Ableton Forum

Hey guys, so after a few years of use, I'd like to say I'm familiar with compressors and the whole idea of dynamics in a song, but one thing that's always confused me is, why compress drums? I understand the use of compressing an entire drum bus to keep all the different elements together dynamically, but what I don't understand is why to compress individual samples like kicks, snares, etc. I don't understand why you would want to compress a kick sample by itself. I hear people talking about using compression to achieve that recently popular really bassy trappy 808 kick but I don't really get how you could use a compressor to get those tails on the kicks, as I think of compression as eliminating dynamics, rather than adding a tail to a kick drum that seems to be coming from nowhere.

If someone could clear this up for me that'd be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Charlie

hmmm.... good point, actually...
with a compressor, you can basically only change the volume
of the different parts of the drum hit. more release, more transients,
more of the middle portion...

one could do that with a wav editor too...
maybe even easier than with a compressor

penguinpajamas wrote:Hey guys, so after a few years of use, I'd like to say I'm familiar with compressors and the whole idea of dynamics in a song, but one thing that's always confused me is, why compress drums? I understand the use of compressing an entire drum bus to keep all the different elements together dynamically, but what I don't understand is why to compress individual samples like kicks, snares, etc. I don't understand why you would want to compress a kick sample by itself. I hear people talking about using compression to achieve that recently popular really bassy trappy 808 kick but I don't really get how you could use a compressor to get those tails on the kicks, as I think of compression as eliminating dynamics, rather than adding a tail to a kick drum that seems to be coming from nowhere.

If someone could clear this up for me that'd be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Charlie

With real drums, individual hits will vary in volume and compressing individually will mean any bus compression is not reacting to wildly varying transients.

I guess with electronic drums, you can have a shorter decay time, but bring that up more in the mix. Its not about adding a tail as such, just changing the envelope of that tail.

The way it works to "extend" the tail is compresses the initial transient of the attack so theres less difference bettween the attack and the tail and the overall volume is raised by the makeup gain.

Sage wrote:

penguinpajamas wrote:Hey guys, so after a few years of use, I'd like to say I'm familiar with compressors and the whole idea of dynamics in a song, but one thing that's always confused me is, why compress drums? I understand the use of compressing an entire drum bus to keep all the different elements together dynamically, but what I don't understand is why to compress individual samples like kicks, snares, etc. I don't understand why you would want to compress a kick sample by itself. I hear people talking about using compression to achieve that recently popular really bassy trappy 808 kick but I don't really get how you could use a compressor to get those tails on the kicks, as I think of compression as eliminating dynamics, rather than adding a tail to a kick drum that seems to be coming from nowhere.

If someone could clear this up for me that'd be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Charlie

With real drums, individual hits will vary in volume and compressing individually will mean any bus compression is not reacting to wildly varying transients.

I guess with electronic drums, you can have a shorter decay time, but bring that up more in the mix. Its not about adding a tail as such, just changing the envelope of that tail.

That makes sense actually. So producers would use compressors to do to recorded drum hits what an envelope generator would do to a synthesized or sampled drum hit.

I think it is more of a creative use via sidechaining.

penguinpajamas wrote:Hey guys, so after a few years of use, I'd like to say I'm familiar with compressors and the whole idea of dynamics in a song, but one thing that's always confused me is, why compress drums? I understand the use of compressing an entire drum bus to keep all the different elements together dynamically, but what I don't understand is why to compress individual samples like kicks, snares, etc. I don't understand why you would want to compress a kick sample by itself. I hear people talking about using compression to achieve that recently popular really bassy trappy 808 kick but I don't really get how you could use a compressor to get those tails on the kicks, as I think of compression as eliminating dynamics, rather than adding a tail to a kick drum that seems to be coming from nowhere.

If someone could clear this up for me that'd be really appreciated.

Thanks,
Charlie

If you are using the piano roll to program the drums you don't really need individual drum compression.

On the other hand if you are playing them in by hand you might need some compression to tame the dynamics.

But like others said individual drum compression for electronic style drums are often about controlling the envelopes. A transient designer could also work, but a compressor can still do things a transient designer can't.

Reduce peaks and raise RMS of individual hits. Really useful for hits you want coming through louder in the mix without the peaks destroying headroom (e.g. kicks and snares).

the correct answer is Why Not?

If you understand how a compressor works, you can actually use it to increase the dynamic range of a sound if you want to. Learn how and why things work and then make them your own. Forget about what other people tell you to do and use your ears and good judgement. Following "tips and tricks" might do something for you right now, but learning how stuff works inside and out will lead to a lifetime of solid results. My advice is to read the manuals and continually experiment until you understand exactly what you can do with your tools.

Learn your tools? POPPYCOCK!

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penguinpajamas wrote: I don't really get how you could use a compressor to get those tails on the kicks, as I think of compression as eliminating dynamics, rather than adding a tail to a kick drum that seems to be coming from nowhere.

If you have a long sustaining kick, with a high transient at the attack , you can compress (reduce the dynamics) to make the low level parts more audible. So you cant add anything, but make low level volumes more audible, wich results in a longer audible decaying sound.

gomi wrote:the correct answer is Why Not?

Because I’m willing to bet there are more home producers who don’t know how to use compression properly than ones who do know how and the internet is telling people to slap compressors and limiters on every damn thing and its either having no effect or making things worse.

You can also do a lot messing with attack and release times. If you raise the attack a little, you can let the initial peak through while suppressing the tail, making the drum punchier. If you raise the release, the tail of the sound below the threshold will continue to be suppressed even after the threshold has been passed. If you tweak them both carefully you can enhance the drum sound while keeping a relatively uncompressed feel. Lowering the attack and release has the opposite effect, suppressing the initial transient and emphasizing the tail like in ansolas' example above.