Compression - what was your a-ha moment? 25 years on, still looking for mine!

The Lounge General Discussion
#1

Confession time:

I’ve been producing music for over 25 years and somehow managed to have released tracks during that period that have actually been played out in the real world, by real people, at real venues and parties… and I still don’t know what I’m doing when it comes to compression! (and lots of other things, I’m sure, but let’s stay focused here, okay). Thank you mastering engineers.

I read, watch and listen longingly to all sorts of people waxing poetic about this and that compressor and it’s “transparency” or “colour.” How it’s great for this or that because it’s “FET” or “optical.” And on, and on…

And yet, unless I’m squashing the shit out of a loop like I’m getting grapes ready for wine, I feel close to the equivalent of tone deaf. What the hell?!

So, with that little rant and cry for help out of the way… more practically, have any of you been in the same boat and managed to reach shore? Was there something at some point that just clicked… like an aural epiphany of sorts - or what it a slow, methodical process, or?

There are approximately 5,352 different brands and types of hardware and software compressors out there.

I wouldn’t mind being able to form an informed opinion on why I prefer one over another and, in the process, have more fun and control over my work.

Teach this old dog a new trick, won’t you?

Thanks in advance!

Woof woof

13 Likes
#3

That helped me.

28 Likes
#4
15 Likes
#5

That’s about the extent of mine. And the look on my face as I look for answers (not as pretty though).

1 Like
#6

I can use a compressor. I know what the knobs do. I’ve played with a bunch of different software and hardware compressors. I’ve read guides. I have a sound engineering diploma from an actual achool I actually went to (IMW). I can create a few sounds and solve a few problems with them… but I havn’t studied them enough to explain the effects with the types, nor to feel strongly like I need to spend £1000s on rare ones (although I remember the Wave Pye model doing great noisey shit to something I made years ago and wondering about hardware…)

The only track I’ve had released by anyone else was a drone jam session on a free sound art compilation about 100 years ago. I doubt I compressed it.

So…
A) just keep on truckin’
B) that guide by the Kush guy is by far the best explanation of a compressor I’ve come across. It’s accessible, detailed, and just keeps playing the audio so you can hear what he’s talking about whilst he explains it. Plus he seems really high and it’s cute.

15 Likes
#7

The technique Stavros describes in Mixing With Your Mind did it for me, also known as the ARRT method. Works every time.

1 Like
#8

Don’t let anyone kid you that they actually know what they’re doing with compressors. We’re all just fiddling knobs until it doesn’t sound awful anymore.

22 Likes
#9

That‘s one of the problems I feel, too many options available that distract from building a connection to one or two good tools and get to know them and their effect more intimately / deeply.

Personally I feel compression is very good and important to manage dynamics in vocals, live bass and guitar parts…basically anything that is performed with a high level of dynamics. What sounds great live might not sit well in a mix with too much dynamic range - compressors can help with that.

Also, moving a source front and centre, giving it more presence and punch is a nice result of compression.

Creative use extends to changing the way transients punch and pump, so effectively it can change the groove and vibe of a source in ways you couldn’t really do otherwise.

And then there’s the whole voodoo that the release knob brings to the table with subtle overdrive effects that can be found there.

I’m sure you know all of this, of course, but my point is really - if none of those “effects/results” of compression are necessary, useful or wanted for you, then you don’t need the tool. Simple as that :slight_smile:

1 Like
#10

My default approach for pretty much everything… :rofl:

#11

Screenshot_20220121-143619
Screenshot_20220121-1436191080×1054 121 KB

37 Likes
#12

Personally, I think compression gets over-mystified. The little goblin metaphor at the beginning of the thread is spot on.

I’ll go out on a limb and say compression on a single instrument or drum track it is usually used to even out the volume of a performance. Maybe some of the guitar parts are too loud when compare to others that are very quiet. The compressor is then used to even out the volume of the performance.

For electronic musicians who are mostly sequencing their synths and drums it isn’t often necessary as the volume of those sequences often don’t very much MIDI note to MIDI note (or at all depending on the patch and the VST or piece of gear). And even when we program in velocity we now have so much control you don’t need a compressor because you can tweak the sequence to sound good without one.

On the other hand a really wild synth patch with lots of modulation might need it.

Of course you can use a compressor more things than what I mention, but whatever you are doing with it, it is always about volume attenuation and transients. Like with drum one shots you might use a compressor to make it smack a little harder or to soften it, depending on your settings.

I find that I mostly don’t need compression making electronic music I like to make. I’m really not an expert and this might all be an oversimplification on my part.

7 Likes
#13

That guy is pretty awesome

1 Like
#14

Monolake’s interesting point of view:

  • Q3. On first impressions I found “Silence” lighter & brighter in the higher frequencies, there is plenty of clarity, space & transparency and the bass is warm, yet full and rounded – the kick drums still have punch. Overall a gentle warm & pretty sound that seems happily co-agulated without the usual tool of compression. To what extent would you say this could be due to the ‘no compression policy’?

Robert: I guess a lot. But my initial approach came from another perspective: When recording physical instruments, compression seems to make sense to me; one can achieve a certain level of intimacy by making the quiet parts louder, enhance those interesting details in the background etc… However, in my compositional process I do this already when creating the sounds itself. I build my own backgrounds, and therefore I can simply decide how prominent they are by mixing and editing. This to me eliminates the need for compression on this part.

The other classical use of compression is working with its dynamic effects. I know people who make great use of that, but when ever I tried it so far, at the end I preferred to leave it out. In most cases I simply don’t like it if I hear a compressor ‘working’. And if it is very subtle I can get the same effects by other means.

There’s of course a third interesting part of the story and this is how to use compression in a mix. I realize that my non compression approach has its disadvantages; playing this CD on a cheap stereo is not rewarding. The same goes for most headphones. In this regard, my decision was quite elitist. I wanted it to sound good on a good stereo.

Back to mixing: without compression, the art of mixing becomes much more important. Since every sound has space, there is much more room for placement, but also much more chances to do it wrong. I feel that in most cases I achieved a quite satisfying balance here, and that in those cases the individual sounds really do have an aura around them, and this is what i wanted to achieve.

From: monolake interview - producing an electronic music album with no compression - Caro C creative electronic music

7 Likes
#16

:rofl:

1 Like
#17

This is the aha moment. For everyone.

If you can describe what is happening when you turn a knob, then you can make youtube videos.

5 Likes
#18

I almost never use it. If I have a guitar part where some notes stand out for being too loud or soft, maybe. But that’s it. I prefer to mix with lots of space, some eq to remove unneeded frequencies, and some kind of normalization at the end.

I’ll also take a look at the waveform of the mixdown, and look for any too-high peaks that cause the rest of the song to be too quiet. Then I’ll address those peaks manually, to see how best to handle them.

The idea of putting a compressor on everything as “glue” doesn’t interest me. It always sounds worse on my tracks.

2 Likes
#20

Dan Worrall is great for stuff like this, he did a bunch of videos for fabfilter, and his own channel on youtube is also great.

Watch that to get the gist of the relationship between knee/ratio/threshold/attack/release and the source material.

This guy talks about the various types

Basically they range from “clean” to “colorful” where color = change in the sound. Clean compressors just do the compression, but color compressors will subtly change the timbre.

I’d suggest watching the fabilter one and turning the knobs/listening with a clean/transparent compressor, then get a “color” compressor like a diode and do the same.

3 Likes
#21

For me there was no big a-ha moment but rather many small a-ha’s over the years. Compression can be a basic, unnoticeable utility such as taming transients on a slap-bass or lightly smoothing out the dynamics on a vocal take, or it can be a drastic creative effect, completely altering the sonic character of a drum loop or an entire track for a remix.

If you can barely notice compression until it’s completely squashing the audio the you really do not need to worry about the difference between VCA and FET. Slap the default compressor your DAW on a variety of sources and play with it. If you look for some magic wow-effect then you probably won’t find it. But if you use it judiciously on some/all of your sources it adds up to a huge difference to how your track sounds overall.

One understanding that took a while to get to: Hard compression on your channels can make for an impressive-loud-in-your-face sounding track for the first couple of minutes, but eventually can make for flat-boring songs and albums and gigs for that matter. So if I thought I had a great drum sound when I started a mix and later feel the track is lifeless, many times the answer for me, is to go back to your channels and release those compressors a little. That is true for VCA-FET-Tube-digital-analog-whatever.

3 Likes
#22

I mostly use compressors on synth bass that is being tweaked to keep level in check, or on kicks to bring out the attack a bit. I pretty much hate obvious compression on a mix buss, it almost always sounds awful to me.

Easiest way to think of a compressor is as an envelope follower and vca, that is basically all it is.

3 Likes
#23

I bloody love the DT’s compressor on percussion. It balances and ties it all together beautifully.

1 Like