Parralel Compression

Parallel Compression is a simple trick that, in essence, mimics an upward compressor. This tutorial is going to be tough going if you are unfamiliar with compressors and so I recommend reading up about them for some background. It is a great technique if you need to compress something really hard but don’t want to sacrifice the quality.

A Parallel compression technique involves duplicating the track and adding a compressor to one of them. This means you have a compressed track and a none compressed track which you can mix together. It allows the quieter bits to be heard better while maintaining a sense of dynamic range.
This is a technique that is especially popular on drum tracks and many people don’t mix drums without it. That is not to say you should only do it on drums, it can be applied to any track, such as vocals for a cool and distinct result.

If you have a punchy kick, compressing it will possibly take away it’s energy and punch. The best way to keep it is have a compressed duplicate track for the blend and tightness mixed into the uncompressed original, keeping the punch but with compression too.