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here's a mix where at least 50% of the tunes have drums that are overcompressed to lifelessness. Which is a shame as there are some good ideas.

http://soundcloud.com/fabric/el-b-j-da- ... -promo-mix

i hate to be a hater, but... I want to shout sometimes, if you don't know why you're compressing something, don't bother!

Ironically for me, the Funtcase track has some of the best drums on there. I pretty much hate his sound, but can't argue that his drums pretty much nail that style. the MRK1 track sounds big too.

lots of techno has really well done sidechaining - it really can make things seem much more dramatic.

trentemoller - the last resort uses it really well throughout

+1 for Ed Banger. That Mr. Flash tune off Ed Rec 3 ('Over The Top' i think) is fucking ridiculous.
The Bloody Beetroots earlier stuff is another savage compression-fest.
One thing i picked up off it is sidechaining an open hi-hat to the kick with a slow release so when the sound hits it gives massive impact. Cookie Monsta uses a pretty cool FX sample sidechain effect in one of his tracks aswell (can't remember which one, not really into his stuff that much) that sounds like the zap is pushing all the other stuff out of the way. Not something you'd do all the time but works well when placed in the right context.
Just listened to some old SebastiAN stuff, fuck that guy had it going on when releasing Walkman and Ross Ross Ross, shame they all seemed to lose their way. Seems like they missed their own boat.

gravity wrote:lots of techno has really well done sidechaining - it really can make things seem much more dramatic.

trentemoller - the last resort uses it really well throughout

the man is a GENIUS.

setspeed wrote:i hate to be a hater, but... I want to shout sometimes, if you don't know why you're compressing something, don't bother!

It's not being a hater. There's literally no requirement to compress the mix bus if your music is going to be played extremely loud in a club.

People don't seem to realise that by compressing their mix so hard the meters don't budge, they're distorting *everything*, and not in a good way, for absolutely nothing.

Unless, of course, the purpose of your music is to sell on Beatport or whatever, and you a) want it to sound super-loud through phones and computer speakers and b) don't really care how it sounds in a club.

FlyLo and HudMo instantly come to mind.

current value uses it perfectly imo for extreme sounding but not sidechained almost square wave looking tunes
i love his drums and basses

Well, I asked and I did receive. That Running track is just absolutely the most crushed thing I've ever heard. It sounds exactly like heavy metal. I can't imagine any girls liking it.

Bodega wrote:Well, I asked and I did receive. That Running track is just absolutely the most crushed thing I've ever heard. It sounds exactly like heavy metal. I can't imagine any girls liking it.

well no doubt cv uses his compression to sound like heavy metal and better than alot of metal lps hell it's hard dnb, but his older stuff used same technique and was dancefloor friendly. compression is an art in itself man. most dnb uses it to some extent, other genres you can hear it prevalent mainly the 4x4 stuff
dubstep i use it alot but not as noticeable.
https://download.yousendit.com/RmNEYUluTkFHa05FQlE9PQ latest wip with some soft and hardware compression on drums and soft on bass
oh and older cv


dunno how old you are but old hard dnb like shit cv and panacea came out with on old position chrome was great examples of using compression before it became a standard

Bodega wrote:

setspeed wrote:i hate to be a hater, but... I want to shout sometimes, if you don't know why you're compressing something, don't bother!

It's not being a hater. There's literally no requirement to compress the mix bus if your music is going to be played extremely loud in a club.

People don't seem to realise that by compressing their mix so hard the meters don't budge, they're distorting *everything*, and not in a good way, for absolutely nothing.

Unless, of course, the purpose of your music is to sell on Beatport or whatever, and you a) want it to sound super-loud through phones and computer speakers and b) don't really care how it sounds in a club.

Most of the damaging compression is done post production. Either self mastering, poor mastering in general or maybe even the artist/label asked the ME to do it that way to be fair. A lot of times I prefer to play unmastered tunes when I play out so I get where you are coming from but if there isn't at least a little but or compression and or limiting it can be hard to get a good blend with a commercially released tune.

I use sidechaining as a creative effect, not to smash the tune into square waves. Sometimes compression can even be used to create MORE dynamics. It isn't a clear cut thing. Another thing to consider is 99 times out of 100 the tune is not being heard on a club system this is why there should be a certain amount of loudness to a tune. For my label I like to have a balance where it is loud but preserves as much of the original dynamics / producers vision as possible. I for one would love to go back to the 70's and have these huge dynamic records but I am not exactly in the position to turn things around.

I'm old enough to have learned engineering before the "volume wars" started. It just seems so weird to me that all these dubstep and dnb producers are making tracks that are too squished to sound good played loud. I mean... it's dance music, yaknow? You play it loud.

To each their own, but to me the idea of making dance music for computers speakers is inconceivable. I would consider that electronic music, but not dance music.

Definitely poor or nonexistent (i.e. self) mastering, though. I used to do mastering for other artists and no sane mastering engineer would do what Current Value does to a tune. At that point it's an artistic decision and it's not the ME's job to make those.

Bodega wrote:I'm old enough to have learned engineering before the "volume wars" started. It just seems so weird to me that all these dubstep and dnb producers are making tracks that are too squished to sound good played loud. I mean... it's dance music, yaknow? You play it loud.

To each their own, but to me the idea of making dance music for computers speakers is inconceivable. I would consider that electronic music, but not dance music.

Definitely poor or nonexistent (i.e. self) mastering, though. I used to do mastering for other artists and no sane mastering engineer would do what Current Value does to a tune. At that point it's an artistic decision and it's not the ME's job to make those.

Your not that old. Listen to records from the 70's and then the 80's. It started 30 years ago, it has just taken this long to get to the point of being unbearable. To be fair I don't even think most electronic music is that bad. Listen to the shit on the radio, it's insane.

abZ wrote:

Bodega wrote:I'm old enough to have learned engineering before the "volume wars" started. It just seems so weird to me that all these dubstep and dnb producers are making tracks that are too squished to sound good played loud. I mean... it's dance music, yaknow? You play it loud.

To each their own, but to me the idea of making dance music for computers speakers is inconceivable. I would consider that electronic music, but not dance music.

Definitely poor or nonexistent (i.e. self) mastering, though. I used to do mastering for other artists and no sane mastering engineer would do what Current Value does to a tune. At that point it's an artistic decision and it's not the ME's job to make those.

Your not that old. Listen to records from the 70's and then the 80's. It started 30 years ago, it has just taken this long to get to the point of being unbearable. To be fair I don't even think most electronic music is that bad. Listen to the shit on the radio, it's insane.

at least people like cv are consistent with their sound. grab a pop lp and mastering, mixdowns and production are all over the place and nothing near cohesive. hell i think red one (old jump up dnb) produced some of the new lady gaga shit too which is either great or completely squashed to shit and poorly mixed and mastered
and youtibe kinda rapes cv tracks completely for when it comes to srisp compression you have to hear on wax or at least a 320 mp3 or wav

Just to clarify, I'm not opposed to severe compression per se, just for any situation where you're producing music for a dancefloor.

So if Lady Gaga squashes her tracks, that's fine. She's making tracks for Youtube, radio and iPods, all of which demand compression.

abz





that tune in ur sig is RUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUDEEEEEEEE

Muslimgauze had by far the best over compressed sound I've ever heard. Clark-Turning Dragon close second

knobgoblin wrote:Muslimgauze had by far the best over compressed sound I've ever heard. Clark-Turning Dragon close second

Turning dragon is an amazing album

I'm starting to use alot of a very nice reverb/compression effect...
basically, get any sound (an 808 clap for instance) and add a reverb on it, with a fair bit of delay.
add a compressor, have the threshold pretty low, and the ratio very high.
give it a fairly long attack, to let the main bit of the clap through.
Adjust the release to taste.
It's basically a different and what I believe is a much more interesting way of the delay function on the reverb in the first place, 'cause it contrasts between the main punch of the sound and the soft easing into the reverb.

Bodega wrote:

setspeed wrote:

There's literally no requirement to compress the mix bus if your music is going to be played extremely loud in a club.

i may be showing my ignorance here but are you saying that when club music is mastered it's not compressed?

because surely that's not true

apathesis wrote:

Bodega wrote:

setspeed wrote:

There's literally no requirement to compress the mix bus if your music is going to be played extremely loud in a club.

i may be showing my ignorance here but are you saying that when club music is mastered it's not compressed?

because surely that's not true

No, most club music is compressed. What I'm saying is that the constraints that compression solve (background noise and dynamic range) don't apply in a nightclub context, so a dj could easily play a set of uncompressed tunes. It would probably sound amazing, but the dj would have to bear in mind that the levels would fluctuate and not just set all the faders and trims to maximum.

A lot of old acid-house era white labels didn't have any mastering as such.