Discuss music production with Ableton Live.
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gort
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by gort » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:19 pm
Compression is one of those things I still havent come close to mastering. I rely too heavily on the presets. I was hoping some of you could share some links to some good articles on it for me to read...
thanks
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hi-q hits and handclaps not holywars and hand grenades
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ethios4
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by ethios4 » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:36 pm
It's not a free tutorial, but the book called The Dance Music Manual has the best compression chapter I've read yet.
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AOnline
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by AOnline » Wed Apr 18, 2007 5:52 pm
I second that! That book is brilliant and is helping me with loads of explanations... good start for anyone!!
Listen to tracks (Fully produced in Live) @ felixvanthiel.podomatic.com
AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800, MAudio Delta 1010LT, Ableton Live 6, Propellerhead Reason 3.0, Korg Kontrol 49, MicroKorg.
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laird
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by laird » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:11 pm
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djyakov
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by djyakov » Wed Apr 18, 2007 6:19 pm
Couple of thoughts:
Gentle compression is a wonderful technique, but use it carefully -- many dance tracks are compressed too much and don't have good dynamics.
When you use compression, check the "average volume" after processing. Tracks with good dynamics have an average volume of around -13 Decibels with a peak of -0.5. If the track is over-compressed, the average volume could be around -10 Decibels, which is too loud.
We teamed up with iZotope (the makers of Ozone) to create Platinum Notes software that applies expansion/compression to your MP3 and WAV files. You may find this interesting (check the Overview):
http://www.PlatinumNotes.com
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gort
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by gort » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:30 pm
thanks a bunch everyone... great info !
hi-q hits and handclaps not holywars and hand grenades
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gort
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by gort » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:49 pm
cool. like i siad in the 1st post, i have been relying on presets and my ear so far. but recently i had a project where i had a moog bassline with a drum track. i had some compression on the drum track AND some compression on the Main track. it sounded ok to me, but when i rendered later, i noticed that it was just sounding muddy and flat. my snare wasnt punching thru anymore and my bass sounded distant.
so, i know i need to make some adjustments manaully.. time to learn up once and for all...
thanks again
hi-q hits and handclaps not holywars and hand grenades
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djyakov
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by djyakov » Wed Apr 18, 2007 7:54 pm
gort wrote:cool. like i siad in the 1st post, i have been relying on presets and my ear so far. but recently i had a project where i had a moog bassline with a drum track. i had some compression on the drum track AND some compression on the Main track. it sounded ok to me, but when i rendered later, i noticed that it was just sounding muddy and flat. my snare wasnt punching thru anymore and my bass sounded distant.
so, i know i need to make some adjustments manaully.. time to learn up once and for all...
thanks again
gort, how about using side-chain compression? It's a useful technique that may help you "cut through" the sound.
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gort
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by gort » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:08 pm
yeah, ive meesed with sidechaining a bit. great stuff! i actually designed the GUI for a freeware one.. haha but i SUCK at using it! just need to practice it a bit more.
hi-q hits and handclaps not holywars and hand grenades
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laird
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by laird » Wed Apr 18, 2007 8:45 pm
Side-chaining would solve that issue if you compressed tracks OTHER than your drums.
if you are killing the "punch" of your drums... mess with attack times (i.e. increase them) on the compressor on ytour drum track. This will, in effect, make you compress less. Less compression = more dynamics = more punch.
ANywho, the wiki and guides explain better WHY... but it seems likely this is what you should read up on and mess around with, imo.
PS: using your ears = good on ya!
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TheAnimal
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by TheAnimal » Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:15 pm
Cool, they even covered multiband compression. Just heard about the technique today for the first time.
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