Help a newbie: OTT Multiband compression secrets

[vdvd]

Hi,
(first please excuse my approximate english)

I'm new to mixing songs, and discover that when putting the OTT preset on the master and tweeking it a little, it get really punchy, and fat sound, it makes all my songs sound way better... but the thing is the sound do not breath anymore there is no more space and it fatigue the ears so much.

I wanted to know how to reach a similar effect but more subtle, with more space, less overcompression (ps: i'm not doing electronic music, more like "pop" songs)

I'm aware it's not by just putting just one plugin on the master bus but how just one plug can change everything and make it so much better, what's the secret, should i use it on very low dry/wet % on each separate tracks to clear and boost some frequencies ? Is it okay to put this OTT on the master ? How does it works ?

Thank you!

[WildOak]

Hey!

So when I'm mixing my songs, will basically do light compression(somewhere around 3 db of gain reduction) , EQ, and a little limiting on EVERY track. You can also group tracks that are similar together (drums in one group, Leads in another ect.) and do some light compression on the groups. Once you compress and EQ all your tracks, you can do some light limiting on compression on the master, but listen and make sure it isn't getting over compressed for your taste.

Now you can bounce out your song, and it should sound nicely glued together yet not over compressed.

You can take that bounce and put it in a new session for mastering.

Make sure warping is off on the track, and do some more light compression, EQ, Multi band compression, some sort of saturation, and limiting at the end to get it a little louder.

So basically in my experience its better to do lots of light compression instead of some heavy compression.

Hopefully some of this helps!

If you have any more questions on mixing and mastering hit me up.

[Stromkraft]

I'm new to mixing songs, and discover that when putting the OTT preset on the master and tweeking it a little, it get really punchy, and fat sound, it makes all my songs sound way better... but the thing is the sound do not breath anymore there is no more space and it fatigue the ears so much.

You do realize this is a contradiction, right? As I understand you there are some aspects of this treatment that you like but you also perceive there are some negative aspects as well.

There are a few observations I can make. I don't know what you mean with "better" in this case, but most of us are susceptible to "louder is better" syndrome, i e with nothing else changed a louder signal will be perceived as better. When you compress you're actually making the loudest parts of the signal more quiet. It's when you use makeup gain that goes above the volume the signal had before compression that you enter into the risk of thinking it sounds better mostly because of the volume change. Indeed the OTT preset is set to make things louder which is hardly surprising as I'm pretty sure OTT stand for "Over The Top".

Another thing is that a multiband dynamic processor likely in practice works a bit like an EQ, it's changing the balance between the frequency bands it's processing, so chances are that what your mix actually need instead is some EQing.

While you indeed can use multiband dynamic processing on the master, or elsewhere, generally that should enhance a mix that already sounds good.

The subject of compression and EQ is very deep and the best way to learn is to make many mixes. To me personally I also read up and discussed a lot for several years before I started to think I had a clue.

Compression and EQ are perhaps among the more important aspects of mixing as they can be very powerful techniques. It's vital to learn them. How you do that is up to you but below are a few of the sources I've found quite valuable for my learning. I suggest you read, watch and apply at your own pace (these and other sources you dig up out of interest). I took at least 3 years and I don't feel I know everything.

• Sound on Sound Magazine: Compression Made Easy
• Attack Magazine: Gregory Scott, Demolishing The Myths of Compression
• 13 advanced compression features explained
• The Recording Revolution blog