Spot the difference

[ecktronic]

Right two samples. One has compression added to it and the other doesnt. (There are no effects added to these samples at all apart from the one with compression added.)
Can anyone work out which one has compression added to it?
If so can anyone tell me if this gives that sample more punch.

Good luck all, this could be quite tricky for some to get.

"SAMPLE 1" and "SAMPLE 2" at the link at the bottom.

 

[Jack Real]

Hi

I think sample 2 is the one compressed. I don't think the compression gives more punch as I like sample 1 better.

/Jack Real.

 

[ecktronic]

Ok. Cheers for your reply. What sounds better about sample 1? I will let some more people have a go at deciding which is which before saying.

 

[mixsit]

#1's the clean one, and I'll go with Jack too on #1 still has edge, #2 mostly just sounds more homogenized. Unless I'm off here, this even shows up on 3" plastic computer speakers...
Back off on the attack times?
Wayne

 

[mixsit]

Hell, I may as well go for broke. I'll guess you're in the 5-20ms range at most. With that (result) comming back out, I'd be looking at trying 40-90.

 

[ecktronic]

Yeah yous are right. NO. 2 was the compressed track. I used an attack of about 11ms and a release of about 150ms. ratio of about 2:1 and threshold to reduce the gain by up to 6dB.
Is there any point in me compressing this mix at all? Is it possible to make this mix sound better with use of a SOFTWARE plug-in? i know hardware compressors can add certain colour to a amix, but i wouldnt expect a plug-in like Waves R-comp to add any colourisation. Am i wrong?

 

[Chattbox1]

Well i guess I'm to late, but for what its worth I think the compressed track sounded better. As far as plugins I recomend Izotope, it's great. Checked out some of your other tracks, you have some good material there. Also check out the amplitude guitar amp modeling plugin, its sick.

 

[Jack Real]

Hi

I'm not a mastering engineer but by looking at the wave form of sample 1, you don't have much signal above 70% so you can limit in that region to increase the volume. I did some tries and the best results (for me) were with a compression of 60% (a little less than 2:1) above a threshold at 50%.

/Jack Real.

 

[giraffe]

Yeah yous are right. NO. 2 was the compressed track. I used an attack of about 11ms and a release of about 150ms. ratio of about 2:1 and threshold to reduce the gain by up to 6dB.
Is there any point in me compressing this mix at all? Is it possible to make this mix sound better with use of a SOFTWARE plug-in? i know hardware compressors can add certain colour to a amix, but i wouldnt expect a plug-in like Waves R-comp to add any colourisation. Am i wrong?

with full mix compression your only looking for a gain reduction of about 2db
(3 is actually to much as you have, to the human ear, cut the volume of that point in half)

try again with less.
the result SHOULD be subtle
i for one don't do it, but only because i really don't have any worthy compressors. i think a lot of times what your really looking for is the sound of the compressor if it's a truely good one, maby not so much the sound of the compression.

but remember, i'm really just a hack at this.

 

[Kainz]

Yeah yous are right. NO. 2 was the compressed track. I used an attack of about 11ms and a release of about 150ms. ratio of about 2:1 and threshold to reduce the gain by up to 6dB.
Is there any point in me compressing this mix at all? Is it possible to make this mix sound better with use of a SOFTWARE plug-in? i know hardware compressors can add certain colour to a amix, but i wouldnt expect a plug-in like Waves R-comp to add any colourisation. Am i wrong?

Hmh.. You seem to be compressing the sound way too much. Infact you killed everything living there

It is quite normal to compress the mix at the mastering stage, but usually they are multiband compressors working there. The result compared to normal single band compressor is quite obvious.. I'm not counting in any vintage/analogue compressors which may add some warmness or other wanted characteristics, just pure subtle good compressing/compressors.

Then there are the limiters too. Usually both of these (comp and limiter) are involved in a normal mastering session. You usually compress the mix _subtle_ way in order to breathe some extra life into it by tweaking the release/attack/ratio and at the same time you tame some of the peaks in the song. After that comes the limiter which you basically use to maximize the volume. The limiter cuts the short peaks that your ears can't even regognize, allthough it is very possible to squish all the life out from the song with limiter too...

And what it comes to software plugins, my opinion is that there indeed are pretty good sounding mastering compressors and limiters around. For example Waves linear multiband compressor and Waves L2&L3 are at least IMO good ones.

 

[ecktronic]

Well i guess I'm to late, but for what its worth I think the compressed track sounded better. As far as plugins I recomend Izotope, it's great. Checked out some of your other tracks, you have some good material there. Also check out the amplitude guitar amp modeling plugin, its sick.

Thanks Chattbox1 for the ups on my band (SEROTONEs) music.

 

[ecktronic]

Ta Giraffe, im thinking i might just dingy the whole using a compressor at mastering stage as i think all i will be doing is killing the dynamics! and possibly very slightly changing the EQ by compression attack and release times.

 

[ecktronic]

And what it comes to software plugins, my opinion is that there indeed are pretty good sounding mastering compressors and limiters around. For example Waves linear multiband compressor and Waves L2&L3 are at least IMO good ones.

Yeah Kainz, i use the waves linear multi band and the L2 all the time. I think they are real good. I like how the linear multi band is like a multiband compressor in a way that you can compress each band differently. That plug in is pretty good for tightening up the lo end ive found. The L2 is great for getting up to around the -10dB RMS, but can kill some of the quality.
Cheers.