The EQ and Compression Formula

Learn the step by step way

to use EQ and Compression together

Nathan Nyquist

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The EQ and Compression Formula:
Learn the step by step way to use EQ and Compression together
Copyright © 2017 Nathan Nyquist. All rights reserved.
Protected by copyright laws of the United States and international treaties.
No part of this publication in whole or in part may be copied, duplicated,
reproduced, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without the express written permission from the publisher.
Copyright and other intellectual property laws protect these materials and any
unauthorized reproduction or retransmission will constitute an infringement of
copyright law.
Federal law provides severe civil and criminal penalties for the unauthorized
reproduction, distribution, or exhibition of copyrighted materials. Penalties for
criminal and statutory copyright infringement are set forth at 18 U.S.C § 2319.
ISBN: 9781980601807

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 Table of Contents
Introduction
Beginning With The End In Mind
Part I: Equalization
The Front and Back Mixing Paradigm
What is EQ?
4-Zone Mix Theory
Broad Strokes First
The Rule of 300
EQ Controls Explained
EQ in Action
Slingshotting
The Real Secret to Mixing Nobody Told You
Frequency Sweeping
Part II: Compression
The 4 Truths About Compression
Compression Controls Explained
The Best Way to Learn Your Compressor
When and How to Use Compression
Using EQ and Compression Together
The Reality of Compression
Reaching The Next Level

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 Introduction
This book is designed to remove any confusion you might have surrounding EQ
and Compression.
It’s helpful to use this book as a reference guide, and frequently come back to it
whenever you need guidance with EQ and Compression.
EQ and Compression can be a bit of a dry topic to learn and I believe that’s part
of the reason people have difficulty learning them. At the end of the day we’re
all artists and we just want to make good music, so it’s important to master these
tools as quickly as possible.
My goal with this book is to give you some simple paradigms and strategies that
you can use to achieve a clear and well-defined mix.

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 Beginning With The End In Mind
It’s important to begin with the end in mind when mixing. Without a definite
destination we are prone to wander aimlessly.
The purpose of a definite and clear goal is NOT ALWAYS to achieve it 100%
exactly as you’ve set it. The point of a definite goal is that it gives you access to
a powerful layer of subconscious resources and decision making which most of
the time you’re not aware of consciously.
It’s like when you’re at the cupboard and something begins to tip and fall over
and your hand with the surprising reflexes of a ninja automatically reaches out
and catches it.
We know that we wanted to save ourselves the mess; the effort of cleaning it all
up.
So when we know what we want clearly enough, then reaching our goals
becomes more of a reflex. It becomes a reflex because that’s our unconscious
taking control and making us do the things that would make it happen anyway.
So now that you’re beginning to understand a little more about the benefit of
clearer goals, let’s talk about why you’re reading this book.
The fact that you’re reading this means you probably want a well-defined mix or
at the very least want to improve your mixing.
In order to achieve this, we need to know what a well-defined mix means to us.
The first thing to realize is great mixes are subjective. This means that to find a
great mix, all we have to do is go find a few of our favorite songs. Then decide
which of those songs you enjoy the ‘Sound’ of the most.
Whichever song you like the sound of most will become your Reference Track.
This reference track will be your definite goal for a well-defined mix.
Your definite goal will be to match or exceed the sound quality of your reference
track as much as you feel capable. If it seems you can’t match or exceed the
quality of your chosen reference track, that’s ok because mixing is a gradual
process of improvement.
All the most successful producers and mix engineers improved by referencing
their favorite songs and paying close attention so they could eventually replicate
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that sound in their own music.
Most producers do this by keeping a copy of their reference track in their DAW
session and listening back and forth between their track and the one they’re
matching.

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 Part I: Equalization

The Front and Back Mixing Paradigm

Your mix can be thought of as having two spaces where you can place your
instruments.
The two spaces are the Front and the Back of your Mix.
When mixing, you want to decide whether an instrument will be positioned up
Front, which means it sounds like it’s close to the listener or if it’s positioned in
the Back, which means it sounds like its far away.
The best way to really sensitize yourself to whether things in your mix are close
or far away is to listen with your eyes closed. This is because when our eyes are
open they tend to dominate our perceptions and actually decrease the sensitivity
of our hearing.
Here are some simple distinctions I’ve made between the Front and Back of my
mixes:
Instruments that are up Front:
1. Have more volume (louder compared to instruments in the back).
2. Have more high frequency content (compared to instruments in the back).
3. They tend to have less reverb because things that have lots of reverb get
pushed further back than things which don’t.
Instruments that are in the Back:
1. Have less volume (quieter compared to instruments up front).
2. Have less high frequency content (compared with instruments up Front)
3. Tend to have more reverb than the instruments up front.
You’re mixes will instantly gain more depth and clarity when you make a
practice of being definite about whether you want something in the Front or in
the Back.

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 What is EQ?
EQ is a shaping tool. In the same way a sculptor use a chisel, in the same way
women use makeup to change the shape and appearance of their faces, we use
EQ to shape and chisel the presentation of our instruments.
Sometimes we’re not only altering the shape of a sound, but instead correcting
the tonal imbalances within a particular instrument or sound.
You might have an instrument with too much bass or too little treble. In this
situation you would use EQ to correct these imbalances.
So EQ has two primary uses:
1. To sculpt and shape the presentation of our instruments.
2. To control the balance between instruments.
To achieve this result there are two main approaches to EQ:
1. Cutting EQ
2. Boosting EQ
Your primary mission with EQ will be to create a pleasurable sounding balance
between instruments. In order to achieve that, we want to follow our Front and
Back Paradigm.
By deciding which sounds are going to be in the Front and which ones will be in
the Back of your mix you’ll immediately become more exacting with your EQ
decisions.
In the following sections I will show you the specific ways to use cutting and
boosting EQ to achieve a proper Front to Back mix, but before we dive into that
we need to understand ‘4-Zone Mix Theory.’

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 4-Zone Mix Theory
4-Zone Mix Theory refers to the four main regions of sound we will be shaping
and sculpting within our song.
Understanding these 4 zones allows us to figure out which instruments are
competing for any given frequency zone and then make EQ decisions to
only those instruments as we improve the frequency balance within just that
frequency zone.

The 4 Zones
Lows: 0hz – 200hz
Bass and kick power as well as snare body located here. I often look at this as a
specially reserved space for just my bass/kick power—snare gets a free pass.
Everything else should be aggressively removed/diminished within this range.

Mids: 200hz – 1khz

The meat and body of most instruments lies in this range. It’s important to be
very selective about which instruments you allow to be dominant within this
range or else you’ll get a muddy mix.

High Mids: 1khz – 7khz

This is where the forwardness and presence of your instruments reside. This is
our ears most sensitive range (in particular our ear is most sensitive to boosts and
cuts @ 2 - 3khz).

Highs: 7khz – 20khz

Cymbals and hi-hats are very dominant in this range. This is where the Sizzle,
Aliveness, and High-Definition quality of our instruments comes from. If the
mix is too sibilant, or airy sounding this is the range too look at.
When we start cutting and boosting with EQ we will be focused on making what
are called Broad Strokes in these 4 frequency zones to achieve a well-defined
Front to Back Mix.

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 Broad Strokes First
It’s simpler and more intuitive to start with broad approach because mixing is a
gradual process of sculpting and refinement. It’s more effective to start broad
and then funnel down to something specific.
If at the broad strokes stage you can’t get 80% of the mix you’re after, then you
just haven’t made the right broad strokes and small precision type strokes aren’t
going to fix your problem.
When we’re mixing with broad strokes we’re going to be relying on WIDE EQ
Cuts and EQ Boosts where our Q= 1 or less.
By using wide EQ boosts/cuts we can then decide where we want to boost or cut
by sliding through each of the 4 frequency zones and deciding which one yields
the greatest improvement to our sound.
You will see an immediate improvement in the clarity and definition of your
mixes by beginning with a broad strokes approach.

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 The Rule of 300
One of the most frustrating issues many producers encounter is a muddy or
undefined low end in their mixes. Producers run into this problem because the
instruments occupying the 20hz to 400hz frequency range of their mix are
having a conflict catastrophe.
The reality is 20hz – 400hz is the most difficult frequency range for us to master
because our hearing isn’t as adapted to noticing details in it.
In order to avoid this temporary, but inherent weakness in our low end hearing
there is one simple rule we can follow—The Rule of 300.
The rule of 300 states that if it isn’t bass, kick or snare, then you must high
pass those instruments at 300hz or higher.
The higher you can get away with the better for your mix.
This rule eliminates the main causes of a muddy mix because as you now know
we run into this problem when our 20hz to 400hz range is swamped by too many
competing instruments.
When professional mixers talk about balance they mean it as if there’s a balance
scale in front of you and so imagine on the one end there is something heavy,
and the other has something light. And like the balance scale you must decide
and be very selective about which instruments are frequency ‘heavy’ and
which ones are frequency ‘light.’
Balance just means that it sounds pleasing to you, but when mixers talk about
balance they mean that you’re decisive about which instruments get to be
frequency dense and which one’s get to be frequency light in a given frequency
zone.
By following this rule your mixes will immediately start occupying the top 5%
of mixes out there.

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 EQ Controls Explained
High Pass Filtering (abbreviated HP): is used to remove unwanted low
frequencies. It’s something you’ll use on virtually every track in your
productions; especially because of the rule of 300 we just discussed.
Low Pass Filtering (abbreviated LP): is the opposite of high pass filtering.
Generally low passing is used to remove unwanted high frequencies
aggressively.
Cutting/Boosting (aka Peak Filtering): is when you take a bell shaped filter and
use it to either subtract or add frequencies to a selected range.
Shelving Filters: are the ultimate broad strokes tool. I look at shelving in terms
of whether I want to make something Brighter/Darker or Thicker/Thinner.
With a high-shelving filter set at 1khz or higher, I can easily make something
Brighter or Darker sounding.
With a low-shelving filter set at 1khz or less, I can effortlessly make an
instrument Thicker or Thinner sounding.
Unfortunately, the ease, effectiveness and power of these filters, cause them to
be one of the most overlooked tools at a mixers disposal.
Q: is best understood as a way to adjust the sharpness of EQ curve. Different
curves will produce different sounds. An interesting behavior is that sharper
curves tend to be less transparent when boosting than their cutting variants.

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 EQ in Action
You probably already know on some level that mixing is mostly a subtractive art
form. And so any good mixer will be using cuts about 80% of the time and
boosts roughly 20% of the time.
The rule of thumb I hope you’ll find useful is it’s much better to cut too much
from everything and then be very selective about where you restore fullness,
than to not cut enough and get a mediocre and mucky mix.
Once you’ve got a lot of open space to work with, it’s much easier to add
frequencies back in, than it is to fit another person into a crowded bus so to
speak.
There are 2 main techniques I rely on when I’m EQing my mix. As I’ve said
before, I prefer to approach EQing in broad, even sloppy terms. It isn’t necessary
to be misled and think there is only one right way to EQ something, there are
typically a few, and it’s your job to find one quickly so that you can move on
with it.
When I say quickly I mean that EQing is actually a messy and gradual process of
refinement. That means it’s really about little by little, sculpting and shaping our
music into something we’re gradually becoming more and more pleased with.
It’s really helpful to understand that you're only making decisions as quickly as
you’re comfortable. And so make your decision comfortably fast because
sticking in one place for too long risks over-analysis.
Over-analysis inhibits creative decision making and worst of all leads to
increasingly worse decisions. That is why while mixing I like to use a technique
I call Slingshotting.

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 Slingshotting
Slingshotting works by using the 4 frequency zones we talked about earlier.
Here is the order of the technique:
Decide whether you want an instrument kept in the Front or pushed to the Back
of your mix.
Then roughly set the desired volume you’d like your instrument to play at so it’s
in front or back.
With a Q slope of 1, select a 4db boost if you want to bring it more forward and
a -6db cut if you want to push it further back.
Now, while everything is playing move your cut/boost between each of the 4
frequency zones. Notice in which zone you experience the most pleasing change.
Once you’ve found the zone you like most, then you can configure the db
amount of your cut/boost so it’s more refined.
The idea here is to provide you with only 4 different choices instead of so many
choices you don’t know which to select.
Keep in mind that cutting more is better than cutting too little. Boosting too little
is better than boosting too much.
When you’re searching for a zone to cut and you find the right range you’ll
notice that your mix literally opens up and feels less congested.
The goal is to aim for openness and almost too much space between instruments
because the real secret to dynamite, 3-dimensional mixes has to do with the
space you leave unoccupied.

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 The Real Secret to Mixing Nobody Told You

“The real art of mixing is about the “Frequency Real Estate” you don’t use,
not the space you occupy.”

Really what I’m saying is less is more.

Why is less, in fact more? My belief is because of how limiting/mastering
works. There is in fact... a good reason people don’t notice how muddy their
mixes are until they start limiting and mastering them.
It’s because limiters aren’t really loudness maximizers so much as they are
intensity multipliers.
When we fail to aggressively cut frequencies we don’t need, then instruments
start competing for dominance.
If there’s too many instruments fighting for dominance in a given frequency
range, then when we go to limit our track we increase the intensity of those
clashing frequencies.
If our mixing were on point, then we would just be increasing the intensity of an
open, clear, and definite mix which would sound absolutely wonderful.
So keep it clean, keep it nice and open.

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 Frequency Sweeping
Frequency Sweeping is similar to Slingshotting, only whereas Slingshotting is
meant to give you a result quickly and definitively; frequency sweeping is more
surgical and precise and as a result it’s more focused and time consuming.
Because it’s more surgical and precise, frequency sweeping involves a very
narrow Q with around + or – 10db of gain.
By using a very narrow Q you’re able to microscopically zoom in to the specific
points of the sound where you might be hearing a ringing or pinging, something
which typically sticks out and annoys you.
It’s easier to find the offending frequency on EQ’s which have a built-in
spectrum analyzer since the offending frequency will tend to poke out like a sore
thumb from the rest of the frequency spectrum.

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 Part II: Compression

The 4 Truths About Compression

“If you don’t know when to use it, then don’t.”

-Elitist Internet Forum Asshole
That tired, old advice always made me wonder how anyone ever learned to use
compression in the first place? I never liked hearing people say it, but really
what they were trying to say is compression isn’t what will make or break your
mix.
We want to begin to think of compression as more like the icing on a 5 layer
cake. The 5 layers are great by themselves but maybe we want some icing to top
it off.
There are 4 perspectives I’ve used to understand what compression really is and
how to use it:
1. Compression is just an automatic volume fader. This is literally what a
compressor should mean to you. It’s not compression, it’s an automatic
volume fader.
2. Anything a compressor can do, volume automation can do.
3. Compressors are designed to make loud sounds quieter.
4. A compressor is just a glorified volume fader (I really want to drive that
one home).

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 Compression Controls Explained
Here’s an explanation of all the controls you’ll be using in a multiband
compressor.
If you’re already familiar with these then you can skip over them.
However, I would suggest at least understanding why I’ve grouped the controls
into Fader Triggering, and Fader Velocity groups because it’s an efficient way
of dividing the controls of your compressor so that you can know where to do
what.
Fader Triggering is comprised of the following 3 controls:
1. Threshold
2. Ratio
3. Sidechain
These controls tell our automatic volume fader when to move down, and how
much volume to subtract when it does.
Fader Velocity is comprised of the following controls:
1. Attack
2. Hold
3. Release
These controls tell our automatic volume fader how fast it should move when
the volume of the incoming sound is louder than your threshold setting.

Fader Triggering
The controls in this section allow our automatic volume fader to know ‘when’
and ‘how much’ to push down the volume of the incoming signal.
Threshold
Threshold tells the volume fader when to start decreasing the volume of our
incoming signal. Sounds which extend above the level of our threshold cause our
automatic volume fader to move down, thus decreasing the volume of our sound.
The threshold is the same thing as a height requirement for a theme park ride. If
you’re underneath the height threshold, then you don’t get to ride the automatic
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volume fader down, but if you’re above the height threshold then you’re loud
enough to go for a ride down in volume.
The threshold is responsible for letting a compressor know exactly when to
make a sound quieter.
Signals which remain beneath our threshold cause our automatic volume fader to
do absolutely nothing.
Ratio
Ratio is how much our automatic volume fader will move down when the
volume of a sound extends above our threshold.
The higher our ratio, the more volume our fader will subtract when it is
triggered.
The lower our ratio, the less volume our fader will subtract when it is
triggered.
The difference between a high ratio and a low ratio is like the difference between
gravity on earth vs. gravity on the moon. When you jump on earth you get pulled
down right away, but when you jump on the moon, you go higher and you get
pulled down slower and more gently.
It’s the same with our ratio control. The lower our ratio, the more gently our
volume fader pushes down. The higher the ratio the more aggressively our
volume fader pushes down.
I’m avoiding the math behind how ratio works because I honestly forgot it even
though it’s really simple. I personally don’t associate this math with the behavior
of a compressor. In fact I largely attribute its existence to most of my confusion
with figuring out how to use ratio effectively.
Higher ratios like 4:1 and 10:1 cause more gain reduction per db of threshold
overshoot. Lower ratios like 1.5:1 and 2:1 cause less gain reduction per db of
threshold overshoot. That’s the math I can remember and in my head it’s
actually summed up as what follows.
The higher the ratio, the more gain-reduction. The lower the ratio, the less
gain-reduction.
I could honestly care less about what amount of db is being subtracted per db of
overshoot. It’s so removed from what the ratio actually does in terms of shaping
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and aggressive behavior of the compressor that I find it virtually useless.
Aggressiveness in music isn’t a number it’s a sound—trust your ears.
In my opinion there are really only 3 ratio settings: 2:1, 4:1 and 10:1. When I’m
configuring a compressor I always start at 2:1 and go straight to configuring the
threshold/attack/release settings as they’re the most important.
Fine tuning ratio isn’t something you really do until you’ve figured out where
you like your threshold, attack and release settings.
Sidechain
The Sidechain of a compressor is used to control how the compressor responds
to the incoming signal.
A Sidechain’s purpose is to allow the compressor to act as if it were
behaving in response to an EQ’d version of the sound you’re treating.
This is most often used to remove low frequencies from the incoming signal
that’s used to trigger the compressor.
It’s useful because bass frequencies tend to last longer than high frequencies and
so can cause compressors to respond more sluggishly and inconsistently.
What this means is that using a sidechain to remove low frequencies makes our
compressor behave more precisely and predictably.
Gain Reduction
This isn’t a control. But I’ve included it in this group, because it’s the
combination of threshold, ratio and sidechain settings which determines how
much gain reduction a compressor will achieve.
As you’re probably aware, gain reduction is what a compressor does. Gain
reduction means reducing the volume of a sound. So going back to our automatic
volume fader, whenever a signal is louder than the threshold then compression is
triggered and gain reduction occurs.
If ratio is kept the same, then the more a signal’s volume goes over threshold,
the more gain reduction you’ll get.
It’s exactly like if the louder a vocal got, the further you’d have to pull that fader
down with your finger to get it to sit stably in the mix. If it was only slightly
loud, you would just pull the fader down, very, very slightly.

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I think I wondered this at some point, so in case you were wondering gain is the
same thing as volume.

Fader Velocity
These controls tell our automatic volume fader how fast it should move when
the volume of the incoming sound is louder than your threshold setting.
Attack
Attack is how long it takes our automatic volume fader to move downward
when the threshold is exceeded by our incoming signal.
So for example, with a 10ms attack when our incoming signal exceeds the
threshold of our compressor, it means that our automatic volume fader takes
10ms to decrease the volume as determined by our threshold and ratio controls.
Attack is the duration of travel for our automatic volume fader. It’s the time it
takes to travel from point A to point B. Point A is your fader at 0 gain reduction
and point B is your fader at full gain reduction.
Once our attack is complete the volume fader will continue subtracting volume
until the incoming signal gets quieter and falls beneath our threshold. Once this
happens our automatic volume goes into the release phase.
Release
Release is how long it will take our automatic volume fader to return back to its
original position of 0 volume reduction.
The release phase happens only once our incoming volume has fallen beneath
the threshold we’ve selected.
So with a 10ms release, it would take our lowered automatic volume fader 10ms
to return back to its original level of 0 volume reduction.
If as the compressor is completing its release timing the incoming signal goes
back above the threshold, then the compressor will re-start its attack phase until
gain reduction is achieved.
I know it might be redundant, but nobody ever explained what happens if your
release isn’t allowed to finish before the compressor is retriggered.
Hold
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Hold is an extra parameter. Not all (multiband) compressors even have it
because it isn’t essential.
Hold actually happens before your release stage. It’s a way to delay the release
phase of our automatic volume fader.
So the order in which these stages happen is:
Attack > Hold > Release
As you’re aware it’s during the release stage that the fader makes the journey
back to its original position of zero volume reduction.
When a sound gets quiet and falls beneath your threshold, the compressor would
normally enter the release stage. But, with hold we are delaying the release stage
from starting. The length of this delay is whatever length of time your hold
setting is set to.
What this means is that during the hold phase we are maintaining our volume
reduction at whatever point it’s reached. Once hold completes, then the release
stage goes into effect whereby our volume fader gradually returns to 0 volume
reduction.

Other Controls
This is just an extra section to explain makeup gain all by its lonesome since it
doesn’t fit neatly with my Fader Triggering and Fader Velocity Groups.
Makeup Gain
Since our automatic volume fader functions by reducing the volume of sounds,
often the sounds we treat with compression can appear to become quieter.
Makeup Gain allows us to restore our instrument to its original perceived
volume level.
However there will be many situations where you’ll only be using compression
to reduce the volume of a sound when it gets too loud.
This is because you’re using the compressor as a peak controller whose only job
is to viciously slap any overly loud sounds back into acceptable volume land.
This is one of the easiest and most natural ways to use compression.

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 The Best Way to Learn Your Compressor
The fastest way to learn any processor is to jump between extremes and then
compare the results. This is how we will be learning compression.
Here’s a step by step guide to learning what your compressor (automatic volume
fader) does in action.
1. Pull a drum loop into your DAW. Ideally you want a drum loop that has
room tone/ambience/reverb already on it.
2. Add a compressor to the drum loop track.
3. Play the loop so it’s looping automatically.
4. As the loop is playing set the ratio to 10:1 and then move the threshold all
the way down (this will quiet your loop considerably).
5. Now set the attack and release to 1ms or less (as fast as possible).
6. Gradually pull the threshold back up until you have 10-15db of gain
reduction (volume reduction).
7. Play with your attack by opening it completely and closing it back down.
Notice how the sound of the drum loop changes as you do this.
1. You’ll notice as the attack gets longer that the initial transient of
each drum hit is allowed to poke through more and more
8. Set the attack back to its original position at 1ms or less.
9. Now play with your release in the same way by opening it and closing it.
Notice how the drum loop changes as you do this.
1. What you’ll notice is that the slower the release, the more the tails of
the drum hits and the room tone start to disappear.
10. Repeat steps 7 and 9 only now as you play with the attack/release also
play with the ratio setting.
1. You’ll notice how higher ratios influences the aggressiveness and
obviousness of your attack and release parameters.

This exercise will allow you to hear in a dramatic and focused way what the
behavior of your automatic volume fader sounds like. In particular it sensitizes
you to the rate and speed that your volume fader moves up and down.
What you’ll notice is when the attack was slower, it allowed the drum attack or
what we call transients to come through.
When you set the release so its slower and slower, you’ll notice how the tails of
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the drum hits and the room tone start to diminish. That’s because our automatic
volume fader isn’t allowed to return back to 0 volume reduction before the next
drum hit triggers the automatic volume fader to quiet the sound again.
This is the fastest and easiest way to learn the behavior and character of any
compressor.

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 When and How to Use Compression
There are 2 primary ways I use compression on an individual, track based level:
1. To control and shape transients (attacks)
1. Percussion shaping
2. Percussive/Plucky Instrument Sculpting
2. To control the volume of a sound over time
1. The vocalist who’s volume is all over the place
2. The guitar performance which is naturally very dynamic

Using Compression to Control Transients

1. Set your ratio 2:1.
2. Set both a fast attack and release of 1ms or less.
3. Pull your threshold down until your transient begins to disappear.
4. Now slow down your attack so that as much of the transient as you desire
is allowed to come through.
5. Set your release timing between 10-40ms so the tail of your transient is
relatively unaffected.
6. Adjust your Makeup Gain to return the sound to its original volume.
7. You can do a finishing pass by going back between your ratio, attack and
release settings and tweaking them in conjunction with one another.

You can use this same process to amplify and further shape the presentation
of a transient. The only difference would be to set a slower attack so the
transient or ‘head’ is allowed to slip through unaffected before your automatic
volume fader moves down to decrease the volume of the body sound.

Using Compression to Control the Volume of a Sound Over Time

I use vocals as an example because it’s very easy to notice the effect of
compression on vocals. This is because as human beings our hearing is naturally
sensitive to the various audio cues present in the human voice.
1. Set your ratio 2:1.
2. Set your attack and release to 1ms or less.

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 3. Pull your threshold down until you have 10 db of gain reduction.
1. With this amount of gain reduction a vocal will sound a little
unnatural, wait until step 6 to fix that.
4. Now open your attack until the vocals consonants and plosives sound as
pleasing and intelligible as you’d like.
1. Very fast attacks settings will squash consonant/plosive sounds in a
vocal. However, in a musical setting you can get away with faster
attacks since music is creative you really can do whatever you feel
like.
5. For natural sounding vocals set the release between 15-40ms.
6. Pull the threshold up until you have about 6db of gain reduction.
7. Adjust your makeup gain to return the sound to its original perceived
volume level.
8. You can do a finishing pass by going back to your ratio, attack and release
settings and further tweaking them in conjunction with one another.

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 Using EQ and Compression Together
There is an overall consensus that the majority of the time EQ should be placed
before compression.
So, EQ > Compression
However there are no set rules and if you do find yourself EQing after you
compress then the typical use in that scenario would be to cut with an EQ before
your compressor and then boost with an EQ after your compressor
EQ (Cut) > Compressor > EQ (Boost)
When you become comfortable with compressors and EQs the above chain
actually makes it easier to shape your sound even more dramatically.
But don’t be misled, if all you mastered was the EQ > Compression combo, you
would still be in the top 1% of mixers.

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 The Reality of Compression
The reality today is when I’m mixing a track I use compression on about 5-10%
of tracks.
I tend to use compression in the same way a person might Febreeze™ their
house after cleaning it. Febreeze™ is really just the icing on the cake, but only
once you’ve cleaned everything is Febreeze™ actually worth it.
Otherwise you would have a house that looks like sh%t but smells like heaven.
Anyway, this is just how I look at compression: Only after I’ve already cleaned
everything up with EQ, do I then use compression to put down the finishing
touches.
If you’re just learning compression and you don’t know when to use it, then
don’t because I have a solution for that absurd catch 22.
Since we all need to learn compression at some point, I would suggest that you
learn and familiarize yourself by using this simple approach.
All you’re going to do is pick two instruments in your song, one in the Front of
your mix and the other in the Back.
The goal here is to use compression to more effectively keep the Back
instrument comfortably tucked in the Back, and to make the Front instrument
stay in the Front more consistently.
I actually call this Front/Back style of compression, “Pocket Compression,”
because in the same way we use EQ’s to carve out frequency pockets for
instruments in our mix, we can use Pocket Compression to create a musically
pleasing dynamic boundary AROUND the frequency pockets we’ve carved with
our EQ.
The reason creating this ‘dynamic boundary’ is amazing is because it allows us
to achieve even greater levels of blend/contrast.
So even though we are always carving out pockets with EQ, those instruments
can still sometimes get excited and jump up in volume. And as they jump in
volume, they jump out of their pocket so to speak.
So you need something to make instruments stay in the comfortable pockets you
carved out for them. This is where Pocket Compression comes in.
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 But here’s the truth about pocket compression, because it’s really just a
specific way of using Bus Compression.
The reason I call it pocket compression is because it actually tells you the result
you’re getting. With pocket compression you’re forcing instruments to
energetically/dynamically stay in the same pocket.
In this particular form of compression you’ll learn that you have frequency
pockets which are managed by EQ’s, but you also have volume-leveled pockets
which are instead managed by Compression. It’s a lot like our automatic volume
fader from earlier, only now it’s being applied to groupings of instruments
instead of just one.
With Pocket Compression (aka Bus Compression), you’re forcing groups of
instruments to sit in the same dynamic pocket which has very distinct, time-
regulated volume properties.
The particular time-regulated volume properties of this pocket are controlled by
your compressor. It’s the particular configuration of the compressor for
instruments in a given pocket which creates the characteristics of the Pocket
you’re Compressing.
Having just 2 of these distinct pockets in your mix means your mixes will have
more depth, and therefore more blend and contrast than someone who doesn’t
use this technique. This allows us to create a powerful form of dynamic contrast
in our mixes that is truly professional sounding.
Pocket Compression really is the most powerful and intuitive approach to
compressor use that I know of and in my book The Bus Compression
Masterclass I expand completely on my philosophy and approach to this form of
Bus Compression.
So if you’re curious and want to learn more about Pocket Compression I’ve
provided a preview chapter at the end of this book. If you’re really eager to get it
then you can Click Here to get a copy of The Bus Compression Masterclass.

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 Reaching The Next Level
I’m constantly experimenting to find that ‘next level’ and it’s amazing because
every time I do, I discover a simpler approach to getting an even better result.
The next level always gives me an easier, more guaranteed way to achieve a
predictable result. Pocket Compression is one of those ‘Next Level’ paradigms.
And so as I continue evolving and getting better, all these older inefficient
approaches get replaced by simpler, more intuitive tricks.
Reinventing the wheel isn’t always necessary and since we’re all artists, and we
all want to get better at our art, then it’s important we do everything to continue
evolving.
The way I accelerate this process of evolution is by keeping a pen and notepad
next to my studio computer and whenever I do something that I find glorious, I
simply write down the steps I took to achieve it on paper.
This has the effect of fast tracking the learning process as well as making your
automatic, reflexive access to skills and resources more robust and consistent.
I’m basically just keeping an archive of all my awesome engineering and
production wizardry, because it would be cruel not to reuse the same wizardry-
level successes until they become persistent reflexive successes in the future.
It would be so much nicer to reflexively catch ideas like we’ve caught falling
objects from the cupboard than to go the other more difficult and unreliable way.
Keeping a notebook of my own techniques has provided an invaluable boost to
the rate, speed and consistency of my own evolution and I hope you’ll agree it’s
something that can help you too.
At the end of the day most of what’s powerful is simple, ridiculously simple;
especially compared with the complexity that was necessary build it.
But in a field like audio engineering that tends to attract the technically attracted,
there’s a trend towards drowning things in an ocean of complexity.
In the end art is meant to be the result of ‘artistically’ simplified complexity.
And if we don’t stretch to simplify, reduce, and intensify what remains then we
will miss the benefits of challenging ourselves to always reach that next level.
At the highest levels everything is subtractive and simplified. Only what’s
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absolute or essential remains, everything else is just clutter.
I hope this book helps you in creating more heavenly mixes. If you can, please
leave a review by clicking here.

Additional Resources
Books:
The 3-Space Reverb Framework: Learn the step by step system for using
reverb in your mixes
https://amzn.to/2JlN4zy

Mastering Multi-Band Compression: 17 step by step multiband compression

techniques for getting flawless mixes
https://amzn.to/2vN4t2r

The Bus Compression Masterclass: The secret to creating more depth and
cohesion with bus compression
https://amzn.to/2vEc5UQ

Free Music Production and Audio Engineering Resources

http://www.mybeatlab.com/tutorials

Book Previews
The 3-Space Reverb Framework: Learn the step by step system for
using reverb in your mixes

Buy Now

The Mastering Reverb

Adding the same reverb to everything in your mix is the ultimate glue technique.
If you aren’t already then once you start doing this your mixes will hit a new
level that you simply couldn’t imagine.

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Pros will occasionally mention they do this, but they often don’t talk about how
substantially it brings everything together in your mix. Put simply, it’s better
than bus compression at gluing things together, and bus compression is literally
referred to as ‘the glue.’

The trick with using reverb on your master is to create what I call a premaster
reverb track, and on that track every instrument will be routed through it.

From the premaster reverb track you will create a send, and on that send will be
your master reverb.

Your master reverb should be using a small room preset with .3 - .7sec of decay.
You’ll want to low-cut frequencies on your master reverb because you just won’t
need those, otherwise they will swamp your mix.

From the premaster track you can control how much all the instruments in your
track are feeding this final reverb. The idea is to feed the master verb somewhat
lightly so that it’s almost imperceptible, but you can get fairly aggressive with
this and that is very, very enjoyable to do as well.

This final reverb is meant to emulate the room your track is playing in. Like if
you were playing your track through speakers in a club, this is what the master
reverb is emulating, albeit with a much shorter decay. I don’t know why, but it
really makes a song come together in the most simply, impressive way.

This master reverb treatment happens pre-master, hence the pre-master reverb
track we used. This does mean that I like running the Master Reverb +
everything else in my session through my entire master treatment chain. There’s
nothing wrong with this for me because I don’t rely too much on extreme forms
of mastering for my projects.

That being said, one of the symptoms of heavy loudness maximization on your
master is that the stereo width/ intelligibility of your track tends to go down.
This can be remedied by configuring a master reverb on your project right before
your final limiter.

This is just me getting into mix-engineer porn at this point, but the idea would be
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doing your entire master chain, except for your final limiter on a ‘pre-master
treatment track.’ You then send a little bit of your ‘premaster treatment track’
signal to your master reverb send, and then mix these all together at your Master
right before the limiter.

This allows our master reverb to be unaffected by your mastering chain. What’s
really cool is that the heavy-handed effects of your ‘pre-master treatment’ will
influence the sounds going into your master reverb and all this is happening
without the master chain negatively impacting your master reverb’s stereo
information and acoustics.

This works because reverb information suffers the most from heavy compression
and limiting. It’s also an advanced technique that underlines the best mastering
technique, namely that all really good mastering is a means of hiding the side-
effects of mastering.

It works to hide mastering because while everything was heavily processed in

your pre-mastering chain you’re restoring some naturalness to it by running it
through a reverb after the fact. And that reverb is only running into a limiter
before your track is mixed down. It’s this sequence that acts to hide mastering
artifacts like multiband compression/limiter pumping.

CLICK HERE TO BUY ‘THE 3-SPACE REVERB

FRAMEWORK’
Or visit:
https://amzn.to/2JlN4zy

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 Mastering Multi-Band Compression: 17 step by step multiband
compression techniques for getting flawless mixes

Buy Now

Blend/Contrast Theory and Multiband Compression

If you’ve read any of my other books then you know that the foundation of my
mixing philosophy is blend and contrast. I want for 70% of my instruments to
blend together into the background of my mix, and the other 30% to contrast and
push forward into the front of my mix.
By following this rule I’m able to create massive depth with less effort and less
stress.
I can assure you, within a few sessions of applying this paradigm it will
transform the way you approach mixing. You’ll be more exacting with your
decisions and you won’t find yourself getting stuck debating whether something
is right or wrong.
All you need to do is decide if an instrument is blending or contrasting.
At every level of my mixing, this is my primary goal. Why do I use The 3-Space
Reverb Framework when mixing? Because it’s sonically designed to create more
blend and contrast.
Why do I rely on 4-Zone Mix theory in The EQ and Compression Formula?
Because in each of the 4 frequency zones I always make sure there’s 1
instrument that’s louder (contrasting) and the rest are just supporting
(blending).
How specifically am I using Bus Compression in The Bus Compression
Masterclass? I’m using it to create improved blending via the ‘glue’ effect of
compression. But I’m also applying deliberately, different compression settings
to blending and contrasting instrument groups.
The different settings pushes blending and contrasting groups apart which
creates more depth. As such a contrasting instrument group will always have
more open compression settings compared to a blending instrument group which
has slightly more restricted compression settings.
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It’s the additive effect of these precise and repeatable techniques which creates
increasing levels of blend/contrast. With increasing levels of blend/contrast we
can make massive depth and crystal clarity a virtually effortless byproduct of a
formulaic mixing methodology.
This is what I aim for when I teach this stuff.
Can you make someone a great mixer right away? No, but you can teach them
the exact sequences and patterns that great mixers use.
Unfortunately many great artists and mixers aren’t exactly aware of how they do
what they do and I think that's bullshit because it holds the rest of us back. It
makes those of us just starting think the learning curve is steep.
It isn't as steep as we think. It's the initial time investment that's steep. But that's
the price for anything worth having.
So everything I talk about is a formula. It's a methodology that you can copy and
paste into your process to get an instant skip over the confusion.
We really need to experience results that we can appreciate in order to connect
the deeper dots—the ones we're really after.
So knowing whether I’m after blend or contrast is my deeper connecting of the
dots. It lets me know exactly what to do so that I don’t get lost trying to figure
out what I’m after. It’s very simple and at the same time, this way of mixing
isn’t so rigid or encumbering that it drops me from a creative state.
Blend/contrast is a universal of art. Our perceptions are built around it. Hot-cold,
black-white, happy-sad, quiet-loud, distant-close; everything.
So when we’re mixing it's all about intensifying blend/contrast and the way we
do this with multiband compression has to do with the 2 main results Multiband
Compression can achieve. They are as follows:
1. Transient Control
1. Transient Enhancement
2. Transient Reduction
2. Volume Leveling
These 2 results also happen to be the exact same ways we use a regular
compressor.
The only difference is that now we can do it on a specific frequency range which
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is what gives us the ability to use a multiband compressor to flexibly shape the
frequency content of a sound.
Again, you can only shape a given frequency range if it has differences in
volume to work with. If it’s always sustaining at the same general volume, then
multiband compression has virtually no positive benefit worth confusing
ourselves with.
Transient Control for Blend/Contrast
Transient in the context of a multiband compressor means shaping the peak
volume of a frequency range. Now the sentence I just said is true, but it can be
super vague, so don’t worry because the first 2 multiband compression
techniques I’m going to give you will show you exactly how to achieve transient
control.
For the most part it is going to be the results that connect the dots. The 17
techniques I’m going to be showing you a little later will give you the exact
results you need to figure things out.
Examples are almost always clearer than the technical explanations. Technical
explanations are just meant to prime your mind so that you’re a little more
subconsciously prepared to connect the dots when you get a demonstration later
on.
So as a quick review here’s exactly what I mean about transient control as it
relates to blend vs. contrast:
1. Transient Enhancement will always = More Contrast
2. Transient Reduction will always = More Blend

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Volume Leveling for Blend/Contrast
Volume leveling in the context of a multiband compressor means reducing the
difference between loud and quiet portions of a given frequency range.
In our earlier example with the piano hammer playing louder and then quieter,
we can set compression to reduce the volume of just the loud part so it gets
closer in volume to the quiet part. Then simply applying makeup gain brings the
overall level of volume back up, hence volume leveling.
Whenever a given frequency range gets too loud it begins to contrast and move
toward the front of our mix. When it gets too quiet it can overly blend and
eventually disappear into the background of our mix.
So we volume level frequency ranges because sometimes they’re too loud and
sometimes they’re too quiet and leveling out the volume level makes that
frequency range sit more stably in your mix.
Generally in mixes you want the majority of instruments to remain fairly
dynamically stable because this gives you control over their mix placement.
But mixing is an art, and sometimes having 1 or 2 instruments be able to
dynamically warp in and out of your mix because of their dramatic changes in
volume can create more contrast and depth.
As you’ll learn in the techniques I’m going to show you, much of the time we
simply reduce the volume of loud parts without applying makeup gain. This is
something that’s counterintuitive because makeup gain is sort of presented as the
final step of using any compressor and so some people assume it’s meant to be
used all the time—it’s not, I’m going to show and explain why later on.
Volume Leveling is primarily a blend effect, simply because it holds stuff in
place. But you can also hold stuff in place so it’s louder and more present and in
this way it becomes more of a contrast effect.
With volume leveling we are using the multiband compressor to prevent
individual frequency ranges from darting back and forth throughout our mix.
You’ll get a perfect example of volume leveling frequencies that move back and
forth in your mix with technique #3. In that technique I’ll show you the very
visual example of how to control resonantly sweeping frequencies in your mix.
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In fact, the reason volume leveling is so effective when dealing with sweeping
resonances is because sometimes we like lots of resonance, but it can be
overwhelming in certain frequency ranges and so wont fit perfectly with the mix.
Volume leveling with multiband compression is the ultimate solution to this
problem.
The techniques you’re going to learn are the ones I use. Because it’s me, they are
incredibly formulaic and they work.
I’m giving them to you, partly because I feel obligated since I know I’m not the
only one who was, for the longest time, ruthlessly tortured by multiband
compression at a CIA blacksite called my studio.
I only want for you to find out for yourself just how effective the techniques are
because they’re going to free up a lot of mental energy so you can eventually
focus on more important decisions like blend and contrast.
The more we don’t have to think about how to use something and the more we
can just fiddle with a tool while aiming for something simple like “is it blending
or contrasting?” the more it becomes an enjoyable exploration and the more
creativity blossoms.
CLICK HERE TO BUY ‘MASTERING MULTI-BAND
COMPRESSION’
Or visit:
https://amzn.to/2vN4t2r

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 The Bus Compression Masterclass: The secret to creating more
depth and cohesion with bus compression

Buy Now

Why Call It Pocket Compression (And Not Bus

Compression)?
The reason I call bus compression, pocket compression is because the
compressor action creates an artificial pocket around the instruments in that
group. This artificial pocket has the characteristic of giving all those instruments
similar dynamics.
So when I say dynamic similarity I mean that the volume of all the instruments
in that group is changing in relation to our pocket compressor being triggered.
Because any instrument or simultaneous layering of instruments in the group
could trigger the compressor action, it means that every instrument has potential
to become an influence on the compressor behavior, and therefore the behavior
of all the instruments in that group.
It should be noted that within a bus compression group there’s typically a few
louder instruments that are driving the behavior of the compressor more so than
the rest.
Other instruments are sometimes too quiet to actually trigger or have a big
influence on the compressors behavior. A good example of this would be in a
drum bus.
In a drum bus the compressor movement is typically being driven by your kick
and snare. Hi-hats don’t always trigger the compressor and this is because they
often aren’t loud enough to do so.
So with pocket compression you’re using a compressor to give a group of
instruments specific time-dependent volume characteristics. And it’s often
particular instruments in that group which have greater influence over how the
compressor influences the dynamics of all the instruments together.
Pocket compression means we are using a compressor to influence the dynamics
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of all the instruments together in the same way. Just like salt gives all the herbs
in a dish that salty layer of flavor, you’re giving all those instruments in a group
(bus) that same layer of dynamic similarity.
All these instruments are behaving the same in relation to the compressor they’re
going into.
My favorite way to think about it is just imagine you’ve got an elastic balloon
around the instruments in a particular group. The compressor settings determine
how much freedom they have to be dynamic—which really just means how
erratic they’re allowed to be with their volume levels.
The dynamic freedom they have is determined by your compressor or in this
analogy by how much the balloon will stretch when instruments press into its
edges. The edges of that balloon represent the threshold of your compressor.
How stretchy or not stretchy the balloon is, is determined by your ratio. The rate
and speed at which the balloon stretches when instruments bump into its edges is
determined by your attack and release settings.
It’s this artificial effect of creating an elastic balloon around instruments that is
pocket compression.
This main idea is so simple, and amazingly powerful because it means that faster
attacks (5-10ms), and slower releases (10ms - 40ms) pushes stuff in the back of
the mix, which creates blend and slower attacks (10 - 30ms) and fast releases
(1ms -15ms) allow grouped instruments to remain more open, dynamic and in
front of the mix which creates contrast.
CLICK HERE TO BUY ‘THE BUS COMPRESSION
MASTERCLASS’
Or visit:
https://amzn.to/2vEc5UQ

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