bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
Upward compressor.
Please could someone answer three questions about limiters and compressers to the dumbass noob writing this?
rob aylestone
Moderator
They always tell you never to mix radio mic systems because of the RF differences and different companding settings. I discovered Sennheiser transmitters sounded very nice on Trantec receivers. Due to the mismatch, instead of overall neutral, I got a bit of expansion (I think). I liked the result, whatever caused it.
Steenamaroo
...
The best advice I can give is to watch a video tutorial on compression for some plugin that has a visual representation.
Avid Dyn3 has got it. I think some of the waves plugins like C1 do it too.
You see a diagonal line representing your compressor's impact on the sound and, in real time, you see an indication of the level of audio along that line.
Kind of like a VU meter except a diagonal line.
As you adjust ratio you see a bend in that line (indicating your attenuation) get stronger/weaker, and as you adjust threshold you see the bend move up/down the line.
It's just one of those things that's always going to sound complicated in text but when you see a visual it clicks, for some people.
"As they're turning sounds DOWN, how can you use them to make sounds LOUDER? Flat don't see it!"
If you have a recording with quiet and loud passages and the loud passages are so loud that there's no more room to turn your track up,
a compressor could be used to tame those louder passages.
You're right - That makes things quieter but it's making the loud parts quieter while the quiet parts stay the same.
That, then, means you now have room to turn the whole track up.
Your loud parts are now back where they were to start with, but the quiet sections are now louder.
I stress could because I'd use volume automation for this but a compressor will technically do it.
It's just, arguably, not what it's for.
Where they really shine is on a much shorter time frame.
For example you have a snare recording that sounds beautiful but the initial transient (crack) of the snare is just too strong.
It's preventing you from turning the track up any more and you're annoyed because your beautiful snare is too quiet.
You could use a compressor there with a very fast attack to tame the crack transient, and a quick release to ensure it leaves the body/sustain/ring alone.
In the same way you've now created room to turn that snare track up without drastically impacting the sound of it.
Hope that's helpful but seriously...check out some videos of compressors with visual representations in use.
I'm sure it'll click when you see it.
Avid Dyn3 has got it. I think some of the waves plugins like C1 do it too.
You see a diagonal line representing your compressor's impact on the sound and, in real time, you see an indication of the level of audio along that line.
Kind of like a VU meter except a diagonal line.
As you adjust ratio you see a bend in that line (indicating your attenuation) get stronger/weaker, and as you adjust threshold you see the bend move up/down the line.
It's just one of those things that's always going to sound complicated in text but when you see a visual it clicks, for some people.
"As they're turning sounds DOWN, how can you use them to make sounds LOUDER? Flat don't see it!"
If you have a recording with quiet and loud passages and the loud passages are so loud that there's no more room to turn your track up,
a compressor could be used to tame those louder passages.
You're right - That makes things quieter but it's making the loud parts quieter while the quiet parts stay the same.
That, then, means you now have room to turn the whole track up.
Your loud parts are now back where they were to start with, but the quiet sections are now louder.
I stress could because I'd use volume automation for this but a compressor will technically do it.
It's just, arguably, not what it's for.
Where they really shine is on a much shorter time frame.
For example you have a snare recording that sounds beautiful but the initial transient (crack) of the snare is just too strong.
It's preventing you from turning the track up any more and you're annoyed because your beautiful snare is too quiet.
You could use a compressor there with a very fast attack to tame the crack transient, and a quick release to ensure it leaves the body/sustain/ring alone.
In the same way you've now created room to turn that snare track up without drastically impacting the sound of it.
Hope that's helpful but seriously...check out some videos of compressors with visual representations in use.
I'm sure it'll click when you see it.
ashcat_lt
Well-known member
Honestly most of mixing is trying to turn a certain thing up but we can’t get one part of that thing loud enough without some other part of that thing being too loud so we have to figure out how to turn down the part we don’t want enough that it doesn’t bother us anymore. That’s when we start to reach for EQ, compression, limiting…
bouldersoundguy
Well-known member
...volume rides...