Fix Your Compression Problems. Before They Ruin Your Mixes

Today I want to clear up some of the most common  myths surrounding compression. Why?Because there   are so many compressors out there available on the  market and so many producers seem to struggle with   it and, frankly, it's quite a confusing subject at  least it was for me when I was starting. Now, please   bear in mind, these are just my opinions you might  not like them you might completely disagree with   them and that's absolutely fine but I just want  to share with you what I found has worked for my   music over the past 25 years and what's helped  my students get assigned to some of the world's   biggest labels okay cool with that caveat in mind  let's get to it so myth number one is everything   should be compressed so before we get into my  story about this myth first let's look at the   basic controls of all compressors so compressors  control the dynamic range of a sound this means   they can change the differential between the  loudest parts of the sound and the quietest   parts of sound bringing them closer together now  some compressors can do more than that and we're   going to touch upon that in a few minutes but the  four most basic controls of a compressor are the   threshold the ratio the attack and the release  now the best ever analogy to understand these   controls is think of a compressor like your mum if  you're listening to music up in your room because   suddenly you're a teenager again the threshold is  the level at which your music's playing when your   mum shouts upstairs at you to turn it down the  ratio is the amount by which you turn it down when   she shouts at you and the attack is how quickly  you turn it down when she shouts at you the   release is how quickly you turn it back up again  when she's gone away I wish I made that analogy   out but I didn't it's brilliant isn't it now I  first discovered compression when I downloaded   propellerhead's reason in probably the year 2000  and up to that point I'd just be using my Amiga   500 with a few external synths and I'd never  invested in a compressor so I didn't really know   what it was now there was a software compressor  included in reason so I got to playing with it   and at first it completely confused me but then  when I realized what it could do it enamored me   and the trouble with that was I started put ears  on everything think it was going to make my music   sound really loud and really fat but what happened  was most of the time my music just ended up really   weird and pumping and squashed and I couldn't  figure out how my music still wasn't sounding as   loud and as fat as my favorite producers and look  I think this is pretty natural when we discover a   tool for the first time an exciting new tool  we tend to put it on too many things because   we're excited and we think it's going to fix  everything but what I learned was that actually   by compressing less I could get my mixes sounding  louder and more clear and there are a few reasons   for that so let's go through them the first reason  is that a lot of samples that come in Sample packs   have already been compressed so if you think of a  kick drum or a snare drum from splice or somewhere   like that they're already peaking at 0 DB and if  you start compressing it even more the chances are   you can dial in settings on the compressor that  are going to contradict the natural compression   that's already baked into the sample so here's an  example of a sample that's already been compressed   and then I'm going to put a compressor  on top of it and we can hear what happens so it actually sounded better before I applied  the compression the second reason is that if you   think of the entire processing chain you're  probably going to have some compression at   the group or the bus level and you're definitely  going to have some on the master channel for the   mastering stage so every single compressor  that you're adding into this chain is just   squashing that sound more and more now of course  there are exceptions to that rule for example if   you're recording live instruments like a vocal  or a guitar that's going to have a lot more   dynamic range so you are going to need a lot more  compression so here's an example of me recording   my voice and you can see it's quite Dynamic so  let's look what happens when we compress it so   here's an example of me recording my voice and  you can see it's quite Dynamic we can see that   the quiet parts are made louder and the loud parts  are made a bit quieter reducing that dynamic range   but as you can see there's a logical reason  behind that so my rule of thumb is generally   speaking if in doubt compress less okay myth  number two is that compression just controls   Dynamics now most people think that compressors  just control the volume of the sound over time   much like using the controls that we looked at  in the first myth and whilst that is true of some   compressors other compressors can actually change  the tonality or the character of the sound as well   as the dynamic range so here's an example of a  sound put through three different compressors have   a listen and see if you can hear the difference in  tone between each these are the good things good   things good things these are the good things good  things good things these are the good things good   things good things did you hear the difference  the chances are you didn't hear the difference   between example one or example two or you're much  less likely to but you did hear the difference   between the third example and the other two so  which of these compressors do affect the sound in   this way and which ones should you be using for  which circumstance it kind of implies that you   need loads of different compressors for different  purposes right well not so fast and that brings   me on to myth number three which is you need loads  of different compressors to sound professional as   you're doubtless aware music production is very  complicated and it's a very in-depth subject   and if you're just starting out trust me you  will find this out soon enough but don't worry   because it's still amazing fun but one of the  biggest blocks to learning music production is   simply overwhelmed people get overwhelmed at the  [ __ ] amount of stuff there is to learn so the   question then is what should you learn and in what  order well where you don't start is on the subtle   differences between their uad and the waves and a  black rooster audio versions of the classic 1176   compressor versus the equivalent remakes of the 2A  or the 3A blah blah blah you can do everything you   need for just three types of compressor and your  stock plugins are absolutely fine sure if you've   been producing for two or three years or more  you might benefit from these slight nuances but   if not it will probably only serve to confuse you  so here are the three main types of compressor in   my estimation one is just a normal compressor  two is a glue or a bus compressor and number   three is a multi-band compressor this simple  categorization should make life easier and sure   of course you can have multiple plugins for each  of those categories but you don't need need that   at least not until you've been producing for a  while the main point is learning where each of   these three main categories of compressor is going  to be used until you know the effect they have on   a sound and you learn them inside out so really  quickly let's touch upon them a normal compressor   is really useful for just raining in the dynamic  range of a sound manipulating the Peaks and the   transient and getting it sounding how you like  for example here's a normal compressor on a vocal   and baby I want you more and more each passing  day though I mean I say so we're allowing the   transients of the vocal through we're making sure  that the compressor is closed off by the time she   sings the next lyric and we're just bringing  it all together a bit closer so it's a bit more   sausage-like instead of very very Dynamic boom  that's it and apart from the vocals and maybe   a couple of other things I probably wouldn't use  compression directly on a sound for most of the   things in the track okay the second is glue or  bus compression these tend to have a smoother   outcome you've got less control over the attack  and the release and the most popular type of   compression is an SSL solid state compressor but  if you're using Ableton the blue compressor is   absolutely fine and there's the equivalent in  logic as well okay the third is a multi-band   compressor and this is simply where you add  compression but for different frequency bands   within a sound and this is a Surefire way to  almost certainly ruin your mix if you don't know   what you're doing a popular use for a multi-band  compressor for me at least is on the master   Channel where you can just tighten up say the kick  the low end allowing the mids and the high end to   just breathe a bit more in the mix but you could  use a multi-band compressor if you are compressing   say a bass guitar and you want some of those upper  harmonics to be less compressed than the bass   a similar idea to the mastering chain but again  multiband compression is a very specific tool that   you probably won't need to use that much okay myth  number four is is there a magic setting for my   compressor that's going to make everything sound  amazing the amount of emails I've received asking   if there's specific compression settings that  are perfect for a vocal chain is well Lots but   the truth of the matter is it depends on one the  signal going into the compressor to the tempo of   the track you're working on and three what effect  or outcome you're actually going for this is like   asking if there's a magic setting on an oven that  will cook all food perfectly of course there's   not but when you understand what the controls  of the oven will do and the characteristics of   the stuff you're putting in the oven is this  analogy still working then you can then you   can match those two things together and get a  really good result having said that there are   a few rules of thumbs which might help so let's  go through them one if you want the transience of   drums to pop through for example if you're using  some glue compression on your drum bus having a   longer attack of about 30 mm seconds will allow  those transients to pop through the mix [Music]   two if you want your vocals to sound  quite natural you'll need a slightly   longer attack and release seems  there's never time to appreciate   all the lovely things you do but if you really  want to lock in those Peaks and get an upfront   in your face sound you'll want a shorter attack  seems there's never time to appreciate all the   lovely things you do and three in general in terms  of release you basically want to make sure that   after each peak of compression the compressor has  a chance to go back to zero when it comes to the   gain reduction otherwise you're likely to end up  with like a squashed horribly compressed sound and   in this there's a very specific creative reason  you're choosing to do that you probably don't want   it okay myth number five is compression is how  you make your music louder you make your music   louder by turning up the volume compression  can be a part of what makes your track louder   as in average loudness rather than Peak but  it all starts in the sound selection and the   composition as well as several other mixing and  processing techniques you can use like saturation   and Equalization so here's an example of just  using compression to get perceived loudness and   then we'll listen to that same example but  using a bit of EQ and saturation beforehand around me now [Music] here how we've just got more space  to breathe in the second example and that's   why you probably struggle to get your music  sounding as loud as your favorite producers   without losing Clarity and punch if you're  just relying on compression and actually   I would argue that spending some more time  on the sound selection and the composition   then using a bit of saturation and EQ is an  easier thing to get right than just trying   to rely on compression which I find is easier  to get wrong okay myth number six is the chain   placement much like the perfect settings myth  I also see producers either fixated on having   the compressor in the same place in every  chain that they use for example it must be   after the saturator and the EQ every time to  get the best results or the flip side of that   paying absolutely no heed to the order of the  plug-in chain whatsoever now I would say that   the first mistake is better than the second  one because at least they're being aware of   the fact that the order of the plugins does make a  difference but depending on what you're trying to   achieve there isn't a one-size-fits-all solution  I'm going to give you one really quick example of   this so you can hear the difference it makes now  in this example I'm going to put on a bit more   Reverb than I would usually just so you can  hear the difference so this is the vocal dry and we can see it's got compression  it's actually going through a side   chain compressor as well so let's turn on  some of that Reverb at the end of the chains we can hear there's plenty of time for  that Reverb tail to die out now let's   move it to the beginning of the  chain before all the compressors   and listen to the difference and I'm going  to switch between the two so you can hear so we can hear the Reverb is now being ducked and  compressed and bounced as well let's switch back and that's going to make a huge difference in the  mix and that's why understanding what's happening   to the sound what's happening throughout the  signal path is so important because it allows   you to visualize and conceptualize what's  actually being done to the sound so you can   craft each specific sound and situation to your  needs and the overall compression is a tool just   like any other you wouldn't pick up a hammer and  start bashing away at the wall without having a   specific purpose and knowledge that the hammer  is the right tool for that job intention is   everything if you can conceptualize and visualize  what you're trying to achieve with your sound then   you can work out which tool to reach for and as  I mentioned compression is of course only one of   many powerful and essential tools when it comes to  getting the perfect mix which is why compression   can actually end up hurting rather than helping  if you don't understand the other tools at your   disposal so with that in mind I put together the  14 mixing tips I wish I wish someone had told me   when I started my career over 25 years ago because  it would have literally saved me years so I hope   you found this video useful I hope you enjoyed  it and thank you so much for watching okay I will   catch you over at that next video where we will  transform your mixes in just a few short steps

Channel: EDM Tips

Views: 75,328

Keywords: compression, audio compression, compression explained, how to use compression, 6 mistakes compression, 6 compression mistakes, compression tutorial, best compression settings, what is audio compression, basics of compression, rules of compression, ableton compression tutorial, compression for beginners, is more compression better, how to set up parallel compression, how to do perfect compression, how to use sidechain compression ableton live, how to apply compression, EDM Tips

Id: lDkfnOp3b5o

Length: 13min 1sec (781 seconds)

Published: Fri Jul 14 2023