How to Use a Compressor like a PRO: Everything You Need to Know
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- Опубликовано: 22 июл 2024
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Understanding compression and how to hear it is an essential mixing skill.
In this video I share with you not only what compression is (as many of you will already have an idea), but when, where and how to use it to get the very best results from your mix.
So firstly…what is compression?
Changing the volume of a signal over time to reduce the dynamic range.
The dynamic range is the difference between the quietest part of the sound and the loudest.
Compression (depending on how you apply it) either makes the quieter parts louder in volume, or the louder parts quieter.
This is useful for making a sound more even, or to give it more body.
Most sounds consist of transients and decay.
Transients are the initial hit (e.g. of a piano or a drum), and the decay is how long that sound takes to die out.
When compressing, you are trying to get the dynamic balance of the initial transients and the decay just right.
Too much compression and your signal will sound like a squashed mess.
Too little and you won’t hear the quiet decay parts unless you push up the volume of the entire signal, in which case the transients will be too loud.
You can apply compression to a single sound, or to multiple sounds together (for example, using a buss), or to the entire mix. Usually, a good mixing engineer will use compression at all of these stages.
There is not one setting that will work for compression, as the correct amount will depend on:
A - the sound entering the compressor
b - the effect you’re trying to create (e.g. country music vs. Dubstep)
C - a degree of personal taste
Here are the standard compression controls:
Threshold
Ratio
Attack
Decay
..And here’s the best analogy I’ve seen!
Threshold - The volume at which your mum tells you to turn down your music
Ratio - The amount you turn down your music when she tells you to
Attack - How FAST you turn it down when she tells you to
Release - How quickly you turn the music back up when she leaves the room
In this tutorial we go in-depth into:
00:00 - Introduction
00:40 - Non-compressed vs. Compressed
01:15 - Compression explained
03:48 - The controls on a compressor
05:16 - Threshold
05:30 - Ratio
07:10 - Preparing vocal levels for compression
07:58 - Gain reduction
11:20 - Attack
12:40 - Make-up gain
12:58 - Release
14:53 - Parallel compression
15:25 - Knee
16:32 - Serial compression
19:13 - Different compressor options
21:19 - Everything together
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Will
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#mixingtips #compression #musicproduction
Hope you enjoy this slightly different format! Did you find it useful? Which bits in particular? Please let me know what you think in the comments 😎
Interesting. Was just mixing my last tracks, also found myself using 2 compressors. Found that Bitwigs own compressor in general had a punchier/louder output than say Initial Audio's IA LA1 compressor, which sounds better in more transparent scenarios. Ithink the term New York compression is abit of horsesh*t as u cannot really compress to much if your only using as small values as required for the mix. Same goes for reverbs & whatnot.
Yes-- loved it! The mini listening exercises especially when little chunks were looped
epic and usefull tutorial! thank you!
Your an amazing teacher, you break things down and explain them clearly and I have learnt a lot from your videos, thanks👍🏻
Will, we don't deserve you. Thank you so much for being our teacher. We love you
Greatest explanation ever with the mom yelling! 😅 Thank you!
brilliant as always, Will! ABSOLUTELY love your vibe and the mum analogy haha
Such a great tutorial WIll. I never knew how much I enjoyed music theory until I watch your breakdown videos. I'm a visual learner so being able to see the sample/waveform while you're explaining it is perfect.
this tutorial was so good!! I love how you single out bits and do before and after comparisons so we can really hear what the compression is doing, kudos Will!!
Gold this! great explanation and good refresher, I constantly have to remind myself why I compress heavy.... Yah ghat to understand a compressors attack and release and see it and hear it in your mix downs
thanks for sharing your experience. I was able to learn a lot of new things for myself especially in the techno genre. every video is awesome😎
Great tutorial as usual, thanks for sharing amazing knowledge.
It's easy to understand the concept of compression but its proper use is often the issue. You made a great job with the explanation using the vocal example! Thanks :)
Very nice format and really easy to watch because it’s so organized and dynamic and has a nice flow to it. I find it hard to watch some tutorials that just seem boring and confusing because because of the lack of structure.
Great tutorial as always Will, all explained nicely! Gonna do some practice now!
Great content as always! You're the man Will!
Thank you very much. It is always great to get into basics as they make the advanced parts from bottom up.
Nice way to realize exactly how compression should be used. Thx for that !
As always explaining things in a fantastic way 👌🏻
Really good video. Brilliantly detailed and explained superbly. Nice work yet again 💪
This is a thorough yet concise walkthrough and was super helpful for me. However, I would looooooove a video on multiband compression.
Thanks, Will. Great stuff. Careful use of attack and release can also be used to affect the groove of the beat.
Thanks! Very useful and very good explained.👍
These are very helpful videos👍 Thank you!
Great tutorial, loved the analogy. The good old days of “Chris Turn It Down !“ Ha ha. I think everyone can relate to that.
Cheers, I am really glad you liked it! 🙂🙌🏻
awesome explanation. This really helped my understanding. Would be great to see how you might use compression differently for drums vs vocals.
this is the best example of a compressor ive seen! really helped everything sink in for me. the drastic difference in how the vocals sat in the mix really helped me see how necessary compression is
Thank you for watching and supporting the channel. Glad it helped!
Hey Will, awesome work once again, cheers man :)
Great explanation, and with timestamps! Love it!
This is an example of a very detailed yet easy to understand tutorial. GR8 work mate!
Thank you so much, I am glad it was helpful! 🙌🏻
Thank you for watching and supporting the channel :)
I totally love your explanation. I was making music for several years and know nothing about compression until now.
Really glad it helped!
Awsome video, as always!! 💥
Thank you so much for this tutorial. It was a massive help, I think I understand what to do now
That's great, I am glad you found this helpful! 🙌🏻
Your videos are absolutely my favorites to learn, thank you so much 💙
You're welcome, glad you found them helpful! 🙂🙌🏻
Really good video on compression. Thanks!
Thank you! Glad you liked it! 🙌🏻
Very helpful. Thanks for sharing this video. Love your Channel and the way you explain from basics on.
Really glad you liked it! Anything else in particular you’re struggling with?
this is one of the better explanation of a compressor settings on YT...thank you for sharing..
You're welcome, Johnny, I am glad you found this helpful! 🙂
I was just looking at tutorials for this! Perfect timing.. it’s like I do know what compression is but if someone told me to explain it to them, I wouldn’t be able to. Thanks for the video 🙏🏻🙏🏻
"Put simply, it narrows the difference between the loudest and softest parts of a track so that it’s more consistent in level." 👍
Superb, easy to follow advice - very much appreciated!!!
You're welcome, glad it was helpful! 🙂🙌🏻
Very useful, I was having a hard time understanding how compression works but you explained it really well
Awesome, glad it was helpful! Anything else in particular you’re struggling with and would like me to cover?
This was super helpful! Thank you!
You're so welcome! Anything else in particular you’re struggling with?
Great video! I didn’t think you could beat your last compression video but you did! Can you make one on how you’d use it on a group and basses ?
Really good tutorial. I’ll come back to this!
Sure thing, Chris, glad you found it helpful! 🙂🙌🏻
Excellent video! Congratulations!
Thank you very much, I am glad you liked it! 🙂🙌🏻
Perfectly explained !
The best on market. Your tempo with uploading is unbeliveble
Thank you!
Thanks for this! Lots of subtleties involved in compression! Thanks for all your work
my pleasure, glad it was helpful!
the soundgoodizer plugin in fl studio is a compressor ironically, i only learnt that after a few years of learning to use compressors, they are game changers for sound design because you can make the hidden frequencies pop out more, and they are also useful for drums to make them more present in a mix.
Thank you for these secret gems i didnt know before. Subscribed !
You’re welcome! Thank you for watching and supporting the channel 🙌🏻
4:40 lmfao mum banging the broom on the floor, turn that racket down!!!! 🤣😂🤣🤣🤣🤣
That is a very good analogy, esp for noob like me to understand what Compression is... thank you...
You're welcome! Glad you found it helpful 🙂
That a new studio Will? Im new to this and you explained it perfectly, the difference is subtle but makes it cleaner and pops lovely, just need to practice it now.
Thank you for the class!
You're welcome, glad you found it helpful! 🙌🏻
Informative, concise and super easy to understand. I'm more of a composer than a mixing/mastering engineer. Love your content mate, helped me so much. Thank you so much for this!!! 👍
You're welcome, glad you found it helpful! 🙂
I don't understand compression but you made it easy to understand.
Yer a Wizard, Will.
Thanks for the useful tutorial! I find myself applying these effects without fully understanding what is being done (or why). The visualization was super helpful.
Nice! I am glad you found this helpful!
Anything else in particular you’re struggling with and would like me to cover on the channel?
Compression is a science in its own 🤣😱😱 Great tutorial as usual Will 🤗 Really helpful with the example with the serial Compression 🙂
Will, this is the best compression tutorial I've ever watched. Is there a separate plugin that shows just the change in the dynamic range to visualise other compressors apart from fabfilter?
I'm so used to hearing heavily compressed finished productions that the isolated dry vocal with its wide dynamic range sounded a bit weird at first. Ironically, it sounded a bit unnatural when played alongside the piano loop, when it's the compression that is artificial (and absolutely necessary for radio-ready releases). It's really quite amazing how "levelling" the volume of a vocal makes it sound better. Even Frank Sinatra needed a bit of compression on his recordings and he was a master of "natural compression" (moving his mouth further away from the mic when he sang a loud part).
This is actually a tip. Imma try this.
Really helpful video thank you
You’re welcome!
thanks man! great explanation
Thank you for your comment! Happy to hear!
Great video! Thank you...
This is actually a very, very good explenation - great!
Really glad you liked it! Anything else in particular you’re struggling with and would like me to cover on the channel?
@@EDMTips PLR/PSR and how these correlate with the LUFS. How come the same LUFS reading is possible with different PLR/PSR readings? I'm still struggling to get this in my head...
sweeet video. when do the results for the contest come out btw!
An excellent presentation as you could hope to find anywhere. Knowing the bpm can so helpful in setting m/s values for attack and release times i.e, 60000 ÷ by bpm = m/s value/s. Running a peak analysis of the file will indicate the loudest peak value. So that can be the threshold setting. Ratio can then be set to taste. Hoping this is generally helpful.
Great tip, love it! 🙂
i got the thing for which i came here🔥🔥. Great tutorial with nice example
Stoked to hear that! Thanks for watching and supporting the channel 🙂 Any point in particular you found useful?
@@EDMTips The ratio knob i.e most important parameter for compression. You explained it in a very effective way. Like to close eyes and start increasing ratio until we find sweet spot , this worked for me.
Thank you kiind sir..
Really usefull!
This is gold!! 😎👽
Thank you! Glad it was helpful :)
About the serial compression you could use vocal rider or melodyne to make the amplitude more even before using a compressor
very complete tutorial, like the one on EQ. Thanks. I just wonder why you do not tweak the settings of the voice in context, like you adviced on the EQ tuto. Because the settings depend so much on the genre of music you are mixing, and afterall, the goal is to make the voice pop out the mix, not losing important parts of the voice signal.
Love the explanation xD
Glad you like them! :)
Thanks again for a crystal clear explaination ;) One question, I hear a lot of different opinions about first EQ a sound and then compress and vice versa, what's your idea about that? Thanks in advance :)
😂😂😂 great analogy, cracked me up!
Thank you, glad you liked it! 🙂🙌🏻
Out of all the Compressor videos this ones really easy to understand. One note I'd like to mention, please don't talk between A/B comparisons. Thanks for the great video!
You're welcome, Shane, glad you found it helpful! 🙌🏻
Thank you!
You’re welcome!
just wondering when the competition live stream will be happening? :)
Love the analogy. LoL🙂
Brilliant bloke!
Appreciate it! 🙌🙏
@@EDMTips Seriously this video was well done indeed. Many get so confused over threshhold and you smoothed it out for a a lot I'm sure - Cheers and Happy Christmas! Aarrgghh - Pirate Phil
What about input & output gain? And what are your thoughts on just normalizing the audio track?
Do your think i should buy Audio Technica headphones ?
Hi, if this would be a real mix job, would you work with clip gain automation before you compress? Thanks for a good video!
You must have heard my submission and thought "I need to do this" lol. I think I submitted it, I've never uploaded a song on to any forum so I think I did it right. Thanks for everything you do for real bro💪🎹🎼
@Christopher Bradley goodluck to you as well man. I sure yours will sound better though I've only been producing for less than a year and have no schooling, no music background, or a mentor. So I'm starting from scratch lol. I just really want the feedback from Will so I can work on it. I can't wait to hear your track man goodluck to you 💪🎹🎼
@Christopher Bradley I appreciate the words of encouragement man. I love making music and the process of making it, it's like a form of meditation for me. Even if I never make one cent from it I'll continue making it till I'm no longer here. Hey, just because you missed an opportunity before doesn't mean you'll never get that chance again. Goodluck man I'll be rooting for you. 💪🎧🎼🎹
Nice!
Will please do tutorial on the artist Kungs.
I've always wondered, isn't putting the dry/wet at 50%, the exact same as halving the ratio?
bleessup!! hey a quick question how come the lines between the words of the vocals are sqiggly
Do you tend to put compression before or after othe effects? My experience dictates that it depends but dont know if there's any best practices.
Do you have any tips on compression EQs?? When and where to use them??
Check out my video on EQ, you will learn mistakes to avoid :)
Wow🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥
How about showing us how to make a track like Kryder/Mark Roma?
Man, I was shanking my mixes by setting the attack threshhold BACKWARDS!
감사합니다~
Found it hard to hear the difference at the Glue Compressor😅 but thank you so much for the explanation!
You're welcome, glad you found it helpful!
Are you suing headphones or monitors?
Great video. What’s the mix of Plan 9 by 808 State that’s playing under the intro?
Thanks! It's my new cover version: www.beatport.com/release/plan-9/3753065
@@EDMTips nice! Thanks
What song is used in the intro?
Nice Will :)
Thanks 😁
I’ve only ever seen you use ableton, but the logic compressor is on the thumbnail
The techniques I cover in the video can be applied in any DAW 🙂
Interesting. Was just mixing my last tracks, also found myself using 2 compressors. Found that Bitwigs own compressor in general had a punchier/louder output than say Initial Audio's IA LA1 compressor, which sounds better in more transparent scenarios. Ithink the term New York compression is abit of horsesh*t as u cannot really compress to much if your only using as small values as required for the mix. Same goes for reverbs & whatnot.
New York style is a duplicate parallel of the track slammed too death then edged in along with the original finding a very low dB sweet spot just to give it some subtle girth etc and reverbs best controlled via duplicate chain or sends also, off course all subjective and all depending on the requirement for the material
Thanks Will. This singer has a lot of volume changes in her vocals. Anything that could balance that out more, without going deep into say doing volume automation?
yeah, compression- this is literally what it does, as he explained in this video
@@TheClearMediaContent Not the answer I was looking for actually... a vocal rider, such as the waves vocal rider is a good volume balancer. My wife's volume changes pretty often, like the singer on this track did and Vocal Rider 2 would also help.
@ShadowSin 🤔 sounds like you already knew the answer to your question. But seriously, all compression really is is like having a little gremlin turn the signal up when it's too quiet and down when it's too loud, placing the signal in a more "compressed" space, and the envelope settings control how quickly those adjustments happen.
@@TheClearMediaContent Always looking for different opinions and answers. Thank you! I approach music and life in different ways and sometimes do the opposite of what everyone else is doing or says - like sometimes having the kick duck the bass. It makes for an interesting sound, albeit, not much of a kick. Agree with you on compression.
Hey mate.. could you teach us how to REMASTER old edm tracks?? There are truly gems waiting a professional treatment for shine again!! Like and subscribe. Thanks in advance mate.
I hear you talking about cutting, compressor cuts or reduces the loudest parts?
Reduces, unless ur compressor is limiting at 100:1 .It reduces based on ur ratio. At 100:1 it theoretically is just “cutting” the sound off (limiting). Some compressors at max ratio, will say “Inf:1”instead of “100:1” Basically meaning it’s just limiting at that point.
Typically a compressor reduces the volume of any spikes above the threshold, but then there is a gain make-up knob that turns up the volume of the recording. This essentially brings up the average volume and makes the finished version sound louder, although the first bit of processing was to cut the peaks down a bit. Most compressors have an "auto-gain" function so that when you set the threshold and ratio to reduce the peaks, the average is brought back up automatically. Without the gain knob, compression would make the sound quieter.