What is the best way to do parallel compression?

[Sibanger]

I find this guys version to be very clean and easy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3-K-Slp6jQo&

he's got a cpl different types of compression going for different components of your track using return/sends.

also a bunch of other helpful vids on his channel

+1 on Mr Bills vids

[evon]

You should always keep the master clean to be honest unt it comes to mixing and mastering. Good gain structure from the off makes mixing the track a whole lot easier in the long run

All tracks are continually being summed to the Master. Adding effects to the master is what you should do when mixing or mastering.

[Paradigm X]

one of the best things about ableton IMO, setting up parallel/complex fx routing. Rack FTW! And then to simply save a rack as a preset in the library. Excellent.

[Ill Frequencies]

Am I being thick, or wouldn't the easiest way be to set up a send FX channel and use this for all tracks you want to parallel process (not just for compression).

What's the benefit of using individual FX chains?

Obviously you can now use separate setting for each channel, but almost all parallel compression would be hard compression right? You can just use the send amount to control how much comes through.

Yeah that's how I had it setup originally, a return with nothing on it and a second with the compressor.
Is the benefit of using the rack is that it is a rack and you can just load it up quicker than setting un the return channels?

[Earwax69]

For us amateur that use Ableton Live in a semi-pro fashion and dont have money to spend on mastering, I think we can be creative in the ways we use the master track. You can compress parts that are too quiet and raise the volume of your overall track, put some sweeping EQ FX at strategic places and color the sound in others with EQ or saturation. I think it's all good sport really. But yeah, better get the mix right before starting to get heavy on the master track.

Im actually more confortable outputting my final .wav from 1 session than reimporting it in another session to master. Im sure there is some loss in the process. (you follow me? output mix, then open it in another session on a track, warpers off, add FX, then export a .wav again...)

[simonlb]

An Audio Effects Rack with a "dry" chain and a compressor chain is how I like to do it.

[Rationalizer]

Kush Audio introduced a new plugin at this year's AES. Based on the demo the parallel compression on it sounds great: http://youtu.be/hazcYwkCP2M