Ableton Forum

I have 128's w/ Samplers for various types of samples (e.g. kicks, snares, claps, etc.) within a single drum rack, and I tend to use different settings for EQ and Compressor for each. Lately I've seen some tutorials where multiple producers have said to add a Glue Compressor to all of your drums/percussion (i.e. drum bus) to "glue" everything together. So my question is: if I have compression at the individual sample level and the drum rack level, will that be compression overkill (i.e. compressing a compressed signal)? This also happens if you are using a Compressor to sidechain tracks and then a Compressor at the Master level.

If it sounds good then it doesn't matter how many compressors you use. It's actually preferable to use multiple compressors in many situations so I'd say there is nothing wrong with doing it.

One tip I can give is to place the compressors earlier in the chain (before the EQ) otherwise EQ changes will alter your compressor settings that you have dialed in because the compressors are input dependent.

I usually compress to shape a sound then glue-comp within a group to tie them together. Just make sure your compression at the individual level is all done to good taste so that your glue-comp/end compressor has a good signal to work with.

However it is all dependent on what you are hearing/your preference. All in all I say processing a sound through a max of two compressors and then limiting the final mix is pretty standard for most electronic production.

Good luck!

Is there a reason you are using 128 Samplers instead of 128 simplers, or 1 Sampler? Just CPU curious.

Steve Glen wrote:Is there a reason you are using 128 Samplers instead of 128 simplers, or 1 Sampler? Just CPU curious.

I'm pretty sure he meant 128's with Sampler. i.e. 128 different samples in each Sampler scrollable with the SampleSelector

What Tom said.

And thanks for the input Airyck and empathy1.