Jaem, or any who has knowledge

J, where in my mixer do you recommed using my compressor?

On the main inserts, so that the whole mix gets compressed? Or individual channels so that I can individually control the amount of compression needed for each channel?

I appreciate your assistance with this.

Thanks man!

how many compressors do you have?

and ask yourself what needs/do you want compressing?

if its your bass drum you want it over the insert of the bass drum channel- if its the whole beat over the mix inserts-



greg

Well Ive been doing alot of reading and have gotten many different answers about this.

I actually have (2)mdx 2600 -compressors that would allow me to compress up to four channels.

Vocals is one of my main concerns. I definately want to compress the vocals but I also want it ALL to fit together nicely. Just wondering if anyone had a good approach to this.

firstly choose what you wanna do:

compress to tame peaks or compress for an effect-

compressing to tame peaks for vocals makes sense- strap mono comp channel 1 into insert of vocal channel,

probably want a scecond mono channel for you bass- strap that into the insert of your bass channel- your bass may not need it but generally its good to even out your volumes...

you have two channels left- are you wanting to compress your whole drum loop?if so strap that accross the inserts of your sub grouped drums- if you dont have sub groups you'll have to either comp the whole tune or reroute all the drums to new channels- either way you dont wanna start with extreme settings:

for whole mixes dont ahve you attack to fast- you'll lose your transients...
set the release to release in time with the song- dont have a super low threshold or super high ratio- for a whole mix you'll have certain elemenst like your bass drum that are soo much louder than all your other sounds that with extreme settings you will just have everything squashed everytime your bass drum hits- try subtle settings looking for around 3-6 dbs of gain red on your peaks- DONT FORGET YOUR MAKEUP GAIN!!

THIS IS THE MOST COMMON MISTAKE NOOBS MAKE WHEN COMPING WHOLE DRUM LOOPS (myself included)-

greg

by the way if you are eqing as well start by always having the eq after the compressor, if its before you can get the compressor taming those freqs you so carefully boosted with the eq- once you know what you are doing then think about changing the order- i never eq before compression as i prefer to use eq into the side chain of the comp but its a good rule to learn, know and then break if need be....

Thanks alot Dub!!!

I appreciate it.

nyet problemski....happy comping

greg

keep em handy at your inserts, like Dub said, then put them where you need or want them.

EMF,

The question should be how and not where as to compressors. Many ppl just seem to put them in line bcuz they "clean" up a signal.

For those who dont know:

I compressor compresses the dynamic range of an audio signal. That is to say it makes dynamic range (from noise floor to clipping point) smaller. This in effect can make some of the more subtle sounds louder and more clear in the mix.

Comp on a vocal can help with a talent who goes from quiet to soft and it also can help with a talent who has a tendency to move around when recording.

On a bass it can often get rid of muddyness and give you more punch.

All that being said, I think it is important to mess around with the comp to understand what is happening when you adjust a parameter. While many may claim to have "presets" for various signal types, be aware that various compressors have various sonic differences and in order to use YOUR compressor effectively you need to get to know her.

My suggestion would be to take some mixes and throw a comp on the vocal and the bass, mess with the settings (make sure the unit is showing gain reduction, otherwise the signal is not being compressed) until the compressed signal really cuts through the mix.

Another place for compression is on the 2-bus (master fader to the masses). Here you must be careful, overcompression will result in your mix pumping.

enjoy.....

PS You might want to compress the hell out of the 2 bus just to hear it pump(obviously dont leave it like that when you mixdown). This is good for ear training bcuz it will show you what pumping sounds like as well as a sense for when a comp might start pumping

Thanks alot J!!

I appreciate the help man.

Hey Yo EMFinite,

Don't know if you heard of DJ Vadim?

He gets his drums sounding real phat...

http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/jan00/a ... jvadim.htm

Check it out good info on how he uses his compressors...

Peace

Good lookin ILL!!

Appreciate it. IMA check it out.

you'll know when your stuff is pumping- but if you wanna hear how the compressor works turn your threshold down and your ratio and attack to zero and release to zero- you should have a pretty squashed signal- open the attack until you can hear a transient pop though and set the attack to the ;ength of the transient you want- for example of the dbx 2666xl this has to be at least 1 oclcok to get any real transient attack coming through- yours will differ....then turn up the release so the gain light is falling in time with your tune may wann just solo the snare while doing this- light should go all the down before the next snare hits....id keep it quite fast but with experimentation you'll find that the release is valuble in shaping your sounds

once you've done this raise your threshold and lower your ratio so you are no longer crushing your mix- for continuity use a lower threshold with a low ratio, for pumping, thickening etc use a higher threshold and higher ratio- go for between 3 and 6 db gain reduction-

hope this helps- sopend time playing, and i mean a lot fo time- once you get your head round it all you will be using compression on many things-

greg