Neps
Well, let me 1st say "rock on 2009!" It was a crazy 2008 and for some of us (that would be me) it was a time to re-evaluate why I do what I do.. After mixing 3 Music Productions for TV I really got to hate some of the SA pop music. But this is not the reason for writing today's thread on Recording.
After pondering for a while, whilst walking on the golf course and breaking my 9-iron I suddenly realized.. What the world needs is more compressors. But before you can actually use the thing, how does it work..?
On a very basic level a compressor can be seen as a piece of equipment that 'compresses' the level of any signal being passed through it. hahaha, just had to write it that way. Compressors was one of the 1st things to see the light when radio broadcasting saw the light. To stop signals from overpowering the stations broadcasting equipment and antenna, they developed Compressors/Limiters.. They were quite crude designs, and didn't have all the control features you see today on most comp's. They worked according to the amount of input signal and then you just had a control for the output and if you were lucky, a Ratio control..
As time progressed these pieces of essential gear became more sophisticated. And today you have quite a lot of control over what your compressor will be doing. Today we find the following controls on most hardware comp's and plug-ins
- Input
- output (make up gain)
- threshold
- knee
- attack
- release
- ratio
So what does all these buttons do..?
INPUT
Well, as the name states, this is the incoming level of the signal. Normally you cant make it louder coming in, but some plugins do allow that.. I've personally never used the Input knob in my life on a comp
OUTPUT (Make up gain)
This is the output of your signal when it's passed through the comp. There are some schools of thought about using this. Some say 'leave it, thats why you've got faders!', others say that you should use it to boost your gain going out of the comp, to match what you're compressing. e.g.. If your gain reduction is -6-dB's then you'll make your output +6-dB's and so forth. I've not taken hold of any one of these, seeing that I work in a totally digital domain and I can do what I want to whatever signal. So it's just 'how I feel today' that will get me to use one of the 2 options.
If, however, I was working on Tape on an analog desk, I'd use the Make up gain theory.
THRESHOLD
This is where you control how much of your signal you want to compress.. Say you have a kick drum thats peaking to about -9-dB's, and you want to compress just 3-dB's, you'd set the Threshold to -12-dB's. As easy as that. But as we all are muso's, we mostly just take the threshold knob and turn it till we're happy..! RULZ were made to be broken!!
KNEE
This is the option that selects how 'hard' the compressor will kick in when the signal reaches the threshold. So say you choose hard knee, it really just means, when the signal reaches the threshold the full Ratio that you selected will be applied.. Soft knee means the opposite. A quick illustration that I always remembered in the beginning was 'If you hit you knee into someone groin hard, he folds down quickly, If you do it softer, he goes down slower!'
ATTACK
This is just the option to tell the comp how quickly it should kick in when the proper threshold is reached.. So if you select 17 ms it'll take the comp 17 ms to react with the applied ratio and the proper knee setting.
RELEASE
This is to tell the comp how much time it has before it 'releases' the signal after it ducks below the threshold. So if you choose 167 ms it'll take that full 167 ms before the comp releases the signal.
RATIO
Here you set how much you want to compress the signal after it hits the threshold. An easy way to think of it is to look at when you pump up a tire. When There is not resistance the air goes in easily, as soon as you reach a certain pressure it gets more difficult to get air into the the tire. Thats because the tyre has an inbuilt 'ratio' of air it can take, and so the closer you get to its maximum the more effort it takes to pump.
Compressors are very handy tools to use, not just for keeping a handle on dynamics, but also to create effects. You get to have a lot of control over various instruments and also to place them better in a mix. But be warned, they can also make a good mix VERY bad. The only way to really get to grips with comps is to experiment, try using the Factory Presets on plugins and adjusting the threshold for that particular preset.
An example is the bass preset on the ProTools DynIII plugin
Knee : 18dB
Ratio : 2.5:1
Attack : 7 ms
Release : 600 ms
Now all you have to do is play around with the Threshold setting and Voila!! you have compressed you bass signal with a quite common bass Comp setting!
As always.. Use your ears, Enjoy, Laugh at yourself and remember "DRUMMERS are AWESOME!" ?
Have a Rocking 2009!
p.s I'm going to try and post some audio clips regarding comps and settings at some stage.. Lets just hope I don't get eaten alive by some Evil Reverb Machine!! ☹
majestikc
All a compressor is, is a really really fast volume control....and what the world DEFINITELY does not need is more compressors or compression.Compression has totally sucked the dynamic and performance and.....the music, out of most modern day music.
It's useful here and there but it's become so over abused, you can hear it more and more on modern recordings.If you listen to those recordings you hear that "pumping" sound, it reminds me allot of when I was a kid and would mess around with a volume knob turning it up and down quickly while the music plays.And guess what, that's pretty much whats happening.
Go on youtube and type in something like "the loudness war" and check out a couple of vids to see why [over]compression is no good....(to me anyway, some people might like it, but then, I wouldn't really take there opinions too seriously, the great thing with bad taste is it's easy to spot!).
A side point I'd like to make is that everyone is trying so hard to get there recordings sounding "commercial" or "radio" but no one seem to be taking into account that 99% of the stuff you hear commercially and on radio etc actually doesn't sound that good.It's like the musical equivalent of McDonalds. It's difficult to get a hamburger tasting like that at home but...............WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO!
AlanRatcliffe
I used to feel the same, but it all comes down to learning how to use it properly.
It's a tool, and it can be used or misused, just like any other. Used for loudness maximising, it is all to often overused, but it can be very musical - especially when used either as a musical effect (where would Mark Knopfler's clean Strat tones be without some compression? ?) or in moderation as a problem solving tool
Quite honestly I now feel that the way you use your compressors is what separates the men from the boys ...and I for one still feel very much a boy. ?
deanBailey
majestikc wrote
All a compressor is, is a really really fast volume control....and what the world DEFINITELY does not need is more compressors or compression.Compression has totally sucked the dynamic and performance and.....the music, out of most modern day music.
It's useful here and there but it's become so over abused, you can hear it more and more on modern recordings.If you listen to those recordings you hear that "pumping" sound, it reminds me allot of when I was a kid and would mess around with a volume knob turning it up and down quickly while the music plays.And guess what, that's pretty much whats happening.
Go on youtube and type in something like "the loudness war" and check out a couple of vids to see why [over]compression is no good....(to me anyway, some people might like it, but then, I wouldn't really take there opinions too seriously, the great thing with bad taste is it's easy to spot!).
A side point I'd like to make is that everyone is trying so hard to get there recordings sounding "commercial" or "radio" but no one seem to be taking into account that 99% of the stuff you hear commercially and on radio etc actually doesn't sound that good.It's like the musical equivalent of McDonalds. It's difficult to get a hamburger tasting like that at home but...............WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO!
+1000000000000000
It's refreshing to hear someone else besides myself say that!
I find myself unable to listen to metal these days because of it's lack of dynamics and oversampled drum sets and super-reamped guitars and bass. I've been guilty of this for the following reasons.
The thing is that record labels know these and it's them that request the loud mastered albums and purely overproduced sound etc. (ala Andy Sneap)
The way I see it is that the label know what "sells" and what the listeners find "pleasing" when looking to buy an album because poor production can spoil a listeners perspective of a band and their "message" doesn't get across if the listener can barely listen past the first few minutes. And this left the good engineers (the ones that actually get hands on to get amazing natural tones etc) in the dark and guys like Andy Sneap who mixes totally in the box (just plug-ins, no outboard gear) It also pisses me off that people are starting to find this type of production the "normal-this-is-how-it's-supposed-to-sound" kinda production.
I find myself listening to less metal bands and more progressive/jazzier bands just because of the above mentioned reason.
But it's slowly changing as far as I can see, and guys like Jens Bogren (Opeth, Katatonia, Bloodbath) who recognises dynamics are getting a lot more recognition for it in the industry.
Sorry Neps for derailing :-[ Nice basic article on compression! ?
AlanRatcliffe
I don't see it as a derail Dean. Use and abuse should be a big aspect of any discussion on compression.
Part of the reason for compression being so overused is that TV and radio need heavy compression to improve S/N ratio. This is done at broadcast stage, but in an attempt to get their own productions to sound like "the others on the radio" people tend to overcompress at mastering stage. Then there are "The Loudness Wars" pointed out by Majestic, where record companies are all trying to get their productions as loud as possible to stand out in a CD Changer - I have some great albums of music that have been destroyed by that particular foible, and it rarely has anything to do with the band themselves.
Sadly, the average listener wouldn't know badly recorded/mastered tone if it was reaming them with a barbed-wire prophylactic in time to the music, all the time screaming "I'm bad tone! I'm bad tone!". The newer generation of listeners have traded off quality for convenience and portability. They have also been taught that louder and more bass is better. There are exceptions of course, but they are more likely to be found wandering the thinly populated and meagrely stocked jazz or folk sections at your local mass-market music mart, all the time being aurally assaulted by whatever doef-doef is fashionable that week.
Metal starts off with a huge disadvantage in this regard, being that a distorted amp is a compressor. It takes a talented musician or producer to work around that. As you point out, some are doing it successfully, and hopefully those will be the ones included in the music history books and remembered in coming years.
Renesongs
Sadly, the average listener wouldn't know badly recorded/mastered tone if it was reaming them with a barbed-wire prophylactic in time to the music, all the time screaming "I'm bad tone! I'm bad tone!".
ROFL - Sadly the first thing noobs ask me is "How can I get my recording to sound like a professional studio like with everything all at the same volume" ie put an ugly fat compressor on in the final mix. IMO a compressors is indispensable on guitars solos that have a lot of hammer on on pull off (legato style) and can effectively improve a vocalist that has not mastered breath control.
Neps
Well.. its always fun to see the response about something! And I must be honest, compressors have always been one of those hot topics that get a fair amount of response.
I'm a big fan of comps.. But it is also one of those overused and abused things that can realy be used to the detrement of ones music. I use comps on a daily basis.. In TV you have to get it in the signal chain, and those guys that say they dont LIE!
I'm one of those guys whose not very hapy with the state of affairs of the current music scene.. Overcompressed is a problem. But mostly it's not the engineers. Apart from hip hop the rock guys and jazz blokes are trying to stay away from it. The problem comes from the artist and the A&R guys from record companies. The ones who want their music to 'sit' with other recordings or be louder than their counterparts.
Music wise I use comps alot. To create a certain effect, to get a vocal to sit where I want it, to even out some random dynamics.. Yes I work on ProTools where automation is easy.., but damn, a comp is so nice to use with it's added 'effect' that comes along if you use it right.
Bob-Dubery
Neps wrote
I'm one of those guys whose not very hapy with the state of affairs of the current music scene.. Overcompressed is a problem. But mostly it's not the engineers. Apart from hip hop the rock guys and jazz blokes are trying to stay away from it. The problem comes from the artist and the A&R guys from record companies. The ones who want their music to 'sit' with other recordings or be louder than their counterparts.
Isn't there a problem here with multiple levels of compression? The producer apples compression to specific instruments at specific points. Then the record company wants the album compressed to make it sound good on the radio or TV. But the broadcast guys are going to compress anyway. So now the producer had intended compression for a specific guitar track - but that now ends up triple compressed and sounding flat as anything.
Does that happen?
Neps
Compression on air as a sticky business. I did a couple of music broadcasts afew weeks ago and as I was mixing I had to constanly remind myself that there was going to some compression from the broadcaster at some stage. What happend in my case though was that I had to mix a bit lower, and then master for broadcast.. something I seldom do. But I made sure that my final product came in just before the comps at the broadcaster actualy got too heavy.. I think I hit them on a 2:1 ratio, which is mild.. didnt even touch their limiters. And it translated quite nicely. BUT I've seen where the engineer will mix, then it gets mastered by someone else, and then after that the producer wants it even louder.
In the states they have quite good QCC and strict rules, ours can be bent to some extent.. The USA congress might even go as far as standardizing broadcast levels.. Last I heard there was a bill up for discusson in congress to have a look at program vs. ad levels.
On a diffrent note, I was following a discusion on the ProTools forum a while ago about the Metallica album that also features a song on GuitarHero world tour. There the actual CD sounded over compressed but in GH it sounded clean and open. So delivery format also plays a role in the 'loudness' war.
AlanRatcliffe
Neps wrote
The USA congress might even go as far as standardizing broadcast levels.. Last I heard there was a bill up for discusson in congress to have a look at program vs. ad levels.
That would be nice. Probably because with the newer digital and Hi Def delivery systems there is a lot more headroom and dynamic range and the makers of the shows seem to be mixing surround and utilising the dynamic range much better. I would imagine that coming out of a decently mixed program into an overcompressed ad is twice as jarring for the viewer.
I presume they would have to legislate the RMS for it to be really effective. If they just stipulate the maximum level allowed, everyone will just brickwall limit to that level and there won't be much improvement.
I thought that the advent of those systems that muted the sound when ads come on the TV or the DVD recorders that automatically cut out the ads (using the average level as the trigger) would have forced the industry to change but it seems not. But then, to me, it seems that an ad with more dynamics could be more effective. Go figure...
Bob-Dubery
Neps wrote
In the states they have quite good QCC and strict rules, ours can be bent to some extent.. The USA congress might even go as far as standardizing broadcast levels.. Last I heard there was a bill up for discusson in congress to have a look at program vs. ad levels.
Boy would I like that. There's few things that get my goat more than nodding off during an episode of "Grey's Anatomy" only to be woken up by some horrendously loud advertisement.
Neps
The USA is realy where the pioneering work is being done in the broadcsting industry.I ot hold of a CAS panel discusion and boy was it interesting. The main topic was 5.1 broadcasting and also the relevant mixing loudness of shows.
As a bit of background regarding HD broadcasting and 5.1. Whenever you mix for Dolby E encoding (5.1 for HD) you have to mix accrding to the Dolby LM100 meter, you also have to fill in a sheet with you relevant info regarding RMS and those things. You have to give them a LM100 reading for a dialog track and it must be in (i think) -27 -> -23dB's. Then when you encode to HD SR your machine actualy encodes data and not audio as on Beta, here more MetaData is placed on the tape to tell the decodeing system your RMS, Your LEQ and LM100 readings. So the broadcaster then can decide if they need to push or drop your levels for broadcast.
Most guys actualy mix like I do.. well below the limiting phase of the broadcaster, but with the advent of HD there are a lot of changes taking place.
Gearhead
Bob Dubery wrote
... nodding off during an episode of "Grey's Anatomy"
I suppose that makes sense, nodding off during that show ?
The question with the Dolby E described would seem to be that the broadcaster makes his money off of commercials. Meaning Bob will keep waking up just the same way...
Great story about compression, but what I've never seen properly explained is how multiband compression actually works?
AlanRatcliffe
what I've never seen properly explained is how multiband compression actually works?
It's simple enough. The multiband compressor uses filters to divide the incoming signal into different frequency bands, the same way a multiband equaliser does. The difference between the two is that instead of using simple gain controls for each frequency the way EQ does, the multiband compressor has a compression circuit for each band.
This lets you process the different frequency bands with different compression settings and, in particular, stops the bass instruments (which have the most energy) from dominating the compression of the rest of the mix.
Bob-Dubery
Gearhead wrote
Bob Dubery wrote
... nodding off during an episode of "Grey's Anatomy"
I suppose that makes sense, nodding off during that show ?
The question with the Dolby E described would seem to be that the broadcaster makes his money off of commercials. Meaning Bob will keep waking up just the same way...
I've found that my TV has an "auto volume" feature. This may ease the problem a little.
But I'm betting it's ANOTHER compressor. So there's something else making the music sound crap(per).
Neps
That option on your TV 'auto volume' is another comp.. a friend of mine has it, and i watched a show on her TV and jip.., its a bloody comp. I dont know what her TV calles it, but I told her to switch off that bloody mess, Cause if a movie is too dynamic it lowers the level.. bloody marvelous (sarcasm intended!)
@Gearhead.. Alan hit the nail on the head with regards to the multi-band comp.
Riaan-Combrink
Saw this report in the online edition of Performing Musician.
Those with a serious interest in the issue may want to chat to this guy (e-mail addy provided):
Dave’s obsession with compression (Industry/Music Biz)
12/01/2009
SOS reader researches the commercial effect of extreme dynamics-processing
Back in November, we had an email from SOS reader Dave Viney, a post-graduate student from London College of Music, who was keen to tell us about some research he was carrying out for a report called ‘The Obsession With Compression’.
As you might guess from the title of Dave’s report, he was looking into the correlation between compression (the dynamics-processing type) and commercial success in popular music, which has been widely discussed in recent months and years in the music press and the wider media.
Since Dave was first in touch with SOS, he’s polled 36 producers and engineers from around the world (with a little help from the UK’s MPG and APRS), set up listening panels, analysed music sales records, and taken detailed measurements of the loudness of commercial material using a meter borrowed from DK Technologies.
His 77-page dissertation details the recent catalysts for discussion on over-compression, such as the reaction to the release of Metallica’s Death Magnetic album in 2008, and goes on to display the research in graphical form; there are over 300 charts!
Summarising the report, Dave comments, “there is no evidence of any significant correlation between actual loudness (and thus overall compression) and commercial success. Furthermore, assessments suggest that less-compressed material is more pleasant-sounding”. He concludes, “the obsession with compression tends to limit commercial success!”.
Having completed his report, Dave is hoping to establish himself as a part-time researcher for the music business. He can be contacted at dave-vineyATbtconnect.com.
thunderbolt
only compress where needed... otherwise, automate volume...
I have found myself not compressing anything in recordings lately, except a vocal, drum buss and very slight 2:1 on my master buss, just to tighten up the track's bottom end, if it was loose at all. I also set the release setting to the same milliseconds as the BPM of the song so that it doesn't sound too pumpy.
I have also emailed and liaised with the engineers who have worked with Paramore, Breaking Benjamin, The Almost, Underoath in regards to compression and what they use, and how they compress. These guys are literally slamming a lot of things just to make the transients pop out at you and in mastering the transients are tamed again, making the entire record sound like its attacking your face and ears. Good? Bad? I have no idea, I still listen to my dad's old Zeplin LP's and stand in awe of bonham's drum sound and Jimmy Page's guitar sound for that era. No Sampling, No Digital Editing... just pure music. recorded to tape, printed to LP. Huge dynamic range.
majestikc
To be fair,the dynamic range of LP's is only 60db from softest to loudest whereas the dynamic range of cd is 96db (1bit in digital audio is 6db of dynamic range).
And to be fair again, alot of old recordings like Led Zep and The Doors etc are really quite crap compared to modern recordings, what most modern recordings do however lack is CHARACTER.
They sound better, but they all sound the same.Everyone's trying to get "THAT" drum sound or "THIS" guitar sound,those old school guys had no one to copy,no "industry standards" to compete with,they just did what felt and sounded good and it comes through on the record.
Same with guitaring in general,there's ALOT (too many) guitarists who are very technically competent and precise,but they have no uniqueness or style or character.
I say compress everything to the extreme if it gives you something different that sounds good,or compress absolutely nothing if it get's you the same result.
