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What are your favorite compressor settings for kicks, entire mix, etc..?!
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| Dance123 |
Hi,
I was wondering if you could tell which are your favorite compressor settings for individual sounds like kicks etc.. and also the overall mix. Should you compress all sounds individually or is it better to not use compression on certain sounds, etc.. I suppose most people just mess around with the settings, but any people here with experience who could give some good advise about good compresssor settings to use in trance music in the style of Above & Beyond and other Anjunabeats releases etc.. Please also mention which compressor you use cause there are so many.
Something I would like to know, I sometimes read that people advise to use a short attack for kicks, what is considered a "short attack". Are we talking about 3ms or something or should it be higher?
Would be cool if perhaps somebody with experience could write a good guide about this with sound examples etc.. cause the info in the manuals is mostly too general and not for trance music, which is different from standard pop etc.. |
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| Atlantis-AR |
No favourites. Everything is done from scratch based on the sounds and song I'm working on.
You should compress each sound individually if you feel it would benefit from compression. Generally, that means that a highly dynamic sound (e.g. drums, percussion) gets at least some compression, as do most lead sounds (e.g. piano, or a synth that you want to sound more dense). Even hihats or cymbals may sometimes need a little compression, but watch out not to compress every instrument too much. It might be a good idea to leave a little bit of contrast in your mix between compressed and slightly more dynamic sounds.
There are plenty of tutorials available offering starting values for use in compression, so I suggest to start there, and after a while, play around with the settings a bit. Eventually you'll start messing around with the controls less and less as you become familiar with how to make certain sounds sound the way you want. Of course, some experimentation might still be a good thing.
The compressors I personally use are the Waves LinMB and Waves C1.
Yes, kicks generally benefit from a short attack as you want the compressor to react almost instantly. I would say < 3 ms is considered short, yes, though you might even want to go down to 1 ms or so on a kick.
If you can wait long enough, perhaps I'll get the time to write a good set of articles, though at this stage it doesn't look promising. :(
Hope this answered some of your questions anyway. :) |
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| IDarkISwordI |
Compressors are generally done as a mastering effect over the entire track rather than individual isntuemtns. :rolleyes: Its intent was so that you could send sound waves out over FM and not blow out peoples car speakers with all the bass and treble. Instead, a compressor takes the sound a litterally compresses it into a smaller wave band, generally giving it a more compact and professional (read: full), sound. Not saying you can't compress each insturment, but thats not the main intent. Generally, you set your gains where you want them and then compress it and EQ it.
As for settings, a good quick one to use if you have access to Adobe Audition or CoolEdit, use the Dynamics Processing plugin found in the Amplitude section and then choose 'Classic Soft Knee'. Now, its really best to chang the settings for each track individually but as a good quick compression, this preset will do the trick. If you dont have access to it, the values for the preset are:
cmp: 5 : 1----above -10 dB
cmp: 2.5 : 1--below -10 dB
cmp: 1.5 : 1--below -24 dB
exp: 1.2 : 1--below -40 dB
Compensation Gain = -2dB
Not sure how well you can decipher that but if you can't, ask and I'll explain in greater detail what that all means. |
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| msequence |
Kool.. most importantly what you put in is what you get out. Make sure the individual sounds sound clean and a lot of the balance of the mix has to do with the right volume vs. fx combination. Its not a case of just slappin on a compressor, keep in mind some sounds are already compressed, its using the tools for the emotional effect you want to present with your mix. A good compressor will have a distinct sound to it and the users aim is to use that tool to present the right sound that impacts you when you listen to it. Its how your music makes you feel, otherwise if you cant get joy out of it no one else will. Basically there is no right or wrong.
Matt |
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| DJ Twenty |
| On the subject of compressors, can anyone recommend a good hardware compressor/gate? to give that nice punchy sound to the mix. |
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| Freak |
on a budget or otherwise, the behringer composer pro has never let me down.
new they arent exactly expensive, and second hand they are a bargain.
Dual mono or single stereo- and it has a sidechain.
I swear by these things personally. |
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| DJ Twenty |
Top stuff, compressor looks good.
What sorta sound it produce? Phat nice warm compression ? |
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| Derivative |
| quote: | | Compressors are generally done as a mastering effect over the entire track rather than individual isntuemtns. Its intent was so that you could send sound waves out over FM and not blow out peoples car speakers with all the bass and treble. Instead, a compressor takes the sound a litterally compresses it into a smaller wave band, generally giving it a more compact and professional (read: full), sound. |
where did you hear this?! this is almost entirely wrong. compressors reduce dynamic range. the by product of reducing dynamic range is that you can in most cases make the overall sound that is compressed louder. reducing dynamic range does not always make a sound 'better.' overcompression tends to dull sounds and in some cases introduces unwanted noise - for example, overcompressing a kick drum where the click registers in the upper mids and treble frequencies usually results in hiss as the compressor literally levels out the sub and bass peak with that of the click. very noticeable if you compress an 808 kick drum multiple times with a brickwall compressor.
the reason why compressors are so often used on kick drums and basses is because dynamic range isnt so important for these instruments. presence is more important. these are typically monophonic and centred. therefore, to get the most presence and volume out of their kicks and basses alot of producers tend to compress the living out of them. in hard house, most producers compress their kick drums to the point where they are simply dull, hard, thuds with practically no dynamic. it suits that style of music though. doesnt necessarily work in other styles.
with regards to this thread, there are no wonder compressor presets. god. you should never use compressor presets in general because the effect will depend almost entirely on the frequency range and and dynamic range of the sound being compressed. if you put a compressor preset with a threshold of -5dB and 0 gain boost onto a kick drum that peaks at -10dB the compressor will do absolutely nothing. so much for that preset. and yet it might work better for a sound where the threshold of the compressor is actually below the peak level of the sound being compressed. see what i mean?
if you want a better understanding of compression get yourself a free spectrum analyser (such as elemental audio systems inspector) and do a few trial runs compressing things like kick drums by reading off the threshold values from the spectrum analysis. after a while you can even sort of begin to do it by ear. |
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| Freak |
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Twenty
Top stuff, compressor looks good.
What sorta sound it produce? Phat nice warm compression ? |
Yes
You can get it to pump and suck like a cheap slut. Great for dance music-especially drums. |
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| messytechie |
I'm pretty experienced with compression, but I can't manage to get the Waves C1 compressor to work in cubase. I can get it to compress but I can't work out how to make it sidechain.
Anyone in the knowhow of how to do it?
Would be greatly appreciated... i need that boom...woosh...boom...woosh....boom...woosh...boom...woosh |
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| messytechie |
me just worked it out - thats so overly complicated
anyone know of any easy way to do it stereo, or is mono the only option? |
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| IDarkISwordI |
Well, for one Derivative, my dad used to work in a radio station. All FM radio stations use compressors for the very reason I described. Your use of compressors isnt exactly wrong... but generally speaking, compressors are used so you can ship the song out, aka, mastering. You were correct in that they do in fact reduce dynamic range but I'm thinking you dont understand what that exactly means. Dynamic range has nothing to do with quality, its more of an amplification/modulation type term. In simple terms, it means it normalizes but in a way that everything get set to the same 'loudness'(amplification).
When you speak about the hiss you are getting, that happends for a couple reasons, one, the sample/synthesis you are using is already and two, the sections you are compressing arent set to a flat frequency (not equalized). Generally, when you master a track, you must first sit and endure through a long grueling process of equalizing the track so that all the frequencies are on about the same level (flat frequency response). Then, and only then should you use a compressor. As I keep saying, its a mastering effect and is intended as such. The preset I described can be applied to a track with a flat frequency response and it generally sounds as professional as you can get without sitting for a couple hours doing sound analysing.
The way you are using it is very similar to how distortion works, which in essence is just a compander in itself, where you can compress or in the case of distortion, expand it and cause it to clip, and then the output of that is brought back down to a reasonable level, giving distortion. |
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