Discuss the various methods you use in music production, from compressor settings to equipment type.

By ILL Treats Tue May 03, 2005 5:52 pm
Beat God wrote:4:1 ratio with a slow attack and medium release for snares. i think the problem with a lot of the advice given in this forum is that it is hard to hear what a compressor is doing if u dont know how to use one. eq generally is used to make things sit properly and correct sound errors, or as an effect. u wanna cut with an eq not boost, cause this will seriously expose any shortcomings an eq has especially digital.

layering snares and kicks goes without saying in getting a phat sound, but hip hop is also about punch and a compressor is the only effect that is going to give u that. once u learn how to use a comp, it will make your life so much easier. i can turn the weakest kick or snare unlayered into a phat sound just with an 1176ln.

i personally rarely use eq on snares, however i almost always use eq on kicks. my weapon of choice the pultec eqp-1a. i start to cut 60hz or 100hz depending on the bass.

eq will make an instrument cut through a mix but that punch is all about compression. hip hop started in nyc and the ny style of mixing is to over-do comppression. so learn it and learn it well.


Good advice, appeciate it, I tend to personally go through my funk records get a piccolo snare and then double it up normally with a similar snare but lower the pitch of the second. I then compress it, I tend to just mess with the controls till it sounds good, I then eq it and a bit of Mid around 3k and then cut the other eq. I then compress the whole beat using a different compresser. I always use the low end theory for kicks too...
Peace

By Beat God Wed May 04, 2005 2:17 am
oh i forgot to mention to increase the threshold or input (the name varies from compressor to compressor) until u have the amount of compression that u want. I tend to go for -7 gain reduction on both snares and kicks. then i increase the gain to make up for the loss of volume if needed.
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By metafor Wed May 04, 2005 3:41 am
yea after what beat god said i was messin w/ that. Man! this opened up a whole new world for some sick drumz. I'm workin on a beat right now. I layered 1 snare, and a clap together woth some compression its sound really good. i try to post up in the next couple of days.