I am thinking of placing a stereo compressor on my stereo out when mixing and was wondering what a good starting place would be for setting attack and release times. Im going for a mild compression.
well I mean, you really have to watch out if you're going that route. You gotta ask yourself, are you compressing for effect or compressing to restrain your dynamic range?
You gotta understand that buss compression in a daw and buss compression on a million dollar console are two different planets. Andy Wallace and those like him can easily afford to compress the master buss slightly for effect.
So don't be dissapointed you can't get it to spec. One method in that situation is tweaking starting out at the extremes.
For example, setting the threshold extremely low to begin with. Then tweaking your attack times, release times and ratios etc. to get it to sound as best you can at the extreme.
Once you feel you have it, then you just bring up your threshold until you've reached a level that sounds appropiate to your ear.
You could also try a couple layers of compression too. For example, rather than having one compressor in the chain, have two or three.
R Comp is a great compressor, but I never felt it to be a true master buss type of compressor, same with the C1. But I think it's more an issue of mixing inside the box than anything. I did recently get a chance to try out the waves SSL master buss compressor and I was a bit dissapointed.
Compared to the real life G-series, I felt it to be a bit too strong and slightly lacking in other areas. The essential character was kind of there, but in terms of being fluid, it just wasn't there. But this was just on a regular LE system.
So I think the issue is the kind of transparency and effect youre looking for.
