ears.

That second graph is what I've heard called a sausage, because it's been compressed to the point it's devoid of dynamics. (Well, I guess there's a constant dynamic, usually loud.)

I suggest you look at online videos about compression at therecordingrevolution.com's channel and many others.

Now, to answer your question, the first knob to understand in compression is threshold, because that's going to decide when the compressor will kick in, and it's entirely dependent on the dynamics and amplitude of the input signal. For instance, if your input track had an average amplitude of -18dB and you had a couple of peaks up to -10dB, and you'd need to have the threshold set to less than -10 before it would affect the signal at all. The lower you go, the more of the track would be captured by the compressor. Then, the amount of compression, how quickly it compresses and length of time it's compressed are the ratio, attack/knee, and release knobs.

Here's a track (essentially a mostly finished bounce - not sausage-y) that I applied a compressor to. I turned the threshold down to about -18 (IIRC - didn't keep it!) and set a high ratio so you can see in the white line at the top of the graph when the compressor is working and by how much the signal is being reduced. (NB - don't use the graph view to decide what to do with the knobs either!).

 

[LAsound]

Before turning to compression look into something called gain automation. You can separate the louder peaks into there own separate clip and individually reduce the gain of those parts. Then when you run it into a compressor the compressor won't have to do all the work and your audio won't sound over compressed or you may not even need to compress at all!

 

[TimOD]

Compression is terribly over-used nowadays, and I don't envy some young person trying to figure out when and how to use it. LAsound is right--you definitely want to understand and start using volume or gain automation.
As far as using compression, what kind of compressor are you using? I assume it's a plugin, yes?

 

[witzendoz]

I keep hearing don't use compression use gain automation. They are 2 different things, a signal put through a compressor has a different result or sound to gain automation. The problem with compression is that often it is over used or the settings are completely wrong. Gain automation will even out the volume, but a compression set up correctly will often fatten the sound and even make it fuller, just don't over do it. By all means volume automate really loud peaks but do so that the compressor is not working too hard at that point, in other works don't use the compressor to fix volume problems but use a little compressor to sit something in the mix better. Also the sound you are after could be something smashed by the compressor, some types of music use compressor smashed drum sounds for example.

Of course not everything needs compression. Use you ears and experiment, then you learn what works and what does not.

Alan.

 

[AnarkyMusic]

Hey guys so one of yous asked for the final track, here it is: mediafire.com/file/5wwbxordpodx799/track_test.mp3/file

What plugins would i use for gain automation? (im using fl studio 11) Just needa get rid of some of those huge peaks.

Thanks heaps for responses btw guys

 

[ecc83]

Hey guys so one of yous asked for the final track, here it is: mediafire.com/file/5wwbxordpodx799/track_test.mp3/file

What plugins would i use for gain automation? (im using fl studio 11) Just needa get rid of some of those huge peaks.

Thanks heaps for responses btw guys

YouTube

Don't have FL 11 so can't try it. Done similar in Samplitude tho'but.

Dave.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

Hey guys so one of yous asked for the final track, here it is: mediafire.com/file/5wwbxordpodx799/track_test.mp3/file

What plugins would i use for gain automation? (im using fl studio 11) Just needa get rid of some of those huge peaks.

Thanks heaps for responses btw guys

Proper mastering limiter.

 

[spantini]

I was reviewing some basics this morning from Spectre Sound Studios (Media Group). This video runs into a second video but then they just keep looping back-to-back, so it doesn't really continue through the series. But.. you can catch the series from the right side listings. I find these easy to follow along because he doesn't drift.

YouTube