What Is Mastering? Blog

[didi]

In this lesson we give a brief overview of compression and how to utilise it for maximum gain

[Icetickle]

Could you write something about multiband compression? You did mention it in the "Compression - Technique, Overview" but It's not enough since it's one of the most important mastering tools. It's not that easy tho.

[outbound]

Could you write something about multiband compression? You did mention it in the "Compression - Technique, Overview" but It's not enough since it's one of the most important mastering tools. It's not that easy tho.

http://www.what-is-mastering.net/multib ... -overview/

Just for you mate

[Icetickle]

Could you write something about multiband compression? You did mention it in the "Compression - Technique, Overview" but It's not enough since it's one of the most important mastering tools. It's not that easy tho.

http://www.what-is-mastering.net/multib ... -overview/

Just for you mate

Thanks man!

The thing is, I was struggling with how much should I compress and which band.
Compressing the low end harder and leaving the highs uncompressed seems logical and works great, thanks for that tip.

But it's still unclear to me when and in which band should I adjust the attack time to let the transients go through. Or should I just go trial and error mode with this one?

And should I adjust the gain makeup on each band looking at the maximum gain reduction or the minimum GR (then just bring up the limiter on the end) on the each band?

Thanks again!

[outbound]

Could you write something about multiband compression? You did mention it in the "Compression - Technique, Overview" but It's not enough since it's one of the most important mastering tools. It's not that easy tho.

http://www.what-is-mastering.net/multib ... -overview/

Just for you mate

Thanks man!

The thing is, I was struggling with how much should I compress and which band.
Compressing the low end harder and leaving the highs uncompressed seems logical and works great, thanks for that tip.

But it's still unclear to me when and in which band should I adjust the attack time to let the transients go through. Or should I just go trial and error mode with this one?

And should I adjust the gain makeup on each band looking at the maximum gain reduction or the minimum GR (then just bring up the limiter on the end) on the each band?

Thanks again!

It all depends

If I'm working on a master and I want the high end to have more transients coming through then I will make sure the high end has a slow attack, if I want the low end to have more transient come through then I will make that one have the slow attack. Maybe both, maybe none.

It's just by listening you have to decide whether the source material will work better with these attack times so at first it will be trial and error but over time you'll refine your technique so you can tell just by listening exactly what needs to be done

Hope that helps?

[Icetickle]

Could you write something about multiband compression? You did mention it in the "Compression - Technique, Overview" but It's not enough since it's one of the most important mastering tools. It's not that easy tho.

http://www.what-is-mastering.net/multib ... -overview/

Just for you mate

Thanks man!

The thing is, I was struggling with how much should I compress and which band.
Compressing the low end harder and leaving the highs uncompressed seems logical and works great, thanks for that tip.

But it's still unclear to me when and in which band should I adjust the attack time to let the transients go through. Or should I just go trial and error mode with this one?

And should I adjust the gain makeup on each band looking at the maximum gain reduction or the minimum GR (then just bring up the limiter on the end) on the each band?

Thanks again!

It all depends

If I'm working on a master and I want the high end to have more transients coming through then I will make sure the high end has a slow attack, if I want the low end to have more transient come through then I will make that one have the slow attack. Maybe both, maybe none.

It's just by listening you have to decide whether the source material will work better with these attack times so at first it will be trial and error but over time you'll refine your technique so you can tell just by listening exactly what needs to be done

Hope that helps?

Basically trying both you will see what works for your tune.. Yeah, helps!

[fragments]

Nice one on multiband compression. I have Maximum but have only ever fucked up a mix with it lol.

[titchbit]

Outbound/Fragments/whoever else - I'd like to get your opinion/advice on this. Over time I've found myself avoiding compression more & more. At this point I compress most drums individually, add a little bit on the drum bus & some on the master bus too (if it's a self master). There may be some exceptions, but that's mostly it.

I know ther edm world has been abusing compression these days, but from the way I hear people like Outbound talk about it, it still does have some legitimate use & seems to be one of his most important tools. This is what I don't understand and why I hardly ever use it anymore - compression is linear, it's not doing anything fancy. It just decreases the volume by a ratio & brings it back up by a set amount. I don't see how this is useful when I can simply adjust the volume fader to wherever I feel it should be. I mean, it's not like C2 & C3 have significantly different volumes coming from the same instrument, so over the course of a song, none of my patches are all over the place volume-wise unless I'm automating the volume, in which case I DO want the volume to change (otherwise I wouldn't be automating it, duh ).

When I started producing, I remember thinking compression takes the louder frequencies down & brings the quieter ones back up, thus changing the timbre of the sound, but no, that's only multiband. So another perceived use of compression checked off the list.

I guess I realized the reason people love compression is because it just makes their shit louder. When I realized this, I thought to myself, fuck it, I'll just skip the compression & go straight to the volume fader. What's the point?

I don't think I'm fully getting my point across, which is frustrating. I have more to say about why compression seems useless to me, but I can't put it into words. I guess the last thing I've been trying to figure out how to say is that I also realized that if I take the compressor off my master track and just bring the volume of each track up a little, then it will be just as loud on paper (no matter what I can't go over 0 dB right?) and it still sounds just as loud ("perceived loudness"), but it also sounds more natural & "right", like the compression was tainting the song.

That said, I recently sent a song (top one in my sig) to Outbound to be mastered, and he told me he used a good amount of compression on it. The mastered version is fantastic compared to my self-master, so I know that compression has a legitimate use, leaving me kinda frustrated.....

[Icetickle]

You should focus less on trying to figure out why should you use it rather than just doing it.
Try putting a multiband compressor on the master, tweak the way you like it and then compare the uncompressed and compressed signal. If it sounds better compressed than use it.
I just do it because it makes my tune sound louder and stronger.

You should wait for outbound to answer it tho.

[titchbit]

You should focus less on trying to figure out why should you use it rather than just doing it.

The message of Outbound's latest blog post seemed to be "don't use it if you don't know why you're using it."

Try putting a multiband compressor on the master, tweak the way you like it and then compare the uncompressed and compressed signal. If it sounds better compressed than use it.

Typically, aside from volume, I hear no difference when I A/B with a compressor.

[Icetickle]

You should focus less on trying to figure out why should you use it rather than just doing it.

The message of Outbound's latest blog post seemed to be "don't use it if you don't know why you're using it."

Try putting a multiband compressor on the master, tweak the way you like it and then compare the uncompressed and compressed signal. If it sounds better compressed than use it.

Typically, aside from volume, I hear no difference when I A/B with a compressor.

"don't use it if you don't know why you're using it." - you are just testing stuff to learn why would you want to use it.

You are using it in the mastering process to make your track louder. You could do the same with a limiter but this is a more gentle way to do it, especially with a multiband compressor. You will still use a limiter after you compress it to catch peaks and bring the levels up tho...

And compressed signal with makeup gain (proper multiband compression) compared to the original signal with +1 to +2dB boost doesn't sound the same. The difference is what I called "strength".

[outbound]

@ Dubunked - just read some of that long ass post. From what I can tell you understand that a compressor effects volume yes and why should you use one instead of just pulling up a fader? The thing that clicked for me in this area is you aren't factoring in time.

Try to think about it as if you were moving the fader but it was happening over a duration of time rather than a fixed point.

If I have a kick drum that hits every beat, then there is the initial transient and then it fades down to nothing and the body of the kick rests in this quieter section.

Say we want to hear more of that body (the quieter bit) because hearing more of a sound makes it feel 'closer' more exciting. However just turning up the fader for the whole of the duration will mean that the transient will then hit too hard, it may even be unpleasant to listen to it's that loud.

What we want is for that transient to stay at it's current loudness but have the body louder. So imagine if you have your finger on the fader. What will happen is this:-

1. Initial transient happens, this is over our threshold so we bring the fader down during this period (this is assuming silly fast attack time and look ahead but we'll go with it)

2. As time progresses the input passes below our threshold so we begin to pull the fader back up to it's starting point.

3. This has brought the transient down but left the body as it is so the overall track is now quieter.

4. We introduce makeup gain to bring the transient back up to it's original volume and in so doing the quieter section gets pulled up with it.

5. We have now achieved our original goal of keeping the transient at the same level while bringing the body up louder so we hear more detail in the sound.

It's a bit easier to think of it that way in a time sequence, this is a pretty basic explanation. There are so many ways compression can be used but this is a good example.

Let me know if that cleared things up and if not I can go into more detail

[fragments]

^that is incredibly insightful ...never thought of it that way before.

@dubunked: I pretty much relate to what you wrote..at this point I'm pretty stingy about compression and use it mostly on drums or buses.

[titchbit]

Yeah thanks Outbound that was very helpful. I had the feeling the key to me and compression is that I don't spend enough time thinking about and adjusting attack & release times, and apparently "time" in general.

Thanks

[outbound]

Yeah thanks Outbound that was very helpful. I had the feeling the key to me and compression is that I don't spend enough time thinking about and adjusting attack & release times, and apparently "time" in general.

Thanks

Glad it helped man! Thinking of it this way was how I 'got' compression.

Yeah just experiment with the attack and release. Make sure to bring the threshold down so it is really 'working' then each setting becomes a lot more obvious as to what it's doing. Once you've found the right 'combo' as it were. Ease off so that you are compressing as much as you want to. The point of this is it's a bit tricky if you're new to it to hear the subtleties of attack and release times etc. Doing this makes it a lot more obvious.

[outbound]

http://www.what-is-mastering.net/what-i ... mastering/

Quick one today giving an explanation of stem mastering!

[outbound]

http://www.what-is-mastering.net/acoust ... -overview/

Here we go again, this time with room acoustics! Have a great weekend everyone

[outbound]

http://www.what-is-mastering.net/parallel-compression/ Here we go with the basics of parallel compression and a few other tricks with it

[Sharmaji]

Typically, aside from volume, I hear no difference when I A/B with a compressor.

first, match the gain so that you can actually hear what's going on; if one version is twice as loud as the other, it's gonna sound better.

compression is my #1 tool for bringing things forward, or pushing things back, in a mix. squash pads or background vocals with an LA2A and they instantly get this creamy smoothness to them, which pushes them back into the mix. alternatively, hit your drum bus with an 1176 in all-buttons-in, slow attack, fast release and they begin to jump out at you.

very very rarely are compressors just gain reduction tools; the way they do it imparts very particular artifacts, which are almost more important-- at least as important--as the actual gain reduction. a FET compressor like the 1176 imparts 2nd order harmonics and makes things brighter and richer. something like the api2500 or the Rocket plugin lets you hipass the compressor circuit, so you can get more gain reduction with less pumping of the low end-- again, great on drum busses and even whole mixes that need more oomph.

the key to learning compression is to experiment with overcompression. Put one on a kick at 10:1, fast attack slow release, with automatic makeup gain (ideally), and play around. bypass it every time you make a change to hear it vs. the original signal.

Something sounding "recorded" and "polished," as well as having really impressive emotional depth, is directly related to good, artistic gain reduction.

[outbound]

Typically, aside from volume, I hear no difference when I A/B with a compressor.

first, match the gain so that you can actually hear what's going on; if one version is twice as loud as the other, it's gonna sound better.

compression is my #1 tool for bringing things forward, or pushing things back, in a mix. squash pads or background vocals with an LA2A and they instantly get this creamy smoothness to them, which pushes them back into the mix. alternatively, hit your drum bus with an 1176 in all-buttons-in, slow attack, fast release and they begin to jump out at you.

very very rarely are compressors just gain reduction tools; the way they do it imparts very particular artifacts, which are almost more important-- at least as important--as the actual gain reduction. a FET compressor like the 1176 imparts 2nd order harmonics and makes things brighter and richer. something like the api2500 or the Rocket plugin lets you hipass the compressor circuit, so you can get more gain reduction with less pumping of the low end-- again, great on drum busses and even whole mixes that need more oomph.

the key to learning compression is to experiment with overcompression. Put one on a kick at 10:1, fast attack slow release, with automatic makeup gain (ideally), and play around. bypass it every time you make a change to hear it vs. the original signal.

Something sounding "recorded" and "polished," as well as having really impressive emotional depth, is directly related to good, artistic gain reduction.

Good post!