How often do you guys use compression?

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Markus Wolf
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How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Markus Wolf »

Im not talking about during the mastering phase. Im mean while composing on individual parts like you're synth lines and bass lines or anything else for that matter? And why do you chose to use compression in that moment? Ive read that some producers dont really use compression at all and prefer things to be less compressed and Ive also heard the opposite.

Thanks

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by tomhades »

i also do not prefer too much compression during production phase because it might limit myself during mixing & mastering ...

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zukenbauer
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by zukenbauer »

I use it only on kick sometimes besides the 2buss comp..
They say its good to have it on bass line but dont want to use it if i dont know why im using it..

Also, sometimes for glueing drum buss

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Prophän »

Personally, I use it whenever I feel that I need it, most of the time I use it on the bass, kick , and hats, Might use it on other sounds as well if I feel they're too wild and I want them to be more uniform. Not sure if this is a correct usage tho .

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by buffered »

I use them mainly in a sidechain situation. In a subtle way (not pumping) on hats, textures and reverb sends so they duck out of the way of the kick. I like to do this more than using an eq to carve space. If i'm taking too much out frequency-wise, I feel that the sound isn't right to begin with.
Probably just lack of confidence...or ear...with compressors but i like to get all the dynamics as ideal as possible going in.
Will use transient shapers to pull out textures and elongate/shorten things but thats about it.
Use the compressor on an Octatrack fairly heavily but this is in more of an extreme sound design method.

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by dubdub »

I used to not compress anything except maybe sidechaining the bass. I recently started compressing kicks and drums a lot more because you can get some really nicely shaped envelopes you wouldn't really get without compression. It's all for character though, the only thing I compress for loudness is bass. Don't see the point of compressing synths unless it's something wild like a 303 or maybe some dynamic sidechaining.

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

I use compression a fair amount.
Once you really get it, it can be used as a creative tool for so many things.
Compression doesn't just reduce dynamics. It can do the opposite and add more movement and dynamics.
So the idea of a track being overcompressed because there are too many channels with compression would only come from the perspective of someone who doesn't yet know the full creative potential of it.

And with techno, a style of music about impact, with low average dynamics, it's not an issue anyway.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

tomhades wrote:i also do not prefer too much compression during production phase because it might limit myself during mixing & mastering ...

That's a really bad way of thinking.
There is no reason to say "oh I won't do this because I want to do it in mastering"
I mean, you can't really master your own music anyway, but ignoring that, the end process is there to finalise and polish the things done in the creative phase.
Do what you want in the creative stage, clean up later if need be.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by dubdub »

Lost to the Void wrote:I use compression a fair amount.
Once you really get it, it can be used as a creative tool for so many things.
Compression doesn't just reduce dynamics. It can do the opposite and add more movement and dynamics.
So the idea of a track being overcompressed because there are too many channels with compression would only come from the perspective of someone who doesn't yet know the full creative potential of it.

And with techno, a style of music about impact, with low average dynamics, it's not an issue anyway.
I feel like the thing for the average producer that doesn't engineer though is that the huge time investment to 'really get' what might the most difficult skill in audio, would make a much bigger impact if they just spent the time working on more general skills related to compression like envelopes, basic mixdowns, transient awareness etc. Compression might be neat but it's not going to trump all these more basic skills.

That said I don't really know what I'm doing with compression and I feel like can get pretty satisfactory results for myself in regards to character compression - at least in certain cases.

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Mattias »

Depending on the project and style and what I want to achieve but...I use compression often yeah.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

dubdub wrote:
Lost to the Void wrote:I use compression a fair amount.
Once you really get it, it can be used as a creative tool for so many things.
Compression doesn't just reduce dynamics. It can do the opposite and add more movement and dynamics.
So the idea of a track being overcompressed because there are too many channels with compression would only come from the perspective of someone who doesn't yet know the full creative potential of it.

And with techno, a style of music about impact, with low average dynamics, it's not an issue anyway.
I feel like the thing for the average producer that doesn't engineer though is that the huge time investment to 'really get' what might the most difficult skill in audio, would make a much bigger impact if they just spent the time working on more general skills related to compression like envelopes, basic mixdowns, transient awareness etc. Compression might be neat but it's not going to trump all these more basic skills.

That said I don't really know what I'm doing with compression and I feel like can get pretty satisfactory results for myself in regards to character compression - at least in certain cases.

I use it just as much as all the stuff you mentioned. It's a bread and butter creative tool.
I'd like to do a sticky post on creative compression but it's something quite hard to do a long essay about.
It would be much easier to do a video and demonstrate various techniques.
I really need a nice (free) video capture software.

Compression combined with reverb for example = win.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Markus Wolf »

Lost to the Void wrote: It's a bread and butter creative tool.
I'd like to do a sticky post on creative compression
This ^^^^ :) Please do. Im sure loads of people would be interested. Also when you say Compression and Reverb are good together do you usually stick the reverb after the compressor or before...

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Prophän »

I guess compression would come after reverb(at least that's the way I do it).. otherwise it would kind of get cancelled, but when I think of it, it can work the other way too to obtain a particular shape of reverb.. or does it ?

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

Markus Wolf wrote:
Lost to the Void wrote: It's a bread and butter creative tool.
I'd like to do a sticky post on creative compression
This ^^^^ :) Please do. Im sure loads of people would be interested. Also when you say Compression and Reverb are good together do you usually stick the reverb after the compressor or before...
Compressor post reverb, acting very fast can have some very interesting effects. Sounds get pushed in to the reverb, but the tail can then become dominant after the compression closes out.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by tomhades »

Lost to the Void wrote:
tomhades wrote:i also do not prefer too much compression during production phase because it might limit myself during mixing & mastering ...

That's a really bad way of thinking.
There is no reason to say "oh I won't do this because I want to do it in mastering"
I mean, you can't really master your own music anyway, but ignoring that, the end process is there to finalise and polish the things done in the creative phase.
Do what you want in the creative stage, clean up later if need be.
I understand what you mean but what i meant is that i just do simple production work and then bounce stems (every single one of them) and do all mixing in another session. Once this is done i have a pretty decent premaster mix from where either myself either a master engineer can do his magic...

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Planar »

I mainly use it on buses to glue elements together, especially drums. I'm not too into compressing single elements much other than for growly basses where I sometimes abuse compression to mush high-end into the bass- hard to explain, but i know what i mean ;)

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

tomhades wrote:
Lost to the Void wrote:
tomhades wrote:i also do not prefer too much compression during production phase because it might limit myself during mixing & mastering ...

That's a really bad way of thinking.
There is no reason to say "oh I won't do this because I want to do it in mastering"
I mean, you can't really master your own music anyway, but ignoring that, the end process is there to finalise and polish the things done in the creative phase.
Do what you want in the creative stage, clean up later if need be.
I understand what you mean but what i meant is that i just do simple production work and then bounce stems (every single one of them) and do all mixing in another session. Once this is done i have a pretty decent premaster mix from where either myself either a master engineer can do his magic...
Have you ever thought of binning the safety of this way of working and breaking out?
It seems a little stifling, to me, to work that way. Too methodical, and too reliant on "what comes next".
It`s quite an old school way of working (nothing wrong with that, this methodology is proven after all).
Instead of "I`ll reserve that for the mixdown", why not do it "now" whilst the idea is fresh in your head?
It might (or might not) give rise to some unexpected outcomes.

As a complete aside....
I`d love to hear something from you where you go wild in the studio, dispense with rules and methodology and just go nuts.
You were one of my fave producers back in the day (Your remix of Redheads - The Darkness, was a sure fire rip up the dancefloor classic, there was an energy and madness to it that really caused chaos on the dancefloor, I pretty much wore my copy out), but I kinda feel you got a little too safe in what you are doing, and steered in to Techhouse land (fine if that is really your thing). Marco went down the champagne-and-VIP-Room Techhouse route in recent years, and it`s kind of..... hum drum and commercial, safe and boring, but I always thought your stuff was less commercial and predictable than what he did back then anyway... It would be awesome to hear you try and move away from area.
Any plans to get it back underground, throw some dirt and anger in there, and do something more.... "Proper" techno-ey?

Please don`t take offense to this, I know you been around forever. I have to say your production influenced and inspired me (quite a lot when I look back at my early releases, under my old name) when I was making my bones in this scene, so I have utmost respect for you.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by RWise »

I use it a lot.

However, i only started using it a lot once i started understanding it more. Back when it was still really new to me i barely used it as i didnt know what i was doing. I only use compression when i know WHY i am using it for that particular channel.

That being said, i am still learning a lot everyday with compression. I think most people are as its a really deep hole to explore in audio.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by tomhades »

Well, i think you kind of hit it there ... i think i was "wandering around" the last years ... i still am kind of "proud" on the path i followed and still stand behind a lot of releases i did in the past as well, even if they went in different directions & styles ... but i guess, as i also said in my introduction on the forum, i still have a big love to stronger & faster techno ... i have shitload of that stuff on my hard drive but somehow it seems that it was never the time nor the place to get it out ... maybe even in an different way of thinking about it : when i tried to get a bit "stronger" (read : more dirt & raw feeling) it was never ever received in a good way, i would even say with lots of disrespect on that ... somehow sad on the way things something go but it is reality ... the only thing i will never understand is why nowadays a music career is being influenced for only 5% based on music and 95% on marketing & social media & pr & ... isn't music normally something we judge with our ears and not with our eyes ?

But... that might be also the reason why i'm on this forum ... i want to have another "point of view" on things and want to get in contact with people who are following a different path as well ... i want to have honest opinions and not the once based on the "hype of the moment" ...

Being in the scene for many years is a blessing but sometimes also a curse ... as for me it feels like i challenged myself that much that i'm not sure anymore if i'm still getting the same satisfying outcome as it did in the past ...

And now, regarding the way of working : i think i really follow you in here ! Maybe i should get out of my "old school" of studio working ... but just to clear out things : i'm still doing lots of processing & resampling during the production work ... only thing i don't do in there is literally try to get the "best sound" (in terms of eq, compression, ...) ... i tend to leave those in the mixing stage where i try to open up & place every element in its frequency spectrum ...

Ok, that was way too much philosophical i think for tonight ! :) haha ! :)

But thanks for the kind words ! It means a lot for me, believe me ! I tried to do what i love most and that passion for techno will never disappear i think ...

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Mono-xID »

tomhades wrote:Well, i think you kind of hit it there ... i think i was "wandering around" the last years ... i still am kind of "proud" on the path i followed and still stand behind a lot of releases i did in the past as well, even if they went in different directions & styles ... but i guess, as i also said in my introduction on the forum, i still have a big love to stronger & faster techno ... i have shitload of that stuff on my hard drive but somehow it seems that it was never the time nor the place to get it out ... maybe even in an different way of thinking about it : when i tried to get a bit "stronger" (read : more dirt & raw feeling) it was never ever received in a good way, i would even say with lots of disrespect on that ... somehow sad on the way things something go but it is reality ... the only thing i will never understand is why nowadays a music career is being influenced for only 5% based on music and 95% on marketing & social media & pr & ... isn't music normally something we judge with our ears and not with our eyes ?

But... that might be also the reason why i'm on this forum ... i want to have another "point of view" on things and want to get in contact with people who are following a different path as well ... i want to have honest opinions and not the once based on the "hype of the moment" ...

Being in the scene for many years is a blessing but sometimes also a curse ... as for me it feels like i challenged myself that much that i'm not sure anymore if i'm still getting the same satisfying outcome as it did in the past ...

And now, regarding the way of working : i think i really follow you in here ! Maybe i should get out of my "old school" of studio working ... but just to clear out things : i'm still doing lots of processing & resampling during the production work ... only thing i don't do in there is literally try to get the "best sound" (in terms of eq, compression, ...) ... i tend to leave those in the mixing stage where i try to open up & place every element in its frequency spectrum ...

Ok, that was way too much philosophical i think for tonight ! :) haha ! :)

But thanks for the kind words ! It means a lot for me, believe me ! I tried to do what i love most and that passion for techno will never disappear i think ...
A post of class from a veteran. Big respect, Tom.

I'll fire up the Dominion 1 now and practice compression as it is the effect I still didn't quite mastered after 10 years (fuuuuuck... time flies fast).

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