API 2500 Deep-Dive: Exploring the Secrets of Bus Compression

so here are my favorite settings when using this compressor on drums and the mixb a true classic which is often misunderstood and perhaps a bit confusing to work with the mighty API 2500 it's been in my toolbox ever since the beginning of time because I love the way it sounds and it's also very versatile but this is far more than just a love letter to a compressor it's a deep dive it's a complete guide and everything you need to know about working with API [Music] 2500 uh before we started I wanted to mention that I usually use this on the stere bus or on the drum bus but either way I rarely slam it and I'm not a big compressor Slammer I use them more in a more Gentle Way uh unless I do parallel compression but a good way to learn compression or learn any plug-in is by overdoing it first it's a little bit like when you try to learn a new filter in Photoshop the best way to learn to know what it's doing is by first putting it 100% And then you can back off a little bit just to get a little bit of that effect so as I said the first section is very basic got attack ratio release uh but generally for a punch your drum sound I would go for a slower attack and a faster release and the interesting thing with this compressor is that if you put your release time all the way to the right then you get a variable release so you can really fine-tune your release time the part of this compressor that I find the most interesting and fun is the middle section and here you find the thrust and the feed back and feed forward settings so let's dive into those but to fully understand this topic it's really important to first understand the concept of side chain but before that I wanted to invite you to my brand new studio te bre chat room and Community it's completely free and there's a link in description below it's a great place for sharing and learning and connecting with other people but also for fun and geeky conversations and I hope to see you there I would say that a side chain is a little bit like if I was sitting holding a volume knob and whenever the sound gets loud I turn it down right my brain will be the compressor circuit um and my hand is doing the action and the sound that is actually passing through the knob is the main signal so then what is the side chain well I would say the side chain would be my ears and what it's hearing from the speakers because depending on what I'm hearing I will then make my judgment and that can differ what I'm hearing might not be the same thing as passing through the knob there are two different things and the same thing happens in a compressor automatically you have two signals one is the audio signal passing through and the other one is the one that is fed into the brain of the compressor so that the compressor can make its decisions on based on your settings or attack and release and another common feature to find in a side chain is a high pass filter because you don't want the compressor to hear Too Much base API took this a bit further so what's the main difference well you have two settings and Norm is basically bypassed loud instead of high passing the sound they added a shelf to to the sound which which starts from the bottom and goes all the way up to the top of the range which gives you a boost in the highs but also a dip in the lows right and the result is that you get a much more transparent compression and when it's set to medium you kind of get the same thing but you get a a little dip in the lows and a boost in the heist and the mid-range is flat and I personally keep this setting on loud uh most of the times both for drums and the Mix B so what is new and old here you can get two very different distinct tones new is a lot faster and snappier and more modern and old is more smooth a little bit slower and more vintage sounding so what is feed forward and feedback type of compression so when the sound comes into the compressor and it gets split into two when we have it set to feed forward it simply does that at the input stage in the feedback mode the audiio paath gets fed by the input but the side chain gets fed by the output which is kind of strange but that's how it works delay in the side chain because first it has to travel through the compressor circuit untouched into the output and then back so that delay will make the compressor a little slower in general um it won't be as Snappy and fast let's hear the two in action on [Music] drums so the knee setting is also another characteristic so even if you have your attack very fast and you have a very Snappy compressor you can still soften up the curve a little bit by using soft knee or you can have a very soft compression and you can have a hard knee making that soft compression a bit harder H giving it another dimension as well to play with and the cool thing with this compressor is that you can get a lot of different tones using all of these controls you can combine a Snappy modern kind of compressor with a clean setting loud using soft knee or you can get a more vintage sounding compressor that is more um colored with a hard knee which is more aggressive and of course your attack and release time and all that would also affect it so the big question is how do I use this compressor on drums and mixb if I want to go for a punchier drum sound I will go for a slower attack time and a faster release time and almost always using the loud setting and generally a feedback type compression if I want a much more snappier more modern drum sound I would go for a feet forward type compression and when it comes to the knee setting I tend to keep it on medium and when it comes to the amount of compression I tend to go for a 4:1 ratio and you will see my needle moving around 1 DB occasionally not the whole time and when it comes to the mix bus I tend to use it even more sparingly

Channel: Thomas Juth | Studio Tea Break

Views: 2,513

Keywords: bus compressor, stereo bus compression, drum compression, mix engineer tips

Id: FFwimmx58-w

Length: 5min 54sec (354 seconds)

Published: Mon Jan 01 2024