There's more to using compressors than just solving mix‑balance problems, but until you're confident with their fundamental gain‑reduction properties, their more advanced and creative applications will be a bit baffling. Pushing your channel compressors too hard is a common mistake that can slowly suck the life out of a mix if it's duplicated across all your tracks, so it pays in the long run to be a little wary.Waves' Renaissance Compressor takes the approach of SSL's popular bus compressor, where you get more compression as you bring the threshold down. Re: Why does Liam Gallagher's vocals sound shit? Why does Liam Gallagher's vocals sound shit? Commercial expectations for the audibility of lyrics are very high, and compression, no matter how expertly set up, is simply not an intelligent enough tool to keep a lead vocal exactly where you want it throughout most mixes. All contents copyright © SOS Publications Group and/or its licensors, 1985-2020. A final control layout you may encounter is the one used on the Urei 1176LN and which now appears on many of the plug‑ins it has inspired, such as Cubase's Vintage Compressor. Turning it up is one of the ways to increase compression. Example 3: Here’s a conga part with a UAD 1176 LN plug-in on it. For this reason, I tend to steer newcomers to compression away from 1176LN‑style processors, because the overall level increase that you get as you turn up the Input Gain control always tends to give the impression that your processing is improving the sound — even if the amount of compression is inappropriate. Now, as everybody knows, the best processing for slap bass is that button labelled 'Mute', but let's assume for the moment that this option has been ruled out… This particular slap‑bass part is nice and dynamic and balances fine with the rest of the track, except that the odd slap note really takes off and leaps out of the track. To see how the compression ratio control can work, let's take the example of a slap bass part, the waveform envelope of which might appear as shown here. This knob is sometimes called 'Compression' (on some JoeMeek and Focusrite Platinum units, for example, as well as plug-ins such as Digital Fishphones' Blockfish), but on the iconic Teletronix LA2A it was called 'Peak Reduction', a term that can be found on other hardware and software (for example Tin Brooke Tales' TLS 3127 LEA). If you then set the release time very fast, the gain reduction will also reset very rapidly — well before the drum sound has finished, such that the lower‑level tail of the drum hit won't be compressed as much. Top of the list are vocals, because although they naturally have a very wide dynamic range, they're the main carrier of the vital melody and lyrics in most mixes and thus actually need to maintain a very small dynamic range. This ability to achieve very different effects is partly what confuses some newcomers to compression, and it's also one of the reasons why promisingly‑named compressor presets often don't do the trick: if your 'Snare' preset has been set up to reduce the drum transient, it won't help if you actually need more transient in your mix!Here you can see the transient‑suppressing effect of very short attack and release times. Even in natural‑sounding acoustic mixes, some control of vocal levels will usually be required, and although it can be achieved entirely though fader automation, compression typically plays some role. Bass sounds, with their slow‑moving waveforms, are particularly prone to this, but delicate acoustic instruments can also present difficulties because they'll ruthlessly expose the smallest of distortion artifacts.The third waveform shows how combining a fast attack with a slower release gives you pretty much just an overall level change, with little change in the nature of the snare sound. Before I move on, let's quickly recap what we've covered so far. The only remaining problem is how you will be able to assign a reasonable attack and release times for each compression band. I've recently discovered that scratch DJs are also tricky customers, because the details within scratching parts tend to be as important as the higher‑level signal peaks. The reason why the compressor in our example isn't doing the job it's being asked to do is that it's reacting too fast to changes in the signal level. Listen to how the conga hits sustain more with the quicker release. So before we discuss any other compression parameters or controls, let's look at how you can make the most out of what we've already covered. Fast attack time is perfect for slow genre vocals. The gain reduction then effectively changes the waveform shape, producing distortion — the nature of which will depend on the sound being processed and the compressor you're abusing. This does make the compressor simpler to control, but these designs almost always make compressed signals feel louder than uncompressed ones which, once again, can encourage inexperienced users to dial in more compression than is necessary. In the case of the slap bass, you'd set the ratio up fairly high to start with, and then find a threshold setting that caused the gain reduction to kick in only on the slap peaks. Still too much slap? An article about compression isn't the best place to go into all the other processes you might use at mixdown, but here's one example to demonstrate what I'm talking about. Mastering Essentials Part 3 - How loud should I master? Ratio: 1.5:1–2:1 The setting for Example 3, when the release was at its slowest. The third time it plays, the release is a lot faster (about 3 o’clock). That said, there are a few keys to being able to control it and get the type of sound and response you want. For example, extreme low‑frequency thumps from a vocalist tapping their foot on the mic stand can play havoc with attempts to compress the vocal itself. First Look: Pro Tools | Carbon. Each mix will be different, but some instruments are more likely to need dynamic‑range control than others. Compressors that are specifically designed to offer very high‑ratio compression are often called limiters, so if you find that your compressor simply can't muster a high enough ratio to do a particular job, don't be afraid to try a limiter instead. First, let me repeat myself: concentrate on the balance of the tracks in your mix. The big spike is where a slap note has created a large level surge in an otherwise comparatively even line. If you try to keep your vox parts up-front and audible in a mix entirely with compression, they'll usually sound over‑processed, and it's a better tactic to keep the compression within musical‑sounding limits before dealing with fine, moment‑to‑moment level tweaks manually, by moving the vocal fader during the mix. One Synth Challenge V - The Filter Strikes Back. The slowest setting is at 7 o’clock and the fastest at 5 o’clock. Clearly, if your compression solves your balance problem, the job is done, but even if you think that this is the case, it makes sense to try turning the threshold back up a little and seeing how little compression you can get away with. Increase the ratio to stamp on the peaks more firmly.In contrast to the slap‑bass example, lower ratios tend to be better for instruments which have good musical dynamics, but simply have too wide a dynamic range. So it's not uncommon to keep adjusting Threshold and Ratio controls alongside your attack and release, to take account of these kinds of changes.In the last waveform, increasing the attack time a little has boosted the level of the initial percussive transient in relation to the sustain.