with/without Compression?

[Samuel_L_Damnson]

I guessvur right. I need to finish learning the basics before I get to the next level tho I recon

[nowaysj]

Wise man!

[hellagargoyle]

i think you need to finish learning what it is that your trying to make. no tool will make the sound you want if you don't know what that is. i think -basics- are simply being able to replicate what you are imagining sonicly and melodically (doing this by any means original work/sampleing/biteing...etc), then next level is improving on those replications to create something "new" and "fresh" that is your signature, your "mark". how u work this is up to u. if you get stuck on "am i using this comp to technical proper technicalitys" or reverb, gate, etc. you might be like a chicken with its head chopped off learning a bunch of extra shit that isn't really beneficiary to the "hastey" production of your sound and does more to confuse than help. this is why i now believe the best approach if youre just trying to make good music and not be as savvy as a llegit mix engineer or music theory dude, is the hands on never dive too deep into what "knobs" do and just enough to get "where u want". theres only so many knobys n buttons xD. but its easy pz cause you know "what you want"! KNOW WHAT U WANT. nowaysj dont even use comp he says.. but its cause he knows what he wants wasnt coming from that bitch ass plugin haha yameeeen? k n o w u t u w a n t. #rantzkreww

[Think_Dubstep]

in my experience the reason why you would compress a bass/synth is so that the small transients that are not popping up can be lifted to the same db as the rest of the synth's transients. In a lot of modern dubstep, these patches have a good bit of modulation, eqing, and filtering, which make the initial patch more dynamic. And in most cases when you do most of that to a synth there will be transients that will not pop out that should be popping out. If the synth is strait forward and not much filtering/modulation you dont have to really compress. But I find rarely a synth that I make where I do not compress a little.Think of it as making all the transients of the initial patch more glued together.

[pulsewaves4stopsines]

Honestly, I haven't used a comp in a long time, only limiting. Not saying that is a good thing, I'm sure I could get a little bit more out of it, but yeah, I just mix and know that my drums are going to get chopped.

I mix to roughly -6db, sometimes a little lower, sometimes a very little higher, and use a limiter that has an input gain on it, so that I can add roughly 11db of gain.

And all these years I was afraid to add more than 6-7db gain, depending on if my mix actually peaked as high as -6.
Time to get over old producing fears I guess?

[nowaysj]

Definitely eyes closed time. Just keep turning those knobs until it sounds right. Open your eyes and be surprised.

But still gotta test on various systems. And I recommend A/B on many systems.

My over exploitation of my mastering limiter undoubtedly leads to distortion, and a certain flatness, but I'm willing to accept it because I don't have the physical energy to go in and really level out individual parts and what not.

Wanted to mention this, in electronic music, with well controlled synths and off the shelf samples, buss compression might be the most legit use of compression. Just increasing rms, the pressure, the density.

Anyway, whatever, I really know nothing about this stuff.

[cyclopian]

Definitely eyes closed time. Just keep turning those knobs until it sounds right. Open your eyes and be surprised.

But still gotta test on various systems. And I recommend A/B on many systems.

My over exploitation of my mastering limiter undoubtedly leads to distortion, and a certain flatness, but I'm willing to accept it because I don't have the physical energy to go in and really level out individual parts and what not.

Wanted to mention this, in electronic music, with well controlled synths and off the shelf samples, buss compression might be the most legit use of compression. Just increasing rms, the pressure, the density.

Anyway, whatever, I really know nothing about this stuff.

Yeah, I rarely ever use compression on single channels anymore. Usually using a combination of PSP's Transient Designer on single tracks and several compression/limiting busses that i can send troublesome channels to keep things playing nicely together. Usually will have one fairly neutral compressor, an extremely slow attack to bring up transients, and a fast attack one for certain pads/atmos with too much depth for the mix. Also want to add, that I rarely even use these compressors, only when when needed.

The only time I use compression on a single channel now is to push the compressor for effect (coloration, extreme flattening, etc) or side chaining for effect (not side chaining for 'mixdown' purposes)

[jakswag]

tbh, i dont think any sound or anything 'needs' anything per say but rather what you want it have or what it 'should'. if there are obvious peaks or it needs compression to control the lows/midshighs or whatnot then of course it 'needs' compression. just remember there is no 'right' way but rather what sounds good, which it true. if the melodies are great, theory is right, rythem is right and so on then there's no reason for a song not to be amazing even when lacking in engineering. i used speech marks to emphasize that people generally process their sounds with a series of different processing units in a similar fashion to each other and doing things like compression on a master is something we're very familiar with hearing in modern music.

[leaflet]

If you are just starting in making music stay away from compression. You don't need to worry about it. Just search for sounds that meet your requirements. Compressors are advanced tools. Even the best stay away from them. If you need to use them try waiting until you are mixing the track down - if you understand compression and you feel a sound needs it at this stage then go for it, but is not the key to making your tracks amazing