I just tried compression for the 1st time

SUPER LATE PASS PLEASE! it is the awesome switch to make everything sound sonicly balanced

Or the kill switch to make everything flat as a pancake. Use with caution my friend.

i hear people saying really good and really bad things about compression all the time, thats why i dont **** with it that much, i dont want to ruin my sounds. i understand what all the parameters mean on the compressor but somehow i still don't understand how to use it correctly. so i'm pretty much planting a flag in this thread and officially declaring it a "compression noob" thread, does anyone have any quick tips they want to throw in here that would help someone understand it? not just like defining ratio and threshold, but things that you've learned with experience. for example, what type of samples/sounds usually need compression? and how much? etc.

I usually only compress kicks and subs. It allows for layering and stronger punch and cleaner bass "drag" without reaching 0 db. Which is distortion. My advice... don't do it. Let the guy mastering and eqing for final bounce do it. You can lose dynamics, and just rape all your hard work to garbage.

ghosty wrote:I usually only compress kicks and subs. It allows for layering and stronger punch and cleaner bass "drag" without reaching 0 db. Which is distortion. My advice... don't do it. Let the guy mastering and eqing for final bounce do it. You can lose dynamics, and just rape all your hard work to garbage.

but i want to be the guy mastering and eqing. thats what i'm saying. i don't necessarily mean as a profession but i want to have those skills so that i can mix my own music, so i'm basically asking for some starter tips.

a good way to use the compressor would be if lets say you have a sample that has some interesting noises in the background but its not loud enough kus the main melody is to loud compression will make the to loud melody as loud as the background noise, meannning you also have more head room in that case since you suqished the tracks so you cannn make the sample louder before destortion

hope that helps

There's no excuse for any bedroom producer to be leaving the engineering of a track to someone else, unless you have way too much money to burn or your best pal is an engineer!

How are you going to shape your own sound if you leave it to someone else to tidy up your shit?

Nah, in this day and age there's absolutely nothing stopping the aspiring beatmaker to at least learn part of the craft.

Coz wrote:There's no excuse for any bedroom producer to be leaving the engineering of a track to someone else, unless you have way too much money to burn or your best pal is an engineer!

How are you going to shape your own sound if you leave it to someone else to tidy up your ****?

Nah, in this day and age there's absolutely nothing stopping the aspiring beatmaker to at least learn part of the craft.

^^^^ This is the proberly the most awarding practise to do with making music.

Defo the hardest thing to get ya head round but once it clicks it dont half make a difference.

Compression don't kill anything just a Multi band comp and Eq cuts one every track.

drunkmonkey5556 wrote:does anyone have any quick tips they want to throw in here that would help someone understand it? not just like defining ratio and threshold, but things that you've learned with experience. for example, what type of samples/sounds usually need compression? and how much? etc.

1. Quick tip number one, there are no quick tips.

You're a producer, it is your decision as to whether you want to compress a sound or not, and the amount of compression you want to use. There are no golden rules, no magic settings, It's just using your knowledge to sculpt a sound.

I disagree coz and cos. You have to focus your studies and how they relate to what your pursuing first. If you want to produce, focus on that. Don't waste time learning 2 completely different crafts at the same time. An enginer can master country,rap,rock,punk,ska, and classical. On Any given day. Can you make all thoes different types of music?That's what they do. Listen to "notes" and scales. And take the vision of an artist and mold it into a marketable product based on industry standards, and natural balance of "note" blending. So in order to master and eq correctly you have to approach each sound and track as a note. Get it in tune, effect it,eq it,alow it to breath,strangle it a little.. the list goes on. But it has to be done first on a note by note basis. I eq and master each track and monitor in 4 bar sections of a track the whole length of the track.. its a long time consuming hair pulling process.

Making beats is 100% different on the approach. Your building on feel and swing. Seeking the pendilum effect and head nod factor. You keep it flat and strong. You create rhythms, riffs, and melodys. Your skeleton is the boom,bap,clap,hat.. and let's face it most people are to lazy to make tracks that are at least 75% original. Not hating, just saying. The melody and riff are easy pie.. just sample chop, re arrange. Mastering and eqing is unique and never the same.

So no. Don't study two things at once in this buzz. You will get lost and lose natural performance. Master one, then study the other... One.

drunkmonkey5556 wrote:but i want to be the guy mastering and eqing. thats what i'm saying. i don't necessarily mean as a profession but i want to have those skills so that i can mix my own music, so i'm basically asking for some starter tips.

Compression IS.... damn it's kinda tough to put in one post.

It's kind of like pushing water through a pipe or nozzle if you will. Let's say you have a low signal (pressure) coming out of your pipe. It's just dripping... Compression is like added a high-power nozzle on the tip. Now you can control the pressure (volume) out of the pipe.

Better example:
Remember the "Whisper Song" by the Yin Yang Twins... The vocals on that song recorded quiet (low signal) but compression cause the vocals to sound nice and loud over the bass.

Compression is ALL ABOUT CONTROLLING DYNAMIC RANGE!

ghosty wrote:I disagree coz and cos. You have to focus your studies and how they relate to what your pursuing first. If you want to produce, focus on that. Don't waste time learning 2 completely different crafts at the same time. An enginer can master country,rap,rock,punk,ska, and classical. On Any given day. Can you make all thoes different types of music?That's what they do. Listen to "notes" and scales. And take the vision of an artist and mold it into a marketable product based on industry standards, and natural balance of "note" blending. So in order to master and eq correctly you have to approach each sound and track as a note. Get it in tune, effect it,eq it,alow it to breath,strangle it a little.. the list goes on. But it has to be done first on a note by note basis. I eq and master each track and monitor in 4 bar sections of a track the whole length of the track.. its a long time consuming hair pulling process.

Making beats is 100% different on the approach. Your building on feel and swing. Seeking the pendilum effect and head nod factor. You keep it flat and strong. You create rhythms, riffs, and melodys. Your skeleton is the boom,bap,clap,hat.. and let's face it most people are to lazy to make tracks that are at least 75% original. Not hating, just saying. The melody and riff are easy pie.. just sample chop, re arrange. Mastering and eqing is unique and never the same.

So no. Don't study two things at once in this buzz. You will get lost and lose natural performance. Master one, then study the other... One.

You're quoting the 20 year old Producer's Bible on numerous occasions in your post, and it is becoming more and more irrelevant as the years roll by.

A beatmaker/producer doesn't need to master the 'art' of engineering or mastering, but with every DAW having these tools, you'd be crazy to not want to at least attempt to make your sounds better.

Most of the producers I like mix their own tracks, and probably also sit in on mastering sessions. If you have a very specific sound that you want to achieve then I believe it is essential you do as much of it yourself as you can.

Thanks for the props. I never read the 20 year old bible. So obviously it was wrote with common sence in mind. But if your new you need to focus onlearning the equipment, then using it, then making paterns, then arranging. Then after that learn to make it better. You gotta walk before you run. You can't make sound better if you don't even know why the sound does what it does to begin with.

ghosty wrote: and let's face it most people are to lazy to make tracks that are at least 75% original. Not hating, just saying. The melody and riff are easy pie.. just sample chop, re arrange.

So true.
Youtube is a library of proof. An old funk record, jazz record or some shitty sample, chopped, pitched, re arranged with a library drum beat underneath. Borrrrriiinng

Compression should be used when dynamics need to be controlled. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. Its a hard one to get into, especially because compression and dynamic control is a volume control so it can be hard to hear.

The key to compression- less is more.
Kicks and bass lines shouldn't need to be compressed if you start out with quality Kick and Basses.
Most samples taken today are from finished products which have usually been mastered anyway.
Compressors work well on raw sounds. Analogue synth which can be unpredictable at the best of times. live field samples or live recorded drum sounds. I use compression when making my samples. eg. recording a bass guitar or vox.
Be careful though. Over compress and you loose the body of the piece. Flat and no depth.

I recommend you play around with it. Over compress, under compress, Try and get that bouncing compression sound, then forget everything about compression and work on fine tuning your sound, make that perfect saw synth patch and mangle a couple of vox samples so they sound like rhythm tracks.

Enjoy

the cosmic pimp wrote:

Coz wrote:There's no excuse for any bedroom producer to be leaving the engineering of a track to someone else, unless you have way too much money to burn or your best pal is an engineer!

How are you going to shape your own sound if you leave it to someone else to tidy up your ****?

^^^^ This is the proberly the most awarding practise to do with making music.

Defo the hardest thing to get ya head round but once it clicks it dont half make a difference.

Compression don't kill anything just a Multi band comp and Eq cuts one every track.

1. quote, maybe that someone else (professional engineer) has better listening environment and better equipment to do the job. not to mention the experience?

2. quote, "just a Multi band comp and Eq cuts one every track" - are you serious?