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I have an ongoing debate on the ddrums forum about compression and I thought I would post my .02 cents about compression here as well.
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Outboard gear: Focusrite Compounder, Drawmer MX-30, BBE-482, Aphex C-104, Behringer T1951 4-Band Parametric Tube EQ, Lexicon MPX1, Mackie 1402-VLZ, (Crown K2 amp & Cerwin Vega V-253 speakers = 1600 watts @ 4 ohms continues power, peak at 3000 watts) and Sony MDR-V700DJ headphones.
[This message has been edited by szvook (edited February 18, 2002).]
A compressor / limiter is a good tool to even the dynamics out before the signal reaches the noise gate. The attenuation controls how much the sound is attenuated whenever the gate closes. Certain gates have as much as 60 db of attenuation. By setting the attention to a closer amount (around 10db of cut) the gate does not close as much or as far and the hiss is reduced but actually still there. It is the total absence of hisses that makes breathing more noticeable. The perfect application is when the envelope of the noise gate follows the envelope of the sound. On percussive sounds this is easy. Drums are always recorded with gates. But be careful when recording live drums. If your gate doesn’t open because your threshold is set too high, your drum won’t get to tape and then there is nothing. Same thing with setting the threshold too high on your keybord. If you play a soft passage be sure that your gate’s threshold is set low enough to open. Another important control is the "Attack" control. This can delay the opening of the gate and can be used to contour the sound. You can take a harsh heavy velocity sounding part and give it the soft curve of a violin on the other extreme.
Gates are very much a part of todays reverb effects. For instance if you put a lot of reverb on a staccato percussive keybord part and then set the gates release to be short and the amount of attenuation to full tilt, you can achieve an explosive type of reverb effect.
Exactly like the sound of Phil Collin’s snare drum. The reverb is big and then it dies right off making the snare sound even bigger. Another important control is called ratio. The ratio of a noise gate works exactly oppisite that of the ratio of a compressor/ limiter. Instead of being 2 : 1 the gate’s ratio’s are 1 : 2 and 1: 4 and 1 : 8 and etc. The higher ratio in a noise brings about an interesting phenomena called expansion. Unlike what compression does in smoothing out dynamics, high ratios in a noise will cause expansion and seem to add dynamics to a sound. How much and how these dynamics affect the sound are again dependent on the Attack and Release settings. How fast or slow the dynamics come in to play and how long or short they will last due to the release.
Some models of compressor have an Auto mode, which adjusts the attack and release characteristics during operation to suit the dynamics of the music being processed. In the case of complex mixes or vocals where the dynamics are constantly changing, the Auto mode may do a better job than fixed manual settings. Peak/RMS operation: Every compressor uses a circuit known as a side chain, and the side chain's job in life is to measure how big the signal is, so that it knows when it needs compressing. Light compression lets you play louder, this has the affect of making the quiet sounds more easily heard thus bring out the dynamics more.
Also -
Some people argue that the mastering phase can be skipped or merely consist of diminishing the dynamics of the track and raising the gain- they argue that given that the mixdown is good enough, further mastering such as eq-ing etc. is unnecessary. I don’t think so. There are several reasons for thorough mastering even if the mixdown is very good, although I will not go into debate here, I’ll mention a few reasons. If you are making a CD, you generally want your tracks to have a similar “signature”. Most important here is probably the gain of the tracks. For the listener it would be a pain having to adjust the volume for each tune. Also the frequency response is important- a track with lots of response in the bass area being followed by a track with lots of high end and no bass, don’t give a coherent feel.
There is a range of effects operating on the dynamics of the sound. The dynamic range of a tune is the difference between the loudest level and the lowest one; a sound with both very high levels as well as low ones has lots of dynamics, the opposite, let’s say a sine wave with constant amplitude, is a sound with no dynamics.
Using an expander will increase the dynamics to aid compression (if compressing heavily) that is why I use my BBE-482 and my Aphex C-104 in conjunction with my compressors.
Gates are very much a part of todays reverb effects. For instance if you put a lot of reverb on a staccato percussive keybord part and then set the gates release to be short and the amount of attenuation to full tilt, you can achieve an explosive type of reverb effect.
Exactly like the sound of Phil Collin’s snare drum. The reverb is big and then it dies right off making the snare sound even bigger. Another important control is called ratio. The ratio of a noise gate works exactly oppisite that of the ratio of a compressor/ limiter. Instead of being 2 : 1 the gate’s ratio’s are 1 : 2 and 1: 4 and 1 : 8 and etc. The higher ratio in a noise brings about an interesting phenomena called expansion. Unlike what compression does in smoothing out dynamics, high ratios in a noise will cause expansion and seem to add dynamics to a sound. How much and how these dynamics affect the sound are again dependent on the Attack and Release settings. How fast or slow the dynamics come in to play and how long or short they will last due to the release.
Some models of compressor have an Auto mode, which adjusts the attack and release characteristics during operation to suit the dynamics of the music being processed. In the case of complex mixes or vocals where the dynamics are constantly changing, the Auto mode may do a better job than fixed manual settings. Peak/RMS operation: Every compressor uses a circuit known as a side chain, and the side chain's job in life is to measure how big the signal is, so that it knows when it needs compressing. Light compression lets you play louder, this has the affect of making the quiet sounds more easily heard thus bring out the dynamics more.
Also -
Some people argue that the mastering phase can be skipped or merely consist of diminishing the dynamics of the track and raising the gain- they argue that given that the mixdown is good enough, further mastering such as eq-ing etc. is unnecessary. I don’t think so. There are several reasons for thorough mastering even if the mixdown is very good, although I will not go into debate here, I’ll mention a few reasons. If you are making a CD, you generally want your tracks to have a similar “signature”. Most important here is probably the gain of the tracks. For the listener it would be a pain having to adjust the volume for each tune. Also the frequency response is important- a track with lots of response in the bass area being followed by a track with lots of high end and no bass, don’t give a coherent feel.
There is a range of effects operating on the dynamics of the sound. The dynamic range of a tune is the difference between the loudest level and the lowest one; a sound with both very high levels as well as low ones has lots of dynamics, the opposite, let’s say a sine wave with constant amplitude, is a sound with no dynamics.
Using an expander will increase the dynamics to aid compression (if compressing heavily) that is why I use my BBE-482 and my Aphex C-104 in conjunction with my compressors.
------------------
Outboard gear: Focusrite Compounder, Drawmer MX-30, BBE-482, Aphex C-104, Behringer T1951 4-Band Parametric Tube EQ, Lexicon MPX1, Mackie 1402-VLZ, (Crown K2 amp & Cerwin Vega V-253 speakers = 1600 watts @ 4 ohms continues power, peak at 3000 watts) and Sony MDR-V700DJ headphones.
[This message has been edited by szvook (edited February 18, 2002).]
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