What all do you guys compress?

[Milaflore]

The only places I like to apply compression is on buses, just to help glue elements together (Snares, basses, Kicks etc). I can't actually think of a time when I have used it on an idividual channel yet tbh. But as always, there is no right or wrong way as to how much to you use compressors. Like someone said above, only use it if you feel it is needed.

[dca]

i compress most of my instrument channels but not on all percussion channels, some things need all the dynamics they can, and some things sound good slammed

[nowaysj]

I compress dem bitches.

[zosomagik]

I compress dem bitches.

Keepin it real. Respect.

[Genevieve]

For the most part only to tame minute peaks that don't add much to the sound but take away headroom, and I use a limiter when I parallel compress and on my reeses.

I find saturation a much nicer tool for things people often use compression for, like reducing dynamic range more generally or glueing elements together.

[zosomagik]

For the most part only to tame minute peaks that don't add much to the sound but take away headroom, and I use a limiter when I parallel compress and on my reeses.

So a limiter after the compressor? Why do this as oppose to messing with the makeup gain?

[nowaysj]

Don't answer G.

Magik, test this out for yourself. Watch the peak of your sound, put a compressor on it, watch the peak, now use make up gain to recover the lost gain from compression, and watch your peak. What do you see?

[zosomagik]

Don't answer G.

Magik, test this out for yourself. Watch the peak of your sound, put a compressor on it, watch the peak, now use make up gain to recover the lost gain from compression, and watch your peak. What do you see?

Will report back in twenty.

EDIT: So I'm assuming the limiter is just for limiting resonant peaks in your reeses after squashing them a bit

[nowaysj]

[SunkLo]

Saying that you put compression on everything is like a chef saying that they put salt on everything.

Lotta people do put salt on everything

I don't ever use compression except on my master.

Isn't this like saying "I don't compress anything, except everything" ?

The ChadDub strikes again.


I compress to squeeze up quiet details in samples or to tame something that's gone through modulation effects. It's good for gluing multiple instruments together or multiple parallel processed chains of a single instrument. I usually use it to add dynamics vs reducing them. I see a compressor as a dynamic reappropriation tool. Taking some of the transient energy and redistributing it to other parts of the volume/time spectrum. That's why it's good for bussing; the energy of highly dynamic material gets spread out amongst the whole group. Buss compression is essentially Socialism.

[nowaysj]

A couple of sig worthy sentences in there.

Hey, if you are in Halifax. Do not breath right now.

[SunkLo]

I'm not but I'm relatively close. All this time I've been avoiding tuna for fear of radioactive contaminants, and then this happens.

(Apparently there wasn't a leak afterall or some shit? Sounds like some public pacifying containment strategy or something)

[nowaysj]

A shipping container full of uranium hexafloride was dropped 50 feet onto the deck of a container ship. Nothing major.

But this is Hex's diagram:

[dickman69]

I used to know what those lines meant

RIP chemistry knowledge

[nowaysj]

It means F U

[mks]

f u

That's some compression...

[Simulant]

Saying that you put compression on everything is like a chef saying that they put salt on everything.

Lotta people do put salt on everything

Well it was an analogy, but sure, a lot of people probably do. But a trained chef would add salt to taste when they think it's needed. The thing with compression is that there are a ton of uses for it, so the analogy kinda breaks down. But the gist of my comment was that people should use their tools when they have a purpose, as opposed to just using them on everything because they think they're supposed to, or just doing it out of habit.

[m8son666]

I used to know what those lines meant

RIP chemistry knowledge

they mean bonds m8

[Gewze]

Slowly started using it more and more recently. just little things like beefing up kicks, bringing the hi's out in a couple samples, brass samples to give them more drive.

[dickman69]

I used to know what those lines meant

RIP chemistry knowledge

they mean bonds m8

But they're special bonds that are shared electrons among the ring or something? Like a benzene