Compression

Compressors Explained – Sound Basics with Stella Episode 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IbIC7B4BU6g

Two most important processors that sound engineers use when mixing are EQ and
Compressors.

What is audio compression?

A compressor’s main job is to even out the volume of an audio track. Think of how a singer
performs a song. Sometimes it’s really loud and sometimes it’s really soft. But when you mix
the singer with other instruments of the band it can be very difficult to hear the loud and soft
parts equally. If you turn the volume up to hear the soft parts then the loud parts will be too
loud, and if you turn the volume down the soft parts won’t be audible. If you’ve ever been to a
concert and had trouble hearing the singer, this is where a good compressor can save the day.

How does compression work?

A compressor will take the loudest parts of the audio signal and lower them in a very pleasing
way. It doesn’t lower the entire signal in a way adjusting the signal would. It only adjusts the
parts of the signal that are too loud, and you decide what ‘too loud’ is by setting the
threshold. Anything below the threshold stays unprocessed. Anything above the threshold
will be compressed. And again, you get to decide how much you want to compress this loud
part by adjusting something called the ratio.

Ratio of threshold: 2:1, 4:1, 6:1, 10:1, 20:1, or more. Over 20:1 is basically limiting. Limiting
means where the sound goes up it’s a brick wall and it doesn’t go any lower. It flat-tops the
sound.
That’s one of the reasons why you don’t typically compress electric guitars, or synths that
have square waves. Buzzy sounding pads. These sounds are square waved sounds and they
are already compressed. They have flat tops. You don’t need to compress things that are
already compressed.

1:1 ratio means there’s no compression at all. 2:1 is where you start engaging compression.
2:1 means a signal exceeding the threshold by 2 dB will be attenuated by 1 dB. By 8 dB will
be attenuated by 4 dB, etc.

2:1 is mild compression (used for drums). 3-4:1 is moderate. 4:1 is what mixers typically use
on the mix buss. For bass one also typically uses moderate compression.

6:1 is medium compression.

10:1 is strong compression. That’s where you start compressing your room mixes where you
start getting that Led Zeppelin When the Levee Breaks. The room mixes start to pump and it
sounds like they have a lot of energy.

Next: attack and release time. Attack: how fast does the compressor grab the sound? If you
have a slow attack time it lets more transient through. The transient is the initial strike (a snare
drum, piano or guitar have a quick transient).

Example: compressing a vocal with the ‘Renaissance Compressor’

First we’ll decide how much we want to lower the loud parts using the ratio knob. Then we’ll
adjust the threshold to set the point at which the compressor is going to start working. When
the threshold is set to zero, that means all the audio will pass through unprocessed. The more
you lower the threshold, the sooner the compressor will kick in. You’re not lowering the
entire signal. Only the parts that cross the threshold you set.

Another thing that’s important when adjusting your compression settings is the make-up
gain. The amount of level you need to add to the entire track after compressing it. Because if
we’re compressing the loudest parts to be lower, then the entire track is also going to be lower
in volume after compressing it. And that’s where we apply make-up gain.

Here’s the original unprocessed waveform of our vocal track. You can see how there’s a big
difference between the loudest and softest parts. Now look at our vocal after we’ve applied
compression. There’s less of a difference between the loudest and softest parts. Finally, here
is what it looks like after we’ve applied some make-up gain.

Now that you know how a compressor works, let’s talk about why we use it.

Why use compression?

The main reason we use compression is to even out the levels of your track. But compressing
a track sounds very different from simply raising and lowering the volume. A compressor
brings out the tone, the details of the sound that give more life to it, more energy, more
punch. A compressed sound punches through the mix and cuts through the rest of the
instruments.

Compression is a huge part of any great mix. There’s a lot more to learn, such as attack,
release, sidechaining and choosing different types of compressors.

Types of Compressors

1) Optical

Standard optical compressors most commonly seen in hardware units or plug-in version are
LA2A (by Teletronix), LA3A (idem), TubeTechCLIB.

They are great on bass, vocals, guitars. However, optical compressors are not great with quick
transients.

LA3A is Chris Lord-Alge's go-to compressor for electric guitars. Daniel Lanois uses this on
everything.
2) FET - Field Effect Transistor

UA1176 is probably most widely used compressor in any genre of music (both in hardware
and software form). There are great emulations (Waves, UAD).

Very colored sounding, not transparent.

The UA1176 start with a 4:1 ratio, they have very fast release and attack times. Their attack
and release knobs are a bit confusing to people because they're backwards from what you
might think: the fastest attack is seven and the fastest release is seven.

For tracking vocals, this is the go-to compressor.

3) VCA - Voltage Controlled Amplifier

SSLG+ and the NEVE33609 compressor-limiter. 

These are mix bus compressors, mastering compressors. Great at handling programmed
information. Great at handling mixes. 

Some great emulations exist (Waves, UAD).

The Neve is much more versatile than the SSL bus compressor because you can use it on
other things. Because of the limiting function it's really useful.

4) Variable MU

Older design of gain control that uses a rebiased vacuum tube. They lack a traditional
threshold and ratio but rely on input and output controls to drive the compressor. 

The most common kind is the Fairchild 660 (mono unit) and 670 (stereo unit).

Incredibly rich-sounding compressors. Very good emulations in plug-in form exist. EMI made
their own compressor to emulate the Fairchild in hardware form: EMI TG 12413 (i.e. the
Abbey Road compressor). Works very well on drum units - you can take the weakest drum
room sound, put it through this compressor and all of a sudden you sound like Led Zeppelin.

Glue and rich sounding are two key words to describe them. A lot of harmonic distortion,
information. They make your mix sound fat and glue it together.

Fairchild: I use them on the mixbus if I want a vintage vibe. Or if I really want to compress
the drums in a real particular way. It squishes them and makes them sound super explosive.

Other compressors that I use all the time:

1) Multiband compressors

You can affect the dynamic range of multiple frequency ranges. 

Fabfilter Pro-MB, iZotope Ozone 7, Waves C6, MCDSP MC2000, ML4000. 

You can use it instead of an EQ. You can take a sound and radically change it. You can
compress them and move the volume sliders and completely change the tone. They're actually
more effective than EQs in some instances. If there are some problem frequencies, you can go
with a multiband.

Sometimes you can put a multiband compressor on the mix bus before the bus compressor,
and shape the mix with it, and mix into the bus compressor.

2) Sidechain or ducking

Use a signal to trigger the compressor.

Waves H-Comp, API 2500, Fab Filter Pro MB

Let's say you have a snare drum that sounds really bad in the overhead and you want to use a
sample instead, and don't want the real snare drum in the overhead. You can trigger the
compressor to duck the snare from the overhead track everytime it hits and it'll just disappear,
so your snare sample will be heard unimpeded by what's coming through the overhead mics.

This is also used a lot in EDM music. You can have a synth bass sound. When the kick hits,
you can send the kick signal to the compressed bass channel and use a compressor plug-in
that has a key gate in it, and you send the input of the compressor's key gate to, say, bus 10.
Everytime the kick hits, it ducks the level of the bass. So the kick becomes more present and
punchy. Keeps you from having to do things with EQ that you don't want to do because you
want to keep your low end really full.

3) Parallel compression (previously also known as New York style compression)

Blending an uncompressed signal with a heavily compressed one.

The Glue, Kush UBK1.

Parallel compression can be used on all sorts of instruments; it's especially great on vocals. If
you have vocals that are not quite sitting in the mix and sometimes get buried. With parallel
compression, we have that really compressed track that when the initial one is not as
compressed drops below a threshold, the track with parallel compression comes up, fills it in
and makes it sound way fatter.

Most compressors out today in plug-in form have a mix knob on.

One of my favourite ones is The Glue. Kind of emulation of SSL compressor. I like to us it on
my drum bus. It's really cool 'cause you can shape the sound with it. You can really compress
it but you can then back it off so you don't hear the pumping as much.

Also the Kush UBK 1. You can add harmonic distortion, compression, emulates five different
compressors, simply one of my favourite compressors.

Favourite compressors per instrument, both for tracking and mixing:

KICK - DBX160 (UAD), SSL Channel (Waves), Metric Halo Channel Strip(really versatile
and great EQ)

SNARE - DBX160, SSL Channel, UA1176, M.H. Channel Str. (if I need that EQ along with
the compression), UAD Distressor plug-in

TOMS - SSL Channel Str.

Overheads - 1176, SSL, Channel Strip, Ren. C.S.

Rooms - Kush Audio UBK1, SSL, MC 2000, 1176 Distressor

BASS - LA2A, DBX160, 1176, Fairchild 660

ACOUSTIC GUITAR - 1176, LA2A, Multiband Waves CLA Guitar Fader Pack.

ELECTRIC GUITAR - LA3A, 1176, DBX160

(Distorted electric guitar - I usually won't compress it at all because it's already compressed. A
clean electric guitar - I want something that grabs it fast).

PIANO - UBK, SSL, C.S., 1176, Fairchild 660, API 2500

I only use compression when doing rock music, electronic music, country. Helps it jump out
of the mix.

Could be a lot of different things. You'll usually compress it and EQ it. It really depends on
what's going on with the piano. If you want to cut through a dense rock track you're going to
want to use compression.

Vocals - UA1176, Distresor, Fairchild, DBX160, LA2A, LA3A, TubeTech CLIB

Drum Bus - The Glue, SSL C.S., FabFilter Comp., NEVE 33609