Ableton Forum

Just cant grasp how to do this! Im using a midi controller and have no idea what to set the rotarys to.

Im used to mixing with lows mids & highs. Anybody know of any vids showing just how to use eq 8? I've searched high and low but to no avail.

any help much appreciated

Set 1 to high pass filter
Set 2 to low pass filter
Assign the frequency of both band 1 and 2 to separate rotary controllers.
The make sure the frequency ranges are the right way around when assigned to your rotaries .

by set 1 to high pass filter do you mean the on off switch?

sussed it now mate! cheers legend!

dont really want to make a new thread but when making a mix cd do you compress each track indivdually or just compress the channel as a whole?

it'd have to be on a track by track basis. each one has its own flavor. I don't know if there's ever a single effect a producer would put on a whole album, as in they finish the tracks then run the whole thing through one effect.

start a new thread, at least it's not politics or an iPad thread. you never know where a good audio question will lead.

well you answered my question mate so i wont bother, cheers

just and so getting to grips with ableton, amazing piece of software.

you think i should get a compressor plugin or just use the ableton one?

I'm no producer, there are better people to evaluate plug-ins but as far as I can tell people are happy with Live's compressor. I'd say learn on it and if someday you want more, buy one. it seems that people get other compressors for their character but there's no need to go down that route until you really learn how to use a compressor.

all in all I'm not a fan of compressing tracks, except 'parallel drum compression' which is a great technique.
http://www.hometracked.com/2007/03/31/p ... rum-tones/

also learn how to sidechain with Live's compressor. make a long bass tone, drop in Live's compressor then feed a basic 4/4 kick drum into the compressor's side chain input. tweak the compressor until the bass tone turns into a bassline. standard 'trick.'

+1

(even though I have a gazillion other compressors which I choose on a task by task basis).

Get familiar with Live's compressor first. It can do A LOT.

If you need a compressor for parallel/NY compression, Cytomic's The Glue for $99 is the bomb (an SSL G-buss compressor emulator).
http://www.cytomic.com/glue

Not quite as good (or at least it doesn't have a distinct sonic signature), but still useful (and cheap) is DDMF's donationware NY compressor.
http://www.ddmf.eu/

levimoniz wrote:Here I come once again to offer my unsolicited opinion

Parallel compression came about as a workaround rather than a 'trick' - comps like the 1176 with super-quick attacks made it necessity to mix in the dry signal when it was all you had. IMO it's completely unnecessary to parallel using digital comps with virtually no limitations - just sayin - but if it helps you understand compression then by all means...

Levi

what?

the hell has parallel compression to do with quick attack times?

levimoniz wrote:Here I come once again to offer my unsolicited opinion

Parallel compression came about as a workaround rather than a 'trick' - comps like the 1176 with super-quick attacks made it necessity to mix in the dry signal when it was all you had. IMO it's completely unnecessary to parallel using digital comps with virtually no limitations - just sayin - but if it helps you understand compression then by all means...

Levi

I don't understand but would love to learn more. production methods are my weak point.

There are plenty of differing opinions on compression and how to use it. FOr example, top mixer Michael Brauer often uses a 5 way vocal compression trick using 5 group channels to get his vocals sitting well.
http://www.soundonsound.com/sos/apr09/a ... h_0409.htm

The NY compression 'trick' / 'workaround' call it what you will, has been a standard practice used by many producers and mixers for a period of time, especially where you slam the compressor really hard and bring it up the dry track at a moderate level, that can really make for punchy drums, hence it's popularity. If you want to recreate that, there are several ways of doing it, but having a compressor with a wet/dry ratio makes it very quick and convenient. Putting a compressor on a send and trying to emulate it can also work but latency can be an issue and needs manually compensating for - duplicating a track and compressing one and leaving the other dry is another way.

A lot of the best things in life were discovered by accident or by a work around.

wet/dry knob, duh, my bad.

thanks for the tips! I love this stuff.

Precisely, parallel compression does have a very different sonic result then quick/slow attack/release settings.
You can however come to similar (still not the same!) results over different ways, leeds stated, but changing the attack / release speed is going to have a different outcome, a very different one.

i really like to know where that info that parallel compression is a substitute for the attack/release time settings come from...?

'gate' has dry/wet...