Compression in recording questions...

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rob_on_guitar
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Compression in recording questions...

Post by rob_on_guitar »

Ok, this is something I haven't really used much, lately I have been fooling with it on drum tracks and vocals, I guess what I really want to know is, what does compression actually do? (Simple terms would be great), and how is it best utilized when recording?
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Re: Compression in recording questions...

Post by Single coil »

Keeps the playing dynamics consistent.
Set a volume on the compressor, and it'll try to keep EVERYTHING you feed into it at that volume.

Someone else will be able to explain in far more detail no doubt.
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Re: Compression in recording questions...

Post by bender »

Put simply it reduces the dynamic range by increasing the level of the quiet parts of the signal relative to the loudest parts (it technically does the opposite but that more accurately describes the end result). You can use it to smooth out a performance (by effectively automatically turning up the quiet bits) or to add punch. Compressors also tend to have a fairly strong character of their own so you can often use them to add "vibe" although too much will turn your song to mush. There's probably not a lot of need to overly compress sampled drums (since they'll already be compressed- whether they're drums loops or a virtual drumkit like BFD or EZDrummer). Modern vocals tend to be pretty heavily compressed- I'd describe them as smashed to fuckery. You can use a compressor as you're tracking but bare in mind that you'll be committing to the level of compression you dial in.

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Re: Compression in recording questions...

Post by rob_on_guitar »

Cool, cheers, makes sense. At the moment I am venturing into live drum sounds, going to make a weekend of it soon, see what different things we can come up with.
Next band project will be one guitar, one bass, drums and vox set up, so will be relying on everything sounding as good as i can get it, no hiding behind walls of guitars.

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Re: Compression in recording questions...

Post by crowbgood1 »

This is a cool site about not 'over compressing' Just turn it up!

http://dynamicrangeday.co.uk/
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Re: Compression in recording questions...

Post by TmcB »

benderissimo wrote:Put simply it reduces the dynamic range by increasing the level of the quiet parts of the signal relative to the loudest parts (it technically does the opposite but that more accurately describes the end result). You can use it to smooth out a performance (by effectively automatically turning up the quiet bits) or to add punch. Compressors also tend to have a fairly strong character of their own so you can often use them to add "vibe" although too much will turn your song to mush. There's probably not a lot of need to overly compress sampled drums (since they'll already be compressed- whether they're drums loops or a virtual drumkit like BFD or EZDrummer). Modern vocals tend to be pretty heavily compressed- I'd describe them as smashed to fuckery. You can use a compressor as you're tracking but bare in mind that you'll be committing to the level of compression you dial in.
Wow, that's probably the most easily digestible explanation of compression I've seen. Nice!
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Re: Compression in recording questions...

Post by Timi »

Firstly you need to learn how to use compression, too many people compress things "because you're meant to" without actually considering how and why they want to change the sound. Presets are great for learning, find some you like on a particular source and play with the controls to see what they do.

Threshold should be obvious, but lots of people seem to overlook attack and release at first, and on drums in particular these are sooo important. Ratio usually needs explaining, it's given as x:1, meaning that for every x amount of dB over the threshold the signal will only get 1dB louder. For most things 3-4:1 is a good starting point but play around. Higher values like 20:1 are known as limiting, ie they hit the threshold and don't get any louder.

Other things to consider are the order of eq and compression, parallel compression, bus compression and sidechaining.

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