needs tips on compression

[TheDNRproject]

so ive been working on this song for quite a while (big thanks to Lavender Harmony for all the help he has given me) and im mainly focusing on getting these drums compressed right, could someone give me tips on how to get the sound right?

heres what they sound like right now:
http://soundcloud.com/the-dnr-project/archie-thing

[the4thImpulse]

Ask yourself this: Do I need my drums to be compressed? If so why?

Compression is simply removing dynamics from the audio by reducing the audio of loud peaks and raising the volume of quite sounds through gain compensation. Right now the clip is fine as is, you don't need more compression as its not peaking, compressing it more will only make it sound less powerful or weak. Now if you are adding more and more sounds to this then your audio will start clipping/distorting which is when you may choose to use a compressor so you get as much audio as you can out of it or simply mix the track better so it holds its dynamics and sounds full.


Don't get into the mindset that you must compress everything, over compression will make your track sound like one really loud and annoying joke.

I suggest you learn about what compresion does to the audio singnal as it can completely change the sound which is why I won't tell you exactly how to compress your track.


Start here

[jackupthoseapples]

^ i usually wait till i finish my entire song before i compress the drums too
and uh
isn't lavender harmony a girl?

[TheDNRproject]

yeah... i still mix that up some times... and thanks, the song is done, ive just been getting help with mixing and what not

[Warbalist]

I like to have compressed and uncompressed tracks playing simultaneously so you get the pop and crack from the uncompressed drums and the punch and nastiness from the compressed ones.

I know Dave from Boy in a Band has stuff to say on the subject, go check out his tutorials.

[TheLustyArgonianMaid]

Do not be discouraged if you haven't corrected the internal components of your works. Rejoice for their are aspects of any beginning that deliver insight to an ending. Believe in the inner being of yourself and truth will be shown to you in ways you cannot even begin to fathom. Thank you.

[konsolN]

Ask yourself this: Do I need my drums to be compressed? If so why?

Compression is simply removing dynamics from the audio by reducing the audio of loud peaks and raising the volume of quite sounds through gain compensation. Right now the clip is fine as is, you don't need more compression as its not peaking, compressing it more will only make it sound less powerful or weak. Now if you are adding more and more sounds to this then your audio will start clipping/distorting which is when you may choose to use a compressor so you get as much audio as you can out of it or simply mix the track better so it holds its dynamics and sounds full.


Don't get into the mindset that you must compress everything, over compression will make your track sound like one really loud and annoying joke.

I suggest you learn about what compresion does to the audio singnal as it can completely change the sound which is why I won't tell you exactly how to compress your track.


Start here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-CoFUvj9Q0

This 5 min boosted my Music-Skills up 20%! ... GOD I don't know Anything about music !

[ChocolateChicken]

How can I effectively reduce the dynamic range of percussion, such as kick drums or snares? The initial transient of kicks and snares are the loudest parts of the sample, while the rest of the sample quickly ducks down into lower volumes almost instantly. With kick drums, this would be the secondary bass thump.

I have my compressor set to an attack time of 0ms, because I don't want any part of the transient to be uncompressed. The release time is somewhere between 14ms and 100ms, because, once again, I am trying to reduce the volume of the transient. I have a soft knee, threshold is at about minus 15dB, and a ratio of about 9:1, sometimes higher. I've tried everything, but that stupid transient or initial "click" of the percussion sample never seems to be compressed. I always end up with tons of dynamic range between the initial CLICK and the rest of the signal. Anybody have advice or cookies for me?

[Watashig]

Can you bus them to a channel and just lower the volume slider on that? Sometimes you don't have to compress and you can just play with a loudness slider instead.

[Captain Ironhelm]

@ChocolateChicken
Try turning the threshold down, this will cause compression to kick in at a lower decibel level. Then turn up the gain, this will make the sound "louder" to compensate for turning the threshold up. I set mine on a snare sample at -25 on the threshold, and gain up to 8 or so, and all the other settings how you said in your post above. Took transient right out.
If you don't like how constant the sound is for the duration that it's playing, you can decrease the release time to make it fade out faster.

And more for the thread in general, I don't compress anything unless I've got a good reason.

[Watashig]

^

Yeah, that's exactly how I got that done when I played with my Fruity Compressor and the compressor part of my Fruity Limiter. You should try watching that video; it tells you exactly what you wanted about that information and more. I second the video as a valuable source of information.

[ChocolateChicken]

Captain Ironhelm,

When you say "turn the threshold up," I hope you actually mean "lower the threshold," to avoid potential confusion. And when you say, "you can increase the release time to make it fade out faster," don't you mean, "decrease the release time?"

Thanks for your advice, Watashig and Captain Ironhelm! You both really helped me out with this! I was already aware of turning up the gain on the compressor to compensate for the reduced peak volume, so that wasn't the problem. I just had to lower the threshold further to about -20dB and increase the ratio a bit to about 12:1.

For anybody who might be looking for a better definition of the ratio setting on compression: Ratio determines how much the volume will be reduced from anything that passes above the threshold. The higher the ratio, the more volume reduction from anything over the threshold will occur.

[Captain Ironhelm]

Yeah, sorry, my brain was thinking backwards. That's what I meant. I'm terribad at explaining. Hope I didn't confuse anybody!

Edited the post, thanks for letting me know.

[CDPP]

I like to have compressed and uncompressed tracks playing simultaneously so you get the pop and crack from the uncompressed drums and the punch and nastiness from the compressed ones.

Just asking, is this what they mean by parallel compression?

[the4thImpulse]

I like to have compressed and uncompressed tracks playing simultaneously so you get the pop and crack from the uncompressed drums and the punch and nastiness from the compressed ones.

Just asking, is this what they mean by parallel compression?

Yes