when to use a compressor?

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if a compressor is used to lower the peaks of a kick drum in a drum break, (to raise the overall volume), how do you decide when a compressor is needed (or how do you know when a compressor isn't needed)? I split the kick drum onto a seperate channel and then match the rest of the break up to a similar dB level (-10ish), and this seems to give a much better result than when i've tried using compressors on the whole break. < should i still think of using a compressor on the kick or would i just always leave it raw?

1 last question > how do you decide when to use (or not to use) a compressor on bass

thanks, mark
I'm no expert on compression, I use it in a very un-technical way and compress by ear rather than by theory.

But compression in itself is about catching peaks and raising the average volume of a sound. Across a drum break, and certainly if you're using a few breaks it's often good to have a compressor on a bus / aux send then send all the signals to that aux to gel the breaks all together a little better. We're not talking over compression here just enough to gel.

You raise a good point around splitting off the bassdrum and mixing it separately. Essentially compression is an automated volume technique so mixing separately should achieve a similar result. It doesn't, but theory says it should.

http://www.google.co.uk/search?q=compres...=firefox-a - < that should give you enough of a starter to explain some questions.

I'm happy for everyone on here to rip apart what I said as it's one part of the mixing process, like I say, I do by ear.
nice 1 Wilshy, some very good info in that link, pretty much answers my question > "concentrate on the balance of the tracks in your mix. If the tracks balance fine as they are, no-one will arrest you for leaving them alone! The trick is to wait until you spot a fader that you can’t really find a suitable level for (the sound may disappear in some places, or have sections that feel too loud): that’s where you may need to compress. In the first instance, though, see if you can solve the level problem by splitting the audio onto two different tracks and balancing them separately. This is a common technique often referred to as ‘multing’. It’s easily done in most DAWs, and can head off a lot of rookie compression mistakes. Again, you may find that you don’t need any compression at all to find a balance that works." it goes on to explain > "Multing can solve a lot of problems on its own, but quickly gets very fiddly if you try to use it to deal with lots of short-term balance problems (lots of single notes or words that are too loud or quiet), and this is where the automatic processing offered by a compressor can begin to complement multing." < this is what i was struggling with, how to make my own decision on when to use a compressor, instead of just using 1 because the 'man' told me to. I think you're spot on doing it by ear , this is how i want to set the settings of the compressor, but without knowing when i needed to use 1 i fell into a habit of using it on everything. Good point about bussing multiple breaks together, if i had a buss compressor i'd be doing that more i think, is it ok to use a normal compressor on a buss? i thought i read something that said it was a no-no.

thanks again for the reply, been a eye-opener
i've only just realised that if i want the compressor to reduce volume by 6dB, and my input is only hitting -10db then the threshold needs to be set to -16dB, not -6dB like i've been doing for a while, no wonder it wasn't reacting like it is now. i need to go sit in the 'don't know anything corner', at least it's more satisfying to hear what the compressor is doing to the sound now. can some1 tell me if this is the way to achieve 6dB reduction when the input is -10dB? from hearing it, it sounds right but i've been wrong many times before
i tend to use the compressor more for creative purposes than for sorting the levels..
il do a EQ and crazy compression to change the sound of the break then once im happy with that, il bounce it and then run it through some soft knee compression just to curb the peaks slightly. i tend not to separate the kicks, especially if theres a hi hat on them coz' you'l also get a loud hat making the break sound weird.

i do it all by ear.
its so easy to get caught up in the minute details/ levels on your DAW.

Hahaha sorry for the unhelpful reply.. im sure i had more to say than that Chin
http://www.soundcloud.com/shift/ - SCD soundclash tune is up Drums
far from unhelpful mate, any reply is a bonus to me. I don't want to use it for sorting levels, i do want to be able to switch on the compressor and maintain the same peak value, so i can properly hear what the attack and release are doing, which is the part i want to do by ear. The -6dB of reduction thing is just an example as i know the ratio will effect the reduction aswell, just wondering as a rough guide would a setting on the threshold of -16dB give 6dB'ish reduction if the input is -10dB (with a low ratio). good point about why you don't seperate the kicks, but if the plan is to split the kick then compress it differently to how you compress the rest of the break, then i feel you can make the hats on the kick match the hats on the break well enough, and there's always the option of adding more hats in the background to gel the break back together, some of the old funk breaks seem to need it imo. I don't want to get caught up in levels on my DAW but a guitar player needs to know how to tune a guitar, if he doesn't he might learn to play a song by ear, but when he comes to try and play from a sheet of music, he'll be lost. so i'm just a guitar player trying to tune his guitar so i can play the sheet music ;-) take what pun you like from that

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