Compressor with presets

[Makin0]

helo! is there any vst compressor with presets for sounds?(kick, bass, lead, perc..?

[adhmzaiusz]

Hey there, a compressor's best setting is all in the attack and release and can't really be best used as presets. Depending on the tempo of the song and even the dominant frequency in the audio you are using, a preset won't apply to most things you are working on because there are so many variables.

This is one really great trick for using any compressor I learned from Bobby Owsinsky's book Mixing Audio.
-Set attack all the way slow
-set release as fast as it can go
-lower the threshold to the desired gain reduction
-set the ratio to the desired decibel per peak over threshold
-play the solo'd snare drum from the track you are working on (works good if its on the offbeat quarter notes or so)
-gradually bring the attack faster and stop just when you hear the snare drum start to dull
-gradually increase the release time so the gain reduction recovers by the time the next snare hits
-bring in the rest of the track or bussed audio
-fine tune the attack and release

This wasn't word for word from the book and only off the top of my head, but I found by experimenting with this I have been able to get excellent results, and before this I thought you had to hit a compressor hard with an extreme threshold setting but when you use this method even just a slight amount of threshold can make very tasteful musical results. Hope this helps

[Trypset]

thats awesome thanks.

[leedsquietman]

There are compressors with presets, but they act as a guideline only and you will probably have to do subtle or major adjustments still for best results. The Sonalksis SV315mkII being one, but it's presets are set to things like 'crunch' or 'mastering - soft' etc. The T-racks classic compressor also has lots of presets which are labelled such as 'drum buss' or 'vocals - light' etc, but expect to have to adjust them.

When you've been using compressors for a while, you can pretty much automatically dial in the sound you want quickly, getting in the ballpark immediately and just a bit of fine tuning from there. WHile you're in the process of learning, Owsinksi's explanation is pretty much the same as what I learned at Uni on my audio engineering courses.

[Makin0]

thxi will try that !! anyway, wich of the compressor settings on the list on ableton live 8 is best to use...they sound like the same for me.

[adhmzaiusz]

Sorry since it was all the top of my head, I realized the book is called the mixing engineer's handbook

[leedsquietman]

Yes. The Mixing Engineer's Handbook (2nd edition) by Bobby Owsinski (p) Thomson Course Technology

http://www.amazon.com/Mixing-Engineers- ... 1598632515

A recommended book for beginners and intermediate users. I own this book and recommend it.

[Nick Shepherd]

thxi will try that !! anyway, wich of the compressor settings on the list on ableton live 8 is best to use...they sound like the same for me.

dont compress your audio just for the sake of using compressors. If you dont know why you would compress something - simply dont do it !

read up on compression, try to really understand the concept of it and when it makes sense to apply it - often enough compression makes things sounds worse when people dont know how to use it

[Tarekith]

It always sounds worse when people don't know how to use it! Try this, maybe this will clear up somethings and help explain why presets really don't work for something like compression:

http://tarekith.com/assets/dynamics.html

[JuanSOLO]

Try this, maybe this will clear up somethings and help explain why presets really don't work for something like compression:

http://tarekith.com/assets/dynamics.html

So what are some methods or ideas, for a generalized compression? For example, my Live perfomance set has a sampler with tons of different kicks, and a synth dedicated to bass with a variety of sounds. I keep a compressor on these 2 tracks.

Anyone with ideas about getting the most out of a generalized method?

[Nick Shepherd]

well it totally depends on the compressor your using & the effect you want to achieve.

In my Live-Set i also have dedicated bass & kick tracks.

My bass track has a standart Live compressor on it which gets feed with a 4/4 sidechain signal.

My kick-track has a Softube Tube-Tech CL-1B Comp (bought it 4 weeks ago - what a great sounding plugin comp, i highly recommend it) on it set to relatively slow attack and the fastest release time @ high ratio and threshhold at about -20. It gives my kicks just the right amount of presence in the mix.

Tarekiths dynamics guide is really good - but regarding compression its super hard to make generalisations, it has to sound good to you and if it does you did it right

[leedsquietman]

A mistake a lot of people make compressing kick *and also snare to a degree* is setting ultra fast attack times and taking the threshold too low (so it's effectively limiting if you're using a high ratio) - this can work in some situations and mostly rnb and hip hop producers go for that sound, but it's too clicky for my liking. One big name producer for instance requested that a certain compressor (aphex 240 dual gated compressor) be modified to have a 0.5ms attack - which in many situations is just too fast, for my tastes at least.

When the sound is better and what you have sounds like it's breathing 'in time' with the right compressor settings, the results can be awesome - and for sure, compression is a drug, and like using drugs, too much and too often will get you a bad outcome, so it's a skill worth learning.

[Tarekith]

My first question is WHY are you wanting to use compression in the first place? Do you hear a real need for it, or are you doing it because you think you're 'supposed' to? If you don't have a specific audible need for the comp, then why bother? Or maybe I shoud say, I don't know how to tell you what to do, without know what it is you're trying to fix. Compression is one of those things where pretty much every parameter is entirely dependant on the sound you're feeding it. And I don't mean generally in terms of kicks, bassline, etc, but each specific kick, each type of bassline, etc. As well as the overall volume of each of those sounds.

There's no easy way to say settings x,y,z will work good on kicks, because each kick will require different settings.

[leedsquietman]

+1

This is why people should learn to use these tools manually, rather than going for the comfort and convenience of presets, and this applies to EQ as well. Don't search for the magic button, it doesn't exist !

[23kon]

T-Racks is a good one with some nice presets. FM Compression for a really tight 'daft punk' type of "Radio" sound.