Do you guys use this? If so, HPF or LPF? The manual says that with LPF the sidechain will react to low end more, causing the typical ducking you associate with sidechain, but I find when I set it to HPF it really makes the low end pump and the hats breathe, react, and come alive.
Feel free to include any tips for the compressor. I feel the Rytm sounds way better when it’s over-compressed and distorted.
Yes, that’s how it’s supposed to work - although it can be a bit confusing conceptually.
Reacting to bass frequencies, using an LPF, means that they (the bass frequencies) get compressed more, whereas an HPF will leave the bass less compressed - making it more prevalent.
Typical ducking will happen with the LPF, but usually the ‘typical ducking’ we think about when talking about beat-driven electronic music doesn’t apply to the whole mix. You typically don’t want the whole mix to duck when there is bass since that would duck the bassdrum as well.
I usually have this off, and the compressor jjuuuust barely working.
However, recently I was setting up a decent compressor setting to span a 2 hour set. The HPF setting really let the low end breath and slam while the mids-highs got a bit more controlled.
I’ve noticed this too.
Bro I grand SLAM that master compressor and leave the mix about 50% NY style. I was rehearsing with my band the other day and there was so much variance in volume from patch to patch I’ll have to look into my comp settings lol.
I think that’s not right.
LPF sidechain will lowpass the sidechain signal but compress the whole mix. This way only low frequencies trigger the compressor while high frequencies that would normally pass the threshold, and therefore trigger the comp, are filtered out by the LPF. HPF sidechain is just the other way around.
What you are describing is the concept of (multi-) band compression which is definitely not built into the AR.
I personally use HIT mode most often. I think in HIT mode you can drive the comp really deep and it still sounds great. HIT mode is a balanced mode between LPF and HPF modes. It’s very useful for bus compression, which is the most obvious use for the AR compressor.
Cheers
I’m pretty sure I’m right. And you’re pretty much describing the same thing using different words, but maybe misunderstanding what a compressor does when ‘triggered’.
What happens when a signal hits the compressor threshold is that the compressor tries to reduce the dynamic range, it will compress the signal. If the signal is mainly bass from a main mix (LPF) the bass will be the thing to activate the compressor, meaning it will try and compress the bass frequencies as they in that case are the loudest component of the signal.
You can try it out yourself if you want.
I really recommend using FabFilter’s Pro C-2 since it visualizes everything nicely.
Multiband compression is several compressors working on different frequency bands using crossover filters, and that’s indeed a different thing than what is on the Rytm.
This makes more sense to me. So when it’s set to HPF, it is reacting to the peaks of the hats and snares, which has the impression of letting the kick pump and come through a little bit more. I can’t help but feel the manual is a little misleading.
With HPF, the whole frequency spectrum still gets compressed, it’s just the at the low frequencies are less a part of the information that is used to determine the threshold of when the compressor should begin to compress (…the entire frequency spectrum).
And as such, descriptions like these confuse things a little, and might lead people to believe that some kind of dual band compression is at play:
Because not only is the bass less compressed, the entire signal is less compressed. The threshold needs to be adjusted to achieve a higher level of compression.
Right, I could have explained that a lot better, haha - thanks!