What instruments do you put compression on, and what ones you don't?

[Eric V]

In the beginning.....I used to compress the heck out of everything and that of course was a disaster. Then I went for a while when I put it on sparsely among various tracks because of the aforementioned disasters. And I felt there wasn't enough compression in the appropriate places.

But there must be a medium course of action, a basic compression workflow method I could use.

I use Reaper, ReaComp, and I have another plugin for compression I sometimes use which also has other features such as gate, EQ, and deesser (Schepps Omni Channel). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

[PorterhouseMusic]

I'm hardly a person you should be listening to - but I try to use compression as sparingly as possible. I've gotten to where I'm not a fan of that sound where I can can easily tell something is compressed. It's a turn off. So - for now anyway - I see compression as mostly a tool to fix something - rather than "a sound" or effect I'm going for. It - along with automation - is a great way to even out a vocal. And I use it on bass gtr a lot. <--- short answer (from me) to your question.

I have both hardware and software versions of 1176 and LA2A compressors and find them very useful. Recommend plugin versions of those two - if you look for them you can often find deals. They're very different animals. The 1176 is lightning quick. The LA2A - softer, warmer, slower... with "character".

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

I smash every track.

 

[Eric V]

I'm hardly a person you should be listening to - but I try to use compression as sparingly as possible. I've gotten to where I'm not a fan of that sound where I can can easily tell something is compressed. It's a turn off. So - for now anyway - I see compression as mostly a tool to fix something - rather than "a sound" or effect I'm going for. It - along with automation - is a great way to even out a vocal. And I use it on bass gtr a lot. <--- short answer (from me) to your question.

I have both hardware and software versions of 1176 and LA2A compressors and find them very useful. Recommend plugin versions of those two - if you look for them you can often find deals. They're very different animals. The 1176 is lightning quick. The LA2A - softer, warmer, slower... with "character".

Thanks @PorterhouseMusic . I'll look around for plugins you mentioned. I do the same thing as you currently - sparingly, and on drums only sometimes, vocals quite often (I try to "use" the mic by moving in and out away from the mic during the performance. Still gets uneven sometimes), and on bass.

I smash every track.

Thank you @LazerBeakShiek. By how much? And can I ask why? To my ears I find some tracks just don't seem to need it. I'm really interested why every track.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

By how much? And can I ask why? To my ears I find some tracks just don't seem to need it. I'm really interested why every track.

When I hear the raw track of guitar or bass or voice, it seems far away and weak. Compressing it brings out the bell like qualities. Every track of raw analog instrumentation. I'll input a sound into a microphone. Look at it in the O scope. Then make that wave bigger with a compressor. Get the part of sound you want and then some.

Record it, smash it, and see what I get kinda thing. Not necessarily make it smacky, but pretty flat at least to me.

A bunch of raw uncompressed tracks wouldn't mix that well. This is a big statement.

 

[Eric V]

When I hear the raw track of guitar or bass or voice, it seems far away and weak. Compressing it brings out the bell like qualities. Every track of raw analog instrumentation. I'll input a sound into a microphone. Look at it in the O scope. Then make that wave bigger with a compressor. Get the part of sound you want and then some.

Record it, smash it, and see what I get kinda thing. Not necessarily make it smacky, but pretty flat at least to me.

A bunch of raw uncompressed tracks wouldn't mix that well. This is a big statement.

Interesting. And is the O Scope a plugin?

 

[RRuskin]

I routinely but not always, compress bass when I mix. For vocals, I volume edit before even thinking about adding compression. My system is hybrid so I prefer to send signals out to hardware devices - dbx 165A or Allison Research Gain Brain for bass/FMR Audio RNC for vocals.

 

[Eric V]

Thank you @RRuskin

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

Interesting. And is the O Scope a plugin?

Yes, a pluggin or physical oscilloscope. Used for tuning and a whole bunch of technical measurements.

Korg keyboards and new vox effects pedals all have small OLED O scopes incorporated in the design. More people need to use this realtime tool. Amplitude over time.

 

[Papanate]

I compress very rarely these days - and it dependent on the track or tracks - and the type of song.

 

[Slouching Raymond]

I watched a Youtube video by a music college teacher.
The students wanted to put a load of plugins/inserts on every channel, caus that's how you get great mixes.
His rule was to allow the students to do just one thing to each channel. Could be an EQ adjustment, or could be compression, or some other thing.
That makes you think hard about what is actually needed.

 

[bouldersoundguy]

I compress virtually everything, but with very different settings depending on the source. Distorted guitars often need little or no compression as the distortion can have a similar effect.

 

[Eric V]

Thanks everyone for all your input. It's interesting reading all these, there are some differences in the answers. But it's all useful so thank you each and every one of you.

 

[LazerBeakShiek]

. Distorted guitars often need little or no compression as the distortion can have a similar effect.

this. its kinda the same thing. the ultimate brick wall.

 

[Maya Clars]

In the beginning.....I used to compress the heck out of everything and that of course was a disaster. Then I went for a while when I put it on sparsely among various tracks because of the aforementioned disasters. And I felt there wasn't enough compression in the appropriate places.

But there must be a medium course of action, a basic compression workflow method I could use.

I use Reaper, ReaComp, and I have another plugin for compression I sometimes use which also has other features such as gate, EQ, and deesser (Schepps Omni Channel). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hm, I think it's always good to ask you "Why do I do it and what do I want to achieve?". Sometimes we might use some plugins without actually analyzing whether we need to use it at all in the given case. And also, surely, depend on the goal you're trying to achieve cuz if you'd want to capture the music as natural as possible, aggressive compression will not create this scene. As for me, I compress my vocals, but very little, synthesizers - depends on the context, if it's a layer that supports the music, I will probably leave it untouched, drums/beat section - probably compressed, but also very carefully.

 

[Eric V]

Hm, I think it's always good to ask you "Why do I do it and what do I want to achieve?". Sometimes we might use some plugins without actually analyzing whether we need to use it at all in the given case. And also, surely, depend on the goal you're trying to achieve cuz if you'd want to capture the music as natural as possible, aggressive compression will not create this scene. As for me, I compress my vocals, but very little, synthesizers - depends on the context, if it's a layer that supports the music, I will probably leave it untouched, drums/beat section - probably compressed, but also very carefully.

Thanks Maya. I have enough experience for the most part to use compression judiciously but I was asking primarily anout what sort of tracks do people put compression on and how much, and you answered perfectly. I personally have found nowadays I put compression on vocals to tame the volume changes, but I do try to work the mic from a performance standpoint to control a lot of that. Compression seems to help if I go lightly with it. Same for drums. I'll add it only if there are some parts kind of jumping out or a bit too low in the mix.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

In the beginning.....I used to compress the heck out of everything and that of course was a disaster. Then I went for a while when I put it on sparsely among various tracks because of the aforementioned disasters. And I felt there wasn't enough compression in the appropriate places.

But there must be a medium course of action, a basic compression workflow method I could use.

I use Reaper, ReaComp, and I have another plugin for compression I sometimes use which also has other features such as gate, EQ, and deesser (Schepps Omni Channel). Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Man... I probably run at least SOME compression on most things, but how much...

I guess rather than trying to really answer your question, I'd suggest this - every once in a while, just dedicate an hour or so to pulling up some instruments or a full mix, and just play with compression. Start on individual tracks first, and at first definitely stick to compression plugins that show you gain reduction as it's happening. What you want to do is learn to really HEAR compression; ten or fifteen years ago I'd have told you that compression used well was something you shouldn't hear. Today, I'd say sometimes that's true, but sometimes it's not, and learning to really hear what a compressor is doing, and then once you've gotten a feel for one, experiment with a few other types of compression and learning to hear their unique "flavors," and then take all that and then just go and do a lot of critical listening and really try to hear compression in a mix...

I still feel like this is a work in progress for me, and to be fair I think most of the last ten years music sort of took a backseat to training on a road bike... but if I look at the mixes I was doing ten years ago and the ones I'm doing today, I think the single biggest improvement I've made is I've gotten much more confident working with compression than I used to be.

EDIT - I guess this might help with an example.



2:28 or so, as you come into the chorus... Adams really lays into a chord or two, and you can hear what to my ears sounds like an opto compressor really mashing the acoustic guitar. It happens in a few other points, but that's a really clear example... and, it's probably a mistake and Adams checked himself into rehab shortly after finishing this album so he was probably out of his mind on something... but I also think the way that acoustic kind of gets "squishy" and blooms sounds awesome.

And, especially in a less sparse mix, you'd be surprised how far you can get away with this before it even really becomes audible, except when the guitars are solo'd.

EDIT #2 - ReaComp is great, btw, I've got a bunch of other "color" compressors I like, but it's super transparent, and very flexible. I use it a lot.

 

[Eric V]

Man... I probably run at least SOME compression on most things, but how much...

I guess rather than trying to really answer your question, I'd suggest this - every once in a while, just dedicate an hour or so to pulling up some instruments or a full mix, and just play with compression. Start on individual tracks first, and at first definitely stick to compression plugins that show you gain reduction as it's happening. What you want to do is learn to really HEAR compression; ten or fifteen years ago I'd have told you that compression used well was something you shouldn't hear. Today, I'd say sometimes that's true, but sometimes it's not, and learning to really hear what a compressor is doing, and then once you've gotten a feel for one, experiment with a few other types of compression and learning to hear their unique "flavors," and then take all that and then just go and do a lot of critical listening and really try to hear compression in a mix...

I still feel like this is a work in progress for me, and to be fair I think most of the last ten years music sort of took a backseat to training on a road bike... but if I look at the mixes I was doing ten years ago and the ones I'm doing today, I think the single biggest improvement I've made is I've gotten much more confident working with compression than I used to be.

EDIT - I guess this might help with an example.



2:28 or so, as you come into the chorus... Adams really lays into a chord or two, and you can hear what to my ears sounds like an opto compressor really mashing the acoustic guitar. It happens in a few other points, but that's a really clear example... and, it's probably a mistake and Adams checked himself into rehab shortly after finishing this album so he was probably out of his mind on something... but I also think the way that acoustic kind of gets "squishy" and blooms sounds awesome.

And, especially in a less sparse mix, you'd be surprised how far you can get away with this before it even really becomes audible, except when the guitars are solo'd.

EDIT #2 - ReaComp is great, btw, I've got a bunch of other "color" compressors I like, but it's super transparent, and very flexible. I use it a lot.

Thanks Drew. Sounds like some really great ideas.

 

[DrewPeterson7]

Thanks Drew. Sounds like some really great ideas.

Honestly, it doesn't feel as "productive" as making music... but just dedicating a half hour to an hour or so (not much longer - ear and decision fatigue lead to diminishing returns) to taking one or two tools, and just throwing stuff at the wall to see what sticks, is GREAT practice. Intentionally overcompressing stuff is a great way to learn both what compression does and what all the various parameters do, and also what NOT to do.

 

[TieDyedDevil]

I used to struggle to understand how to use compression.

I use compression in two different ways.

On channel strips, I use compression as a guard rail. What I’m trying to do here is to avoid clipping the recorder. For instruments that don’t have a high peak to average ratio, I’ll set the threshold at about -5 dB, the ratio at 3:1, a hard knee and roughly 5/150 ms attack/release. For instruments with a high peak-to-average ratio, I’ll set the threshold at -15 dB with a soft knee; I also set the channel level 5 dB higher than the levels for guitar, keys, synths, etc.

I also gate every channel. In my studio, all instruments are direct; there’s no room noise, but there’s still self-noise from the devices themselves. I adjust the gate to close when the device is on but not playing.

On the mix buss I’ll use chained compressors to raise the overall level towards the streaming target of -14 LUFS. My approach here is to set the threshold as deep as possible (roughly -45 to -60 dB, depending upon the compressor), maximize attack/release times and use a small ratio (typically 1.2:1 to 1.5:1).

This buss compressor usage with deep thresholds is the one that always seemed counterintuitive to me. IME, it’s much easier to use math than one’s ears. You need to know the noise floor of your recording. You need to pick a target noise floor for the intended listening environment. If you’re going from a -70 dB studio noise floor to a -45 dB target noise floor, you’re removing 25 dB of dynamic range. The overall compression ratio in this case is just 70 over 45, or about 1.55:1. I’ll spread this across two compressors to avoid breathing and pumping; the ratios are multiplicative so about 1.25:1 for each compressor.

I have a limiter at the end of the mix buss chain in order to limit peaks, aiming for a target of -2 dBTP.

My postproduction workflow is to edit unwanted parts of the 2-track recording (this could be as simple as removing top and tail, but might also involve removing dead air between sections) and raising the level the rest of the way to -14 LUFS, with another limiter to control peaks.