How To Avoid Losing Character With Compression
2 min read
How to avoid losing character with compression in music production. This guide shows how to keep the essential "life" in the music when using this effect.
Compression is a much used and abused effect in modern music. On the one hand, it is the glue that sticks the instruments together, on the other hand, it removes the dynamic range and life out of music if done badly.
It is essential in almost every mix to tame a big transient. If you don’t reduce the dynamic range a bit, you cannot turn the overall track volume up (or if you do, the peaks having a higher chance of clipping). The issue is how to get the right level?
The first thing to do is to listen to the track and consider what it needs. When you slap on a compressor, are you doing it out of habit, or are you doing it with deliberation and precision?
By knowing exactly what you want to achieve, you have a better chance of dialling in your controls to what you want. The alternative is like fumbling in the dark until you get it right.
Set the compressor way harder than is needed and then slowly dial the controls back to when it sounds full of life again. Hopefully, it will start to fill with life before you stop actually compressing the track.
One point to consider is that if a signal is being overdriven, it is already compressing.
Overdrive stops the peaks going any higher than the threshold but, instead of reducing the volume, it just snips off the top of the waveform.
This causes harmonics and is not good for transparent compression, however, if you want to add a bit of grit, and can sacrifice the quality then consider using a very gentle overdrive, applied with a valve amp simulator.
Sometimes how hard the compressor kicks in makes a difference, consider switching from hard knee to soft knee for a smoother compression, be aware that the compressor does start to kick in before the threshold.
If you are an Ableton user, the handy Glue Compressor is a good tool here. It has very particular settings which mean that it starts compression early (due to the knee) even just placing a Glue Compressor on the track without changing the settings can add the smallest amount of compression needed to begin smoothing the tops off.
You could also try New York or Parallel Compression, especially on drums. This is where you compress one signal and you mix in an identical uncompressed signal to the output so you get the best of both worlds.
In the end, the best way to learn how to make a compressor rock is to practice and watch other people do it. Look on Youtube for videos of people mixing and see when and where they use the compressor and listen to how it makes it much better.
