better mixdowns with compressor on EVERY channel.

[nowaysj]

trike 12,

Mixing is hard dood. It takes time. Doods that can produce good mixes are usually light on the hair because they've been doing it for many many years, prolly more than u've been alive (!) and have listened to countless rants of advice re compression, eq, and every other form of production trickery.

This takes a long time to learn. It's good that you are taking advice in and testing it. Try, though, to test it with your own ears. I know its hard because a mix is a multidimensional table of variables, everything affects everything else, and the tweaks that are necessary by themselves can't really be discerned until all parts have been summed together. Holy fuck it's hard, but doable.

Was reading this book by a punk buddhist monk who said it took him 11 or so years of meditation to reach dharma transmission (when a boss monk says you've attained nirvana). His point was yeah, its a lot of consistent daily work, but you can reach heaven, the heaven, in 10 years, during your life. Not that hard really.

[wormcode]

If you think it helps, go for it. I can't say I agree with it though. A compressor on every single channel just seems like ammunition for the loudness war to me. I think it's far better to learn how to mix properly without the need for such things, and use them only as an effect or for sound shaping purposes.
As mentioned though, there are no real rules, if it works for you it works for you.

Does he make house now, or was he like an 80's house guy? Got any links to his work or anything? Curious what his music sounds like after reading that.

[nowaysj]

^ I don't think its that bizarre for each element to get a dusting of compression. Not advocating, but it's not a radical idea.

[trike12]

SO much SO good knowledge in this thread!
not only technological knowledge but also very
good tips and interesting things to think about.

My teacher produces annoying club house.
his myspace: http://www.myspace.com/dexhouse

[Depone]

Deadly is back. You just cant keep away can yah!??

[wasteman]

I would just like to say in terms of dynamics I really don't consider dubstep or most electronic music these days to have that much of it, it's not classical or jazz. You don't want the whole mix crushed to death but it should stay at a pretty consitent level throughout as you will normally just have a number of sounds that are just being re triggered, sounds will be at different volumes to each other but the volume of your kick for example will normally stay consistent throughout.

Someone pointed out before that compression is just a lazy form of volume control, yes that is exactly what it is andis what they are designed to be. People seem to forget this. All your teacher is saying is by putting it on a 2:1 ratio (very low) is that they will act as a basic leveller so that the sounds you are mixing are at a steadier level and therefore will be easier to mix (as different sounds won't be jumping around as much it will be easier to find the right balance).

Compressors can of course all be used in more creative ways than just basic dynamic control and different compressors impact different artefacts onto sounds, some of these artefacts are desirable some not. For instance you may have a snare that's just being re triggered at a consistent level and you may wonder why you would want a compressor on it, the compressor could be used to make it sound "bigger" by bringing up the level of its tail. If you think of a snare it has an initial hit (the loudest part) and then tails off, by setting the compressor's attack correctly it will miss the initial hit however will kick in as soon as the tail begins, levelling this out a bit and then raising the tails overall volume to better match the hit, really changing the sound into more of a loud burst. I think this was a big part of the older timbland sound, not only the kick and snare stay the same volume as their counterparts but the whole length of the snare or kick stays at a consistent volume.

I don't know if that helps in you better understanding compression. Finally don't be afraid to use sidechain compression it is most defiantly not just for fixing problems but a strong effect that actually increase the dynamics of a sound, it can also be used in a very subtle manner. If you listen to breakage for example he appears to use it often on the kick slightly cutting the sub or other atmos sounds in the mix, If he doesn't then I think he gives the impression of sidechain compression by sometimes setting a slow attack on the bass (aplitude or filter) and re triggering on each kick.

[mundy]

teachers are wrong a lot

especially about dance music


dont always do anything unless you need to do it

I always use a paz analyzer I dont always need a compressor on every channel sometimes I need 1 to 3 on everything

[deadly_habit]

Deadly is back. You just cant keep away can yah!??

when i see stupidity i have to call it out