Tech Sessions #12
No Real Limitations to Compression…
For the audio pro's reading this week's column about compression, peel off the onion, because this one is going to be really redundant. But it's also a good chance for you to respond with some of your tips on one of the most confusing yet basic dynamics of production and that is compression.
Be it drums, vocals, bass lines, or any major texture of a track that is being fed into your mixing/editing environment, compression can play a major role in how "deep" your shit sounds, how hard it "hits," and how nice certain elements play with each other.
What exactly is compression? The best way for me to describe it is to paint a picture. Imagine you are running down a wide open street and then suddenly you get caught up into a narrow alley that limits your sideways movement; you are now basically "limited" and "compressed" into this space.
In this analogy, you the runner is whatever sound you have coming from its source, the wide open street is the path/cable the source travels on until it hits your compressor/plug-in, and the narrow alley is both the compressor itself and the end result that it gives you.
One of the hardest things to get your head around is how something that restricts the range of your sound can make your shit sound bigger or heavier. One thing to understand is that compressors act as limiters too; so confusion comes up when people hear the words compressor and limiter used together.
The bare bones truth, a compressor can and in many cases does, act as an amp or pre-amp depending on where it relates to your signal path. The louder your incoming signal the less "gain" or makeup volume you will need to get your sound thumping.
In the same respect a limiter does just what it says it does, it keeps volume in check so that sounds don't clip, distort, whatever you want to call it. Now, none of this matters until you tell the gear/software what level to start limiting and/or compressing at. This is called the "threshold."
Me? A lot of the time, I'll mix up the best of both worlds by limiting and compressing at the same time. dB's are like the inches of sound, so by saying the input "level" of your sound went from 0 dB to 3 dB that is like saying you drew a line that was three inches long.
0 dB is a good place to set the threshold at since that 0 db is the standard starting point for mixing etc. No action will be taken on anything that is coming in under 0 dB on the compression tip.
Once you cross that road is where the compression curve comes in at. This is the ratio dial on your box/plug-in. The "output level" now is being affected as long as your input signal stays above 0 dB.
Compression ratios are set-up like sports bets in Vegas. The formula is if your ratio is set at 2:1 and your signals hits 10 dB then you'll end up with 5 dB more gain on the back end.
To limit straight up, all you have to do is basically treat the threshold like a bank setting a credit limit. Don't want the sound to cross 10 dB? Then set it up that way. Because even if your input jumps to 20 dB the box/plug-in will spit it out as 10dB.
Finally, bucking down your own compression style can take a second but by playing with what sounds good to your ears and your style you'll get something hot.
Two more knobs to note are the attack and the release. Play with them. A lot of times, especially on drum sounds pitting the extremes of one against the other ends up with some really cool sounding shit.
So that was compression/limiting in its most basic sense. Feel free to add on…
Glover is one half of the Atlanta, GA based production squad The Audio Assassins which are founding members of The Elements. You can find them both at Audioassassins.com and theelementsinc.com
Message Glover with your insight on compression/limiting and how you use it in your productions
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