PeterChapman wrote:
Fairchild 670
The only one third party I have of that list (I got 27 compressors and limiters). I view compressors as mode modifiers, adding character to make it sound how I like it to feel, and this one is great for taming and focusing some unwieldy sounds. I've especially used it for mid-range sounds in a busy mix, quite often with vertical mode to give a very convincing stereophonic experience with presence. As I see it it's about subtle settings that sounds so natural that you sometimes don¨t really understand what it's doing until you remove it.
I haven't used it much on a buss yet. The typically limited settings and the dynamic response make it harder to predict how it will sound exactly, but in 90% of cases I've tried it in, it sounds strikingly better with it. Not always what I want, but a highly interesting concept. I have the Waves
Puigchild implementation.
Glue
I use this one for busses naturally, parallel work, and sidechaining. Quite seldom for bass though as I feel it clicks too much compared to other third party alternatives. I might also use it just for instrument track compression with slower attacks typically.
I recommend putting your favs, or better all you have, compressors in an audio effects track and use Macros for moving between them (turning them off and on as well as the outputs. Put all in high sensitivity mode and attack and release as for function and then try one at a time very quickly. Select the one that feels most interesting and ungroup so you have only that one left.
This is especially useful for parallel compression. I have 2 variations of my compressor (and Limiter) rack, one with fast attacks for parallel and one with slower attacks for buss work. It can be a good idea to adjust settings to the material an then move on to the next.
With this method I quickly find the compressor I feel most suited for the job, sometimes finding a new idea for how to use compression in the current scenario.
