hey gang
im doing a DJ-ish live act in which at any given moment 3 + tracks can be playing at the same time. I was just wondering what kind of compressor / limiter settings u guys recommend for the master out of such and endeavor.
I've tried live's compressor (both of em, and i actually think comp I, to be better than II for this kind of scenario) and have tweaked with settings to some extent, but have yet to find the right balance between preventing speaker blow-out, and squashing the hell out of the set (as in when dynamics get softer the sound just jumps over the top; make sense?).
I know this is an open kind of question, but was just hoping some of you had any tips to offer this way.
Thanks a lot,
Federico.
Compressor settings for DJing
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Dr. Zoiberg
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Re: Compressor settings for DJing
If you play tracks that have already been mastered, than I would use nothing else.
You can add a saturator with analog clipping on the master, but keep an eye on your levels and use your ears - dynamics are a DJ's best friends
and you don't want to squash everything.
You can add a saturator with analog clipping on the master, but keep an eye on your levels and use your ears - dynamics are a DJ's best friends
and you don't want to squash everything.-
Dr. Zoiberg
- Posts: 451
- Joined: Fri Sep 16, 2005 2:05 pm
- Location: Italy
- Contact:
Don't compress.
Ride your levels lower and don't open up both tracks full blast at the same time. Attenuate the level or the bass of one or the other. At no point should both tracks in a mix (or all three in this case in particular) be coming out without turning down either the volume or eq bands significantly.
Compression just sucks the life out of mastered tracks.
If you feel you must compress for some reason, you're wrong. Don't do it. But if you insist on doing it wrong, then you're a shitty DJ and deserve to suck. However, if you don't care that you're a shitty DJ and still insist on using a compressor because Mixmag, or some other retard-authored rag told you to do so, then at least try to be only a teensy bit shitty.
To be as unshitty as possible (or as unshitty as a shitty compression using DJ can possibly get), then use a FAST attack (none at all, really) and a LOOOOOOOONG release (like 2-5 seconds if you can. Crank your compressor's release knob all the way to the right.
Then, set your ratio at about 1 / 1.2, and don't drop your threshold lower than -5db.
With these settings, it will act as a volume leveler rather than a compressor. Because consider that the house running the PA system limit and compress the hell out of your signal at their end of the chain, just before the amps.
Ride your levels lower and don't open up both tracks full blast at the same time. Attenuate the level or the bass of one or the other. At no point should both tracks in a mix (or all three in this case in particular) be coming out without turning down either the volume or eq bands significantly.
Compression just sucks the life out of mastered tracks.
If you feel you must compress for some reason, you're wrong. Don't do it. But if you insist on doing it wrong, then you're a shitty DJ and deserve to suck. However, if you don't care that you're a shitty DJ and still insist on using a compressor because Mixmag, or some other retard-authored rag told you to do so, then at least try to be only a teensy bit shitty.
To be as unshitty as possible (or as unshitty as a shitty compression using DJ can possibly get), then use a FAST attack (none at all, really) and a LOOOOOOOONG release (like 2-5 seconds if you can. Crank your compressor's release knob all the way to the right.
Then, set your ratio at about 1 / 1.2, and don't drop your threshold lower than -5db.
With these settings, it will act as a volume leveler rather than a compressor. Because consider that the house running the PA system limit and compress the hell out of your signal at their end of the chain, just before the amps.
Then I'm not trying hard enough I guess...Tone Deft wrote:Make that your .sigM. Bréqs wrote:The above was unnecessarily rude, but I had fun writing it.
(not that I ever find you rude.)
...And you're welcome to sig the phrase. Get a tattoo of it on your bum if you want, it's all good. Bienvenu!
Ok seriously, guys, what I'm talking about and what you compressor-phobes are talking about are two different things.
Of course if you compress a mastered mix, it'll sound like crap - that's what happens on the radio today - mastered stuff gets overcompressed even more - no dynamics, crappy sound.
Also, of course DJs blend the beats and the bass frequencies between tracks. Duh - what the hell do you think they're doing when they're fiddling around with knobs and such in the mix?!? There's got to be some reason DJ look like spazzes.
Ok so what I'm talking about is a slight FAST limiting compressor with a VERY HIGH threshold. So if any peaks go over -0.5, then the compressor comes in within say 1ms and then goes out within 2-3ms. Surgical precision control. Why would you want this? Well, because when you're mixing two tracks in the digital realm (Live's mixer) and you don't get it right, sometimes you'll have peaks. And although it's hard to hit that digital zero in a 32-bit float mix engine, it can happen, and you never want it to happen when you're on stage. If you keep you levels down, it's likely that the compressor will never even come into play. But to tell him to not use it at all, well, I think that's a little irresponsible. That's all I gots to say.
Freakin' canooks...*sigh*
;P
Of course if you compress a mastered mix, it'll sound like crap - that's what happens on the radio today - mastered stuff gets overcompressed even more - no dynamics, crappy sound.
Also, of course DJs blend the beats and the bass frequencies between tracks. Duh - what the hell do you think they're doing when they're fiddling around with knobs and such in the mix?!? There's got to be some reason DJ look like spazzes.
Ok so what I'm talking about is a slight FAST limiting compressor with a VERY HIGH threshold. So if any peaks go over -0.5, then the compressor comes in within say 1ms and then goes out within 2-3ms. Surgical precision control. Why would you want this? Well, because when you're mixing two tracks in the digital realm (Live's mixer) and you don't get it right, sometimes you'll have peaks. And although it's hard to hit that digital zero in a 32-bit float mix engine, it can happen, and you never want it to happen when you're on stage. If you keep you levels down, it's likely that the compressor will never even come into play. But to tell him to not use it at all, well, I think that's a little irresponsible. That's all I gots to say.
Freakin' canooks...*sigh*
;P
on a side note here.....wouldn't such short attack and release times on a full-spectrum signal cause distortion because of the bass frequencies? Probably very little because of the high threshold and low ratio, but I thought a general rule of thumb was to make the attack and release times higher than the period of the lowest frequency you are compressing?