Compression.....Anyone got any cool tricks?

[jazzius]

Ok, must people (on other forums) just slap a compressor on the 2-buss and mix away, and this works very good.....but anyone got any more crafty tricks.....i'll start the ball rolling with something i just tried........

.........putting a compressor on all the main groups (so vox, BV's, kick, snare, bass, keys, guitars, cymbals you get the idea).....then, use the auxilary sends to send to the sidechains of the other compressors.....so setting up a sort of hierachy or layers of compression......so maybe vox ducks BV's, kick ducks bass, Kick and snare duck everything (but are not compressed themselves like would happen with normal 2-buss compression)....all vox ducks keys, but maybe guitar ducks BV's or whatever etc etc.....i've tried it in a limited way and it seems to work very good, but i'd love to get some more stereo comp's so i can go really over the top with it....or am i getting too muso or something?.........anyway, more tricks?

[Cape]

I hate comp mania, soon everything will be compressed to such a degree that it really might asweel be a computer playing it. Compression is not musical, dynamics are.

Theres no dynamics in a squish sound, good for radio, but not real.

Classical music on the other hand..................

[Jay Kahrs]

Compression is like a drug, you gotta be careful with that shit because it's too easy to add way too much and smush the life out of everything. With that said, when I'm mixing I'll start with the 2-buss compressor after I get my basic mix together. From there I'll start compressing whatever else needs to be compressed. Usually because it's not sitting in the pocket right or the players dynamics were too extreame and I hate riding faders more then I have to. I've done drum mults lots of times, that can be a great thing for a rock song or anything where the drums need a lot of impact. I've also done guitar mults to beef those up when needed but it's more rare. Using a compressor and sidechain to duck can be a great way to get guitars or whatever out of the way of the vocals but it's usually something I try as a last resort.

[joeq]

jazzius, I think Jack Douglas used to do a lot of this sort of thing. I remember reading somewhere that Double Fantasy was one album that had a lot of compression layers. It was quite a while ago, so I don't recall where I saw it.

[Knox]

"Pumping" drums on rock tracks is a wonderful thing to me.

[Curve Dominant]

I like to compress instruments in the tracking stage somewhat. Not to the point of lifelessness...within reason.

Then, in the mix, put a compression on the lead vocal, and nothing else. Let all the instruments and backing vocals breathe around that one solid lead vocal at the center.

Works for me.

[s2n]

I've split a guitar signal with an old speaker crossover and individually compressed each low- and hi-frequency output...pseudo multi-band compressor. Interesting effect.

[jazzius]

I'm not talking about slamming each compressor......just getting everything breathing.........maybe the GR meters would hardly move........i just like getting things connected..........

[studjo]

I also like to compress everything just a tiny bit.
One thing I found out that works for me is to put an Alan Smart C2 across the drum bus. It's hardly working but then I put another compressor (whatever lies around) on the snare and I get this "slapping in your face snare sound" that I searched for so long. It works everytime I tried it and the snare compressor isnt't that important (I did it with some cheapo TLA comp and I love it )

Happy compressing Jo

[Jules]

Key a compressor across gtrs with the bass drum.

It makes alt rock tracks sound the The Smashing Pumpkins / Sex Pistols.. or a car stereo flipping out & distorting...

I like it, many hate it.

[Ckevperry]

Originally posted by studjo
I get this "slapping in your face snare sound" that I searched for so long. It works everytime I tried it and the snare compressor isnt't that important (I did it with some cheapo TLA comp and I love it

Is that the TLA50?

[barforama]

<snip>
I've split a guitar signal with an old speaker crossover and individually compressed each low- and hi-frequency output...pseudo multi-band compressor. Interesting effect.
<snip>

Have you tried panning these low/high signals differently?

for example: gtr 1 low panned 10 o'clock, gtr 1 high panned 2 o'clock. gtr 2 (gtr 1 doubled) low hard right and gtr 2 high hard left.

/torsten/

[Remoteness]

Originally posted by Cape
I hate comp mania, soon everything will be compressed to such a degree that it really might asweel be a computer playing it. Compression is not musical, dynamics are.

Theres no dynamics in a squish sound, good for radio, but not real.

Classical music on the other hand..................

I agree. Radio play or not, many records today have a dynamic range of 1 dB. It's truely an insane predicament.

[studjo]

Chevperry

I don't know how they're called. It's a single space unit and it's blue. I check it tomorrow.

Jo

[barforama]

TLAudio Indigo series 2021 I guess?

[dtobocman]

Tricks? Here's an old one...

Mult the return of a signal and feed it to two channels at the board. Insert a compressor across one return and squash the hell out of it. Now blend this channel with the original signal (favoring the original). The idea is that you get the fullness of the compression, but the crispness and some of the dynamics of the original signal.

It's supposedly the secret to the Who's Next guitar sound. Works great on vocals too.

BTW, if you're doing this on a DAW, insert the same plugs on both channels and set the clean chanel with "blank" settings, or you'll get bad phase problems because of the slight latency.

Also, you can EQ the compressed signal (smiley loudness curve) for a bit of an enhancer effect.

AND ... the PSP plug-ins all have a "mix" parameter which affects the same result as mxing the two signals at the board. Cool!

-- David Tobocman