Parallel Processing

[guitaristic]

Anyone here ever use it? I was just reading about it today...honestly never really crossed my mind before! If you do use it, what tracks do you find yourself using it the most on?

 

[Justsomeguy]

I went through a stage of using parallel processing alot; drums, vocals, bass, even acoustic guitars, either compressing or distorting the parallel buss. Saying that, i very quickly realised i was probably over using it, or at least adding too much of the parallel bus back in to the mix, and stripped back. I still use it every now and then but rather than creating separate busses i've started using the wet/dry mix on compressors in Logic a lot more. Saying that, when it calls for it, i still use parallel distortion every now and then, especially on bass guitar as i found that throwing a distortion style plugin onto the track as an insert would rob the bass of the tone, whereas having the option to blend together a clean and distorted bass track worked really well.

 

[sixer2007]

I use it quite a bit. It's very powerful. I Like to send my snare and kick, sometimes toms to a bus that is being slammed really hard and then slowly bring that up in the mix to give the drums more power. I've expirimented with adding the bass to that bus as well with some success.
Like Justsomeguy, parallel distortion can be a great tool. I use it on the kick in choruses when things get really busy for that "something extra" effect. Also on vocals to give them a bit of grit and presence from time to time. Also distortion for the bass. That's one of my favorites.

One other thing that i tried on a recent mix was to really crush the vocals with a limiter in a parallel chain, then instead of using the original vox channel to feed a reverb/delay, i used the limited channel. It let the reverb stay at a more constant level which was cool for what I was doing.
There are a million things you can do with it, just try some!

 

[Steenamaroo]

Nice one sixer; I've done that more than once.

For an effect that is always at the same level, duplicate (or bus) your vocal or whatever track you're working with, slam it, then effect it.
The consistency gives a completely different effect to just affecting the raw track.

 

[Greg_L]

I've tried it with drums and vocals. Not really a fan. I'm a bare-bones kind of guy though.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I do it, but generally only in special cases. It worked great for a really peaky slap bass, and also for a rhythm section that lacked beef.

 

[moresound]

Sometimes backing vocals can benefit from PP. As stated before it can work almost anywhere, anytime pending on the track and total mix.

 

[grimtraveller]

It works nicely on snares, backing vocals and lead vocals. It can work on anything though I don't use it much now. I used to.

 

[guitaristic]

Cool thanks dudes I just like to hear how people are implementing certain techniques!

 

[RAMI]

I use perpendicular compression. It's the same as parallel, but sideways.

 

[Steenamaroo]

I use perpendicular compression. It's the same as parallel, but sideways.

Pffft...Going of at a tangent as usual...

 

[Greg_L]

I use perpendicular compression. It's the same as parallel, but sideways.

I use bipolar depression.

 

[Steenamaroo]

Leme guess,
Sometimes it's great, other times not so much?

 

[Greg_L]

Leme guess,
Sometimes it's great, other times not so much?

Which one of me are you asking?

 

[Steenamaroo]

What does it matter? They're both assholes.

 

[Greg_L]

What does it matter? They're both assholes.

Hey oh!

 

[Dogbreath]

What does it matter? They're both assholes.

Just reading thru this and it seems I've been doing this for quite awhile now and not knowing it actually had a name.
if I'm gettin ya right...

Sometimes (if I remember or am not too lazy ), I'll take, say a kick or a bass guitar or whatever I'm experimenting with, send it to my buss and sprinkle in an effect. Like distortion was mentioned or a different compressor etc and then bring that signal back to a new track and lift it in the mix til I can hear it make a difference.
Sometimes I keep it, sometimes not.

Is this what you guys are talking about?
And if so, does that make me genius or tarded?

 

[Steenamaroo]

I like to think it makes you a genius, but only because I used to do it too before I learned it was already a thing.

 

[Dogbreath]

I like to think it makes you a genius, but only because I used to do it too before I learned it was already a thing.

I'm good with that.

 

[RAMI]

I used to have pre-mature compression. Now, I can barely get the faders up.