Series Compression

[doncolga]

Hi everybody,

Series compression...for those of you with way more experience than I have, is this something that's very common? I guess it's built into MixBus as each channel and bus has a compressor. I was listening to some 70's-ish stuff this weekend and just really admiring how smooth things were. Really smooth, but also really open, unlike some genres today that are really smooth and crushed. Any guidelines on achieving the former?

Donny

[Sthauge]

I was listening to some 70's-ish stuff this weekend and just really admiring how smooth things were. Really smooth, but also really open, unlike some genres today that are really smooth and crushed. Any guidelines on achieving the former?
Donny

Well, I grew up in the 70's ad 80's. Let's take a bit history first. Back then, in the era of good, high quality and expensive hifi, we measured the quality in S/N ratio, freq response etc. as of today, but if you should have top notch hifi you looked for the slew rate performance of the amplifier. Today I guess most do not even know what slew rate mean, so slew rate is the power amps capacity to build voltages quick when a transient occur. I remember that a Peavy CS 800 (2*400 watt) was capable to deliver 20 volts pr microsecond. The best amp I knew of was a Tandberg 3000 series poweramp that deliver 120 volts pr microsecond. It was all about transients back then for the hardcore hifi enthusiasts.

So back to today: compressors can crunch your transients and make your mixes totally dead or as Alan Parsons(sound engineer on Pink Floyd - Dark side of the moon) say "When you compress something that's already been compressed it loses everything, it loses its life" and "MP3s are the worst thing to happen to the music industry in years.". Both these statement relate to crunching your transients and remove freq that are "not necessary". The bottom line here are - if you want music with life, air and space, DO NOT CRUNCH THE TRANSIENTS with compressors.

To be practical how to preserve your transients:

- If you have to compress something, make sure the compressor let the transients trough with slow enough attack time.

- use parallel compression instead of compression in the signal path. I'm very often have 3 mixbuses for parallel compression - vocal, drums and instruments, this because they need different settings and gain.

- compression on the masterbus to "glue thing together" very easily remove the transients and all your air and space is gone.

- If I use a masterbus compressor I always use a multiband compressor and only in the mid-low end. I almost never compress anything above 800 - 1 kHz and only 1 dB or 2 from 200 - 800 Hz with relative slow attack time. Below 200 Hz I might do some more aggressive compression just to get the lows right.

If you listen to many mixes of today you will hear the music is only "between your ears" as I like to describe it. It's flat and one dimensional. There are little or no 3D room around you. You can eg. hear the reverb making distance but it's still "between" your ears, it's not in a space around you. Your imagination of a 3D room do not exist, there's no dept in the mix due to missing transients. I'm not talking about binaural mixing though, but a feeling of space, air and room that are present if it's done right.

Hope this can give some ideas for making good mixes with air and space and the vibe of the 70's

S :-)

[Tassy]

Fully agree with Sthauge. Therefore, I never "want to save time" to use 1176 or any to "treat" the peaks on vocals, for example. I use clipgain and leave as little to do for my compressors as can be.
Another thing 90% forgotten: different compressors have different harmonic distortion types so it may do a lot mess if not compressors of the same harmonic character are put in chain or chosen for different tracks. I have taken the pains and time to analyze all my compressors and their "knobs doings" from this regard, so I know what my compressors can or cannot do.
Tassy

[madmaxmiller]

I just saved this thread as PDF. While we will never "win" a "loudness award" with this approach - it will be clearly the most pleasant mixes. This is the shortest explanation I have read so far, thanks Steinar & Tassy.

MMM

[doncolga]

Wow...completely awesome responses here.

[jonetsu]

Stacking compressors on a single track is quite common. Each one has its own purpose. In general terms one can be there to 'fix' the sound in a way (eg. upward compression), whereas an additional can focus on making the human aspects surface up, to bring life to a part that was played in isolation, not with other musicians playing at the same time and interacting while playing.

The following can give an overview on theory and practice. By Michael White (Whitney Houston, James Taylor, David Bowie, David Byrne, Jimi Hendrix remixes, etc...). Less than 15 minutes.

"Understanding the 3 Compression Zones"

[GiRa]

Disclaimer: I am just a guitar player and writer who learned to record and do rough mixes to save money in the studio.

I think an awesome feature of mixbus is the region gain. Select a range, switch to the design tool and move the gain up or down. This allows using less compression and lets the sound engineer use the compressor to shape the sound gently. It also helps people without a physical console to use less fader automation, achieving the same results in an easier way.

Is this a good strategy?

[jonetsu]

I think an awesome feature of mixbus is the region gain. Select a range, switch to the design tool and move the gain up or down. This allows using less compression and lets the sound engineer use the compressor to shape the sound gently. It also helps people without a physical console to use less fader automation, achieving the same results in an easier way. Is this a good strategy?

I use that all the time. Shaping somewhat the signal before it hits the compressor. Same with EQing: before compressors. This said, and the beauty of mixing, is that there's not that much cookie-cuttering going on. Sometimes exceptions are made that might even go against some principles. Although in general it's a good idea to shape the signal so that the subsequent compressor stage(s) can work way better and as you've mentioned, in a more subtle way.

The same is true to achieve loudness at the mastering stage. If the signal is a roller coaster ride, the result will be mushy as the compressor/limiter will work way too much to achieve the desired loudness.

This said, my own musical creations are usually not a reference, but I'm always working to improve.

Cheers.