soft and hard knee question but not kind of "what is it about?"

[romanski]

Hello to all, as i have seen this forum is very usefull and its possible to get a proper answer from the people around which is cool))

I understand what the hard and soft knee means but i'm bit confused with using it. what i mean.lets take drums. almost every article i tried to find about it recommends to use hard knee on drums BUT at the same time such comps like Renessaince comp or ssl comps(talking about plugins only here) are very popular and they are all soft knee compressors.i was thinking about purchasing ssl waves bundle but again- they are soft knee comps so im verrry confused what to do. so the question is:what knee is better to use on drums?

i know that it is all subjective and i should reffer to my "ears"..but maybe it is just kind of a poll or something.

p.s. i write electro stuff, minimal or breaks. dont mess with "real drummers".

thank you!

[Lagerfeldt]

The Waves Renaissance Compressor has a soft knee, and it's always on. While many people including myself find the RComp a nice software compressor, it does have its limitations. In my opinion the soft knee and other factors make the RComp less ideal for drums - at least if you want more punch.

It has a tendency to reduce transients and punch which is exactly why it's so effective on many other types of material. Or perhaps drums in case you *don't* want as many transients or too much punch.

I find the Sonalksis SV-315 or Sonnox Oxford comp much better for adding punch to drums than the RComp.

The Waves SSL, as you probably know, is an emulation of the hardware SSL master bus compressor which has 3 different ratios: 2, 4 and 10. The SSL also has a knee but unlike the Waves RComp the knee is different depending on what ratio you have selected.

This is "behind the scenes" and you have no control over this. The 2:1 ratio has the softest knee, 4:1 has a more discrete knee, and the 10:1 ratio is closer to hard knee.

That's why I often use the SSL 4:1 ratio on drums as opposed to 2:1 (although I'm using hardware, not the Waves SSL).

I agree with the consensus that soft knees are not as useful for drums as harder knees.

[doorknocker]

if you're in PT then the Digi III compressor is highly recommended, it has a 'Knee' control and therefore it's easy to check out the spectrum form 'soft' to 'hard'.....in other words 'to use your ears'.....

[romanski]

Lagerfeldt


what a great explanation!thank you so much. you have explained exactly what i needed.


doorknocker

not on PT but still thank you for your recomendation.