GLUEY COMPRESSION | How To Use A Mix Bus Compressor

[Music] fish oh grim grim grim what a day welcome to england look at the weather pouring the rain shocker oh coffee studio today i'm going to talk you through how to get gluey compression once i get out of this depression you're really such a rhymer [Music] a large skinny latte [Music] hello it's me again and today i'm going to discuss with you compression i'm going to show you a basic way to compress i'm going to tell you how i do it and give you loads of other little tidbits of information as we go along once we get inside the computer but before i start let me just explain a little bit of history on me and compression when i first started working as a mastering engineer many moons ago we only had hardware i had an ssl compressor and if i'm totally honest for about the first five years i didn't really know how to use it so i didn't really use it much which actually was more beneficial to me than i realized at the time because with compression you can overdo it quite a lot and especially when it comes to mastering you can crush things together too much things can start pumping things can go all over the place so if you don't know how to set a compressor up and if you don't know why you're setting up in a certain way it can ruin the music so fortunately for me i kind of left it switched off and and i'd really hope that no one ever asked me how to use it or any detailed information so if you are a little bit confused about compression and about using a compressor when to use it how to use it don't panic it's not the end of the world if you don't know and it doesn't stop you from working on some really good stuff so i'll help you today with what i know about compression and obviously over the years i've added to that knowledge and i hope i know how to use one by now and i do so i'll help you when we dive in to the computer now i'm going to show you on an ssl compressor now these are kind of standard you get a lot of hardware modules that are kind of duplicates of the ssl compressor but what you find is all the settings are pretty much the same on all of them they might have the odd knob here and there for something a little variant of to make theirs a little bit different but what you'll find is the compression ratios and the attack and release settings are fairly similar now when i say compression ratios what do i mean by that hold on let me just get a bit of paper right i'm back i have paper okay so this is basics of how it kind of works so what we have here is we have a line here so as the signal's going in like that then you have a threshold here so let's say threshold okay and so you decide where that threshold is going to be on the signal so say that's a i don't know 20 or something they're making this up so that's where it's going to affect the sound where you've got the threshold now if this would be a one-to-one ratio because one's going in one's going out it's not doing anything then as you go if you had it set to a two to one you've got one going in and it's bringing it down two for every one that goes in and then you've got four to one and then it'll go down to like ten to one which because it's flat straight across like that is basically limiting so if that makes any sense to you good but i have never ever worked that out until i had to do this video to explain this what i'm talking to you about because i don't do that i've got a motto when i master and when i do anything is how does it sound so how does it sound when i'm doing something ssl type compressors that give the gluey sound the standard setting is four to one ratio that works that's what everyone uses most compressors have a sound for a reason people found that sound and then it's just how much you pump into it so for that gluey sound with an ssl type compressor it's four to one but you don't have if if i went to mastering and i started thinking about those ratios and why i'm doing that and and this and and because it's bringing that down doing all the physics stuff i won't get any work done so basically i know that's what that compressor does so that's what i do so let's jump in and i'll show you on a virtual ssl type compressor exactly how all of that comes together so here we are inside of um rx again with uh matt's track let's have a listen to that okay there we go that's working and here we are with a standard t-rex version of the ssl compressor as i said they do all have different features this one's got a grit one which is doing i believe the second harmonics as the compression works so they all have their little quirks just to try and make them different and stand out and that's what they're doing on this one you can also use it in ms mode but let me just give you a word of warning i don't ever use it in ms mode i find i did for a bit because obviously i got into doing ms stuff which is mid-side if you're not used to that or mono stereo if that's an easier way of you thinking about it it does the um left and the right which basically uh that's for another video anyway but i only use it in link mode in l r because i just want it to be nice and tight rock solid and it's gluey i'm using it for glue so i just want it to glue the track i don't want to start pumping the base in the middle and all that kind of thing on here it does have a side chain high passes but the good thing about having this on a lot of compressors is the base will generally tend to be the thing that's going to have the most energy so that's the thing that's going to work the compressor so by having a cut so it's not you doing the base i tend to compress base in a multi-band compressor so that i can generally have more control over the base under about 100 hertz and then you can use a ssl like this above that so so let's keep that at 60 for the moment so we're getting rid of all the subs and all the bottom stuff so that we know that this compressor is just going to be dealing with like the low mids and the mids and the tops you know like i say i'd rather have more control over the low end and not have this being pumped get a pumping sound from this which is what can happen if you have the bass controlling it so uh as i explained before we got into the screen uh the ratios so on the ssl the way to get the gluey sound is to have it at four to one ratio so that's kind of standard now the makeup gain keep that at zero this is for on your mix bus or mastering remember now attack and release times so attack and release if you have the standard way of starting with a compressor always for your mix bus or for your thing i say always but i'm sure there'll be a million people in the comments that tell me no you're not right but the way i do it is keep your attack slow and a very fast release now with the attack by having it really slow it lets all the transients through and so this is how you get a really fast punchy sound and when you're at the mix bus stage or when you're at mastering stage you just don't really want to suck it too much you're going across the whole track you're just trying to push it all together a little bit you're not really trying to do anything too dramatic so really you just want to have you don't want to start ruining your transients so keep the attack on um slow and they're released now basically if it's you want it punchy you want it fast then you keep the release on fast now as you start pulling the release time up that's obviously holding the sound a bit longer so it comes through the compressor and depending on the amount of compression you're putting through it it's going to hold on to that sound a bit more so the more you have on the longer it's going to hold on to it this does have an auto feature so it works out for itself but i suggest using it on the fastest to start with especially if you're doing anything that's dance from music hip-hop anything like that i tend to use a slower release if i'm used doing classical and things i've got a classical track lined up here so i can demo that to you so i'll stop talking and i'll talk as i'm doing it and then you can hear exactly what i'm doing and how i'm doing it so that's the setup so uh let's get match track into a bit that's a bit pumpier so let's bang that in preview mode let's um so you can see nothing's happening we're totally bypassed so if we put it in compression now for me that's working far too hard so i'm gonna have to bring the threshold down until with mastering and with mixing you really at this stage the way you're using a compressor is you hardly want to see this meter moving you want to see it kind of minus 10 there or plus 10 it is on here but you're kind of you want it so it's just nudging along you don't want to see it moving if you see it moving you're probably doing too much now i would say i'm probably doing too much here um the game makeup i'm not going to use because i'm not i don't there's no need for me to pump a load level in because i'm not going to actually hear what it's doing i'm not taking too much off if you were taking say i don't know four db off or something then you're gonna have to you're gonna have to start putting it in and as out can hear the level drops quite a bit when it's out so when it's in it's it's dropping out quite a bit when it's down so yeah you leave that so basically the way you want to set it up is this way so you just get that back down to that and you see it kind of flirting with it okay so now let's put the grit in let's see what that's sounding like and then let's put the compressor in [Music] both channels would help so let's go in and out [Music] so maybe go so we can hear it a bit more so you can hear it's kind of making it groove a little bit more now that i've put that release time up a bit think we can go a little bit more so i'll pull that down you can see that's moving that's probably about one or two there but as ever use your ears work out with your ears [Music] so leaving the base what i did there was i just basically bought the bass up a bit because i i that higher end of the bass it sounds better when it's on 150 there so i just tested that had a listen see what it sounded like sounded good straight away because what it did it made it stop the bass from pulling out the you know working the compressor and suddenly the mids are starting to get more gluey because the bass isn't taking over they're really sort of pumping in and coming together nicely so let's just um preview this again and i'll just bypass in and out so you can hear what that's doing as i do it as with all these things you need to use your ears [Music] so i can see it's moving a bit let's listen i hold you down so it's kind of doing a bit too much now i think it's like bringing out that vocal too much so let's just back that off a bit i don't like that i want it to be smooth i don't want it to be doing too much so let's just bring it down a bit as i said earlier you don't want this moving you don't need it moving listen how much change it makes without it moving let's just move that down it's massive amount but it's not doing [Music] anything you're gonna take me just so i'm just listening i'm working out what it's doing i don't want it to do a lot i just wanted to flavor it up i just want to sort of just pull it together a bit that's i'm gluing it i'm not i'm not smashing it today [Music] all the transients are in there but you can start hearing everything coming together a bit more if you listen to the percussion that all starts kind of coming together with [Music] everything yeah the base starts getting involved there i don't want it involved so you might at some point use this for then gain staging so you know okay i like the sound of this so i like the sound of how much compression is going on but if you want to get your level up through your equipment you might then add a db onto this compressor so you're adding a bit of the flavor of the output of the compressor to then add into your chain so that as you go through each piece of equipment on your on your plug-in chain or on your outboard chain you're then adding a little bit of level every time and then by adding that level it all adds up to a loud track and also you're getting a bit of the flavor of the output of the different compressor whether that's a tube compressor or any kind of compressor that gives you a bit of vibe but again you've got to listen to what it's doing and listen to how it's affecting the sound because as you start turning this up as you start playing with this it's going to affect all the things after this so you need to think okay well how's that affecting the eq after this how's that doing but it's just about using your ears all the time how does it sound so that's fine that's pretty cool that's basically as much glue as i'd give and so all i'd say is most compressors always have their own sound basically um and you find a sweet spot with most compressors now this would be a kind of sweet spot for most ssl type compressors playing with the release time if you've got another track let me just play you another track so that i could really um broaden that out a little bit so if you've got a classical track you can afford to bring you can afford to bring the release time out a little bit it's got a lot of bass going on so we can probably add that in again so everything starts sounding a little bit sweeter a little bit more together the harmonics are all kind of joining together let's take the grit off so that's pretty much how i use it when i'm doing orchestral stuff like it means i can have a little play around uh most of the time with orchestral stuff i'm more likely not to use an ssl compressor if i'm totally honest i'm using something that's got a little bit more character a bit more warmth something like a fair child or you know just something that's got some tubes or something that's can add a bit more tone rather than and when you put release on that you get more of the flavor of the compressor and that way it really colors the sound a lot more so that's what i tend to do with classical stuff but if you're just doing stuff that like pop music hip-hop you know dance music then you want to be using ssl really fast pumpy glue it together everything starts kind of really sounding together and all in one spot and get gets moving and if you just use a multi-band to be doing your bass rather than using the sort of a whole stereo compressor then you'll get a tighter bass sound too so i hope you've got something from that let me know any questions that you have in the comments i'm happy to explain myself or if you have different ways of working with it more than happy to hear them so that i can add them to my repertoire we're always learning so there you have it that is what i know about compression well i know a lot more than that about compression but that is the basics that is all you need to get going that is all you need a lot of the times when you are mixing or mastering you don't need a lot more than that you start getting into other sort of tips and tricks after that it's all kind of gravy as they say so don't be too panicky about compression use it in a very simple way very subtle way and you'll get some great results if you like these videos make sure you press the like button i do these every monday wednesday and friday and they go out at 6 00 p.m gmt so that's uh london time because i'm in the uk if you like these make sure you press the bell so that you get notified i will be offering kind of giveaways and things like that in future so definitely worth subscribing so enough about me but also if you have any questions make sure you put them in the comments i'm looking for things to do videos on so if you want a video on something let me know and also make sure you check out my tic toc and my instagram links are below and there is sort of tips and tricks on those too so check those out that's enough of me plugging the channel get subscribing get liking i'll see you on the next one bye you

Channel: Streaky

Views: 141,083

Keywords: Glue compression, compression, how to compress, how to use a compressor, audio compressor tutorial, glue compressor, ssl compressor, mastering compression, mastering compression techniques, how to compress in mastering, how to compress on mix bus, mix bus compression, mixing compression, gluey compression, compression tutorial, mastering tutorial, mixing tutorial, compressor, mixing, mastering, Streaky tutorial

Id: cC9nJ03CmhE

Length: 20min 8sec (1208 seconds)

Published: Fri Oct 02 2020