More properly called parallel compression, and most commonly used on drums, this technique involves mixing a compressed signal with its uncompressed “original.”įor an aggressive drum sound, I bus kick and snare to an 1176 in the infamous “all buttons in” mode, crank it up until it distorts, and mix this back into the drum mix at maybe -20 dB. There’s a noticeable exception to my “only 2 or 3 dB of compression” policy – “New York style” compression. Many studio engineers also swear by the Fairchild 670 (likely a plugin, unless they’re lucky enough to have access to the original hardware) and the Manley Variable-Mu. My other favorites are Universal Audio’s LA-2A and 1176 LN, although I’m far more likely to use them on drum groups or vocals. I dial in a touch of optical compression, maybe 2 dB of makeup gain, and let the (emulated) output transformers add a bit of, well, “glue.” This creates a pleasing effect that’s quite subtle and appropriate for many (but not all) genres. Okay, I can’t afford the hardware unit, but the Universal Audio plugin version is killer. In the studio, my go-to unit is the Shadow Hills Industries Mastering Compressor. (This is somewhat like how we expect absolute transparency from power amplifiers while a guitarist looks to his or her amp for intentional coloration as part of his or her tone.) In these cases, I’m not seeking transparent compression as I would be for dynamic control, but rather using a certain compressor because of its non-linearities or distortion characteristics as a part of the sound. A compressor can have very unique “sounds” due to its design, and there are times when I’ll use a bus compressor for “color” or “flavor” rather than strictly gain reduction. That said, there’s often value in using bus compression artistically. So I never use a bus compressor to try to control the dynamic range of a mix rather, I compress individual inputs or subgroups as needed. To my ear, more than 2 or 3 dB of gain or reduction starts to sound…dull. Unfortunately, this is all too often overdone, squashing all the life out of a perfectly good mix. The topic of mix bus compression – mixing through a compressor on the master output – can stir up a lot of conversation among engineers across many genres (live, recording, broadcast, etc.).įor example, ask studio engineers about bus compression, and five bucks says their responses will include the word “glue.” It’s probably because bus compression acts on the mix as a whole, as opposed to an individual element, so it can create an “everything stuck together” kind of sound.
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