WRONG Bus Compressors Can RUIN Your Mix...

my friends we've been diving into some deeper topics lately and i really want to keep up that trend pretty often in the comments i have people showing me mixes and or directing me to their band and one of the biggest tells that they didn't mix it properly is always the same the bus compression it's so easy to point out that i felt like i needed to make a video explaining uh which type of bus compressors you should be using on the correct sources we have vca opto fet tube as options for our compressors and we also have drum guitar bass and vocals for our busses by the end of this video you'll understand which are the proper pairings for your groups if you need a deep explanation on the types of compression make sure to click my video the four types of audio compressors explained we'll also be doing demonstrations of all the types of compressors on each source throughout this video so what's happening fam miami here with jst and i used to second guess which type of bus compressor to use should we use the same bus comp on finger base as we do on slap base and since we already have our thumb up you might as well click that like button subscribe button and tap that notification bell this is a compression video so let's just say my transistor game is still crazy it's hard when you first start out because i think we all have a habit of just doing what we saw some big producer do but we don't necessarily understand why they did it a lot of what we do in mixing is monkey c monkey do we use this di box or guitar because that person uses it or we use this interface because we see someone else doing the same thing time to dig a little bit deeper into the reasons that they actually choose to use those things i also want to mention here that any compressor can be a bus compressor thanks to the power of plug-ins making anything stereo this isn't limited to stereo bus compressors only on to our first subject drum bus compression first we have to think of the type of transient information coming off of the source we're dealing with shells that have a snappy transient response so that rules out a few things for me already we don't want to grab an opto compressor because those don't have attack and release and when we're dealing with drums controlling those elements is extremely important the attack and release allow you to shape the drums so that only leaves you with three other options tube vca and phet phet isn't gonna be the right option here either for a bus because it's gonna add harmonic distortion to the entire thing tube compressors can work here because they have attack and release and add the most color of the compressor options but the attack and release aren't the quickest that you're going to find so if you're working on a slower song it actually makes a lot of sense to use something like the fairchild or manly very mew the holy grail of drum compressors fast or slow however is the drumroll ironic the vca compressor and that's because it doesn't distort due to the ic chip gives you an attack and release threshold and sometimes even knee this is the reason we see our favorite mixers always using the api 2500 ssl bus comps and those types of things on the drum bus a drum bus is essentially like 16 different instruments different shell types symbol types and with that many instruments in play it makes sense that it would work best with what has the most controls so let's get into some examples but just be aware i like to throw a limiter after my bus comp just so i can catch any peaks that are sneaking by [Music] on to the next type of bus compression bass bus compression and i'm going to be real here you can find to use for basically any type of compressor on vase it's not as finicky as a drum buss the most famous use of a fet compressor on base is the 1176 and this is because of the harmonic distortion that's added but miami you said you don't love distortion in your low end that's why you split bass pay attention to the word harmonic here so that's not the same issue and for fast transient rich bass like something that's been played with a pick a phet or a vca is great so you can get the attack and release right and with slower bass lines or anything finger played in optocomp like an la2a sounds amazing and a tube comp like a fairchild would add a nice color to it that's why in the old days the opto and tube were really famous compressors music was just slower back then and the slowest reacting compressors work great on that type of material but let's listen to some examples of different types of compression on a base source so on to our third topic guitar bus compression and this is always a tricky one because depending on the style of music the guitar is already compressed extremely distorted guitars are literally blocks of distortion and in these cases you typically see a producer just use the limiter but when you get into those mid gain guitars you start to notice producers using compression to keep those peaks in check and let's start with what we aren't going to use fat compressors uh no thank you that's not the type of harmonic distortion that we're looking for here we'll leave that to the amplifier and pedals opto compressors aren't my favorite things to use on electric guitars but i do like the way that they smooth out acoustic stuff when it gets to tube compressors definitely gives it a nice color to help them sit in a mix and works okay with mid tempo music but once again the tried and true winner here is going to be the vca compressor i'm a big fan of the ssl channel compressor and the api 2500 as well as jst guitar glue for the vca types and for those that want to argue and say the ssl channel isn't a bus compressor well it used to be it was the ssl sl520 dual channel strip compressor but it's not so easy to find these days for whatever reason i'm not a big fan of the ssl bus comp for this but that's probably because the channel strip isn't stepped like that bus compass on to topic number four vocals vocals are very much like bass in this regard there's really no right or wrong answer and in all honesty stacking some of these compressors actually works very well together and the compressors you would use here are very similar to what you would do on a base as well for more aggressive vocals we go with fets mainly rock and metal stuff fits here because of the added grit i don't really use vca as bus compressors here but if i was gonna pick one i would once again pick the channel strip ssl over the bus compressor tube sounds really amazing on vocals and opto is really taking over in the hip hop world right now with things like the cl-1b um you know the la2a has been a staple forever to get the best of both worlds if you use an 1176 and la2a in unison you get the attack and release controls as well as the grid of effect while getting the smoothness of an opto compressor once again let's take a listen to how they affect a vocal [Applause] [Applause] so all in all understanding when and why to use a specific type of compressor on your bus makes it one of the most important things you can do now you have an understanding of why to use one over the other pay attention to the speed of the song the transient of the source and then use that knowledge you've gathered here to always choose the right compressor to throw on your bust are there any special cases in which you would disagree with what i'm saying is this pretty much the routine that you guys do as well let's talk about it in the comments below like we always do and i will catch up with you guys next time if you're an engineer on the come up give this video a thumbs up don't forget to subscribe you only have to do it one time and tap that bell for notifications so when a video drops you know the location until next time i am out of here mic drop accept as engineers we know i'd never really dropped this thing because that get really expensive even if it is a piece of shirt later

Channel: Joey Sturgis Tones

Views: 37,213

Keywords: home recording, audio production, mixing tutorials, Joey Sturgis Tones, bus compression, how to choose the right bus compressor, which compressor to use, vocals, drums, guitar, bass, what bus compressor to use, bus compressor walkthrough

Id: x-ZBzrLH9o4

Length: 9min 13sec (553 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 04 2022