You are currently browsing articles tagged compression.
I’m amazed when I compare Glyn Johns’s early mixes of Let It Be with Phil Spector’s final release. The music and performances are the same, but the mixes couldn’t sound more different. Shouldn’t these men, both professionals practicing a time-honoured craft, have created similar mixes with the same material? Of course, no two listeners hear […]
Read the full post ...Tags: compression, EQ, mixing, professional-engineers, tracking
Most often, we use compressors to tame the dynamics of a recording. Like all recording tools, though, compressors have less-obvious uses for shaping sound. A compressor raises the level of quieter elements in a signal. This tends to “fatten” the recorded sound, which can add a lot of character, especially on drums and vocals. However, […]
Read the full post ...Tags: compression, drums
Paul White (the editor of Sound On Sound) gives us the A Concise Guide to Compression and Limiting, a great introduction to the subject. When it comes to individual tracks, it is pretty much routine to compress vocals, bass guitars, acoustic guitars and occasionally electric guitars, though overdriven guitar sounds tend to be self compressing […]
Read the full post ...Tags: compression
What is parallel compression and when should I use it?: parralell[sic] compression is when you double a track and compress one copy very hard, and mix it under the original. It preserves the dynamics of the instrument but makes it sound more solid. Help me learn to properly mix tracks. The key lesson I learned […]
Read the full post ...Tags: business, compression, mixing
Many of us learned the basics of compression from books and magazines, but compression can be difficult to grasp this way, especially for hands-on or visual learners. If you’re in that category, you might find enlightenment in these videos (with minimal sales pitch) from t.c. electronics. Straightforward overviews of compression, expansion, limiting, and parallel compression.
Read the full post ...Tags: compression
This instrument/frequency chart from The Independent Recording Network (and Southside Productions) is the most detailed I’ve ever seen. It shows the fundamental and harmonic ranges for more than 25 instruments (including drums,) along with the perception each creates (“boom”, “warmth”, “crunch”, etc.) in various segments of the audio spectrum. Tufte would be proud. You can […]
Read the full post ...Tags: compression, mixing
