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compression issue

Posted: Tue Jan 22, 2008 6:38 am
by analogic
Hi Earle,

During the mastering phase, for sure it depends on the material but, generally speaking; after correcting the spectral content of the mix with Har-Bal, is it more preferable to use a soft-knee compressor with a gentle overall compression ratios such as 1.1 to 2, threshold set around 20-30 dB below the peak level, and RMS sensing instead of peak?

Also, since the transient content of the mix is not static, do you think that like auto release, ‘auto attack’ feature available in some of the software compressors do a better job than fix attack times?

Cheers

Kursat

Re: compression issue

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 12:49 am
by har-bal
analogic wrote:Hi Earle,

During the mastering phase, for sure it depends on the material but, generally speaking; after correcting the spectral content of the mix with Har-Bal, is it more preferable to use a soft-knee compressor with a gentle overall compression ratios such as 1.1 to 2, threshold set around 20-30 dB below the peak level, and RMS sensing instead of peak?

Also, since the transient content of the mix is not static, do you think that like auto release, ‘auto attack’ feature available in some of the software compressors do a better job than fix attack times?

Cheers

Kursat


Kursat

You are spot on but let me throw in a few more considerations.

RMS Sensing -Absolutely

Auto Attack - No - This is where you can control the thickness of the song. It is better to make this adjustment manually using the ears.

Auto -Release - Yes - Because most of the time it is sensing the incoming signal and automatically adapts to the constant changes.

Threshold - I would not place an automatic number in this area. I generally lower the threshold while observing the meter to determine which instrument I want to affect in the track.
If I am going for the kick drum I will lower the threshold until the needle is moving in time to the kick drum beat.
If I wanted to only affect the vocals in a stereo track, I would slowly lower the threshold while observing the meter. It should only be reacting to the vocals overall.

Ratio - I rarely if ever go above 2 because the track starts to lose elements and definition. The only thing you want to do is "glue the sound" or lock it in.. You will know because the sound will be quite cohesive.

Experiment with the Ratio and start incrementing clockwise and really listen for the effect. You can hear that as you increase the ratio you are reducing the dynamics. Song will start to sound lifeless as though it has no hills and valleys

Hope this helps

Cheers

Earle
www.har-bal.com
www.hdqtrz.com

Re: compression issue

Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2008 6:43 am
by analogic
har-bal wrote:Kursat

You are spot on but let me throw in a few more considerations.

RMS Sensing -Absolutely

Auto Attack - No - This is where you can control the thickness of the song. It is better to make this adjustment manually using the ears.

Auto -Release - Yes - Because most of the time it is sensing the incoming signal and automatically adapts to the constant changes.

Threshold - I would not place an automatic number in this area. I generally lower the threshold while observing the meter to determine which instrument I want to affect in the track.
If I am going for the kick drum I will lower the threshold until the needle is moving in time to the kick drum beat.
If I wanted to only affect the vocals in a stereo track, I would slowly lower the threshold while observing the meter. It should only be reacting to the vocals overall.

Ratio - I rarely if ever go above 2 because the track starts to lose elements and definition. The only thing you want to do is "glue the sound" or lock it in.. You will know because the sound will be quite cohesive.

Experiment with the Ratio and start incrementing clockwise and really listen for the effect. You can see hear that as you increase the ratio you are reducing the dynamics. Song will start to sound lifeless as though it has no hills and valleys

Hope this helps

Cheers

Earle
www.har-bal.com
www.hdqtrz.com


Thanks Earle for clarifying my concerns, for sure they will help a lot!

Best

Kursat