Parallel compression on kickdrums? yay or nay?
- Thread starter Shroom020
- Start date
"Parallel compression" on a kick drum by itself will not do too much...
Parallel compression is a technique that works with more dynamic audio (like a full drum loop or a vocal or acoustic guitars)
It blends the more heavily compressed audio with its uncompressed version of itself allowing the dynamic peaks to peek (no pun intended) through.
A kick drum generally won't really even have much of a "peak" to blend in.
my answer is "mostly a waste of time and CPU/compressor/channel resources so why bother" (rather than a "yay" or "nay")
Free Spirit
College Dropout
Definitely yay.
Parallel comp is good for using on loops & multiple sounds at once but it is also good with about everything else, including solo kick drums.
It simply allows you to apply heavy compression with little to no side effects and can be done in 30 seconds.
I'd recommend downloading this free & simple, 2 knob compressor and using that for your parallel set up. It's what I use
Download Free Leveling amplifier plug-in: TLs-3127 by TbT
Best of luck!
Yes, my kick drum mix typically constists of two compression stages, and the first stage is usually a parallel compression chain that is side chained to the bass guitar in two directions - under 100Hz the bass guitar ducks the kick drum, above 100Hz the kick drum ducks the bass guitar. So when they both hit at the same time, I get the softness from the bass guitar and the punch from the kick drum. What's nice about this also is that when they don't hit at the same time, the tone of those hits is different and since I have a second stage of compression after it, that difference in tone becomes even more different and it catches those peaks so that they don't become too hard. I use this same kind of pattern all across my mix (some very simple patterns with few sound sources and some very complex ones with many sound sources) in order to even out the transients and to create more tonal change across the mix, because the more tonally nasal the mix is, the less plays it is going to generate.
A major part of mixing (important mixing basics), is how to process the transients of sound sources that hit at the same time in the same frequency range. This is the kind of basics it pays off to learn really well - it is needed as soon as you advance to making mixes with more than one sound source in the mix, else you'll master the art of making mixes heavy and fatiguing to listen to.
The thing is that when you open up a new fresh empty Pro Tools session for the first time, it invites you to assign one sound source to one channel on the console. In other words, you automatically start mixing on mix scope and now you have already bypassed the basics of mixing and it won't sound that great at the end. The basics of mixing is really that you have a mix template setup that provides you with all the faders you need in order to effectively handle the frequencies you are going to mix, so that you can really balance all the individual sound sources well before you balance them together. This makes you focus on the right things from the start.
A major part of mixing (important mixing basics), is how to process the transients of sound sources that hit at the same time in the same frequency range. This is the kind of basics it pays off to learn really well - it is needed as soon as you advance to making mixes with more than one sound source in the mix, else you'll master the art of making mixes heavy and fatiguing to listen to.
The thing is that when you open up a new fresh empty Pro Tools session for the first time, it invites you to assign one sound source to one channel on the console. In other words, you automatically start mixing on mix scope and now you have already bypassed the basics of mixing and it won't sound that great at the end. The basics of mixing is really that you have a mix template setup that provides you with all the faders you need in order to effectively handle the frequencies you are going to mix, so that you can really balance all the individual sound sources well before you balance them together. This makes you focus on the right things from the start.
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Waltz Mastering
www.waltzmastering.com
Live kick drums.. maybe
Samples.. don't see the need.
Samples.. don't see the need.
WeissSound
Engineer
Completely depends on what you are trying to do. And how you are setting up your compression.
sonicologico
New member
I use layer kick too
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Good Times Ahead
Good Times Ahead
DVYCE gave one of the best answers that I can see, "mostly a waste of time and CPU/compressor/channel resources"
Modern DAWS have a habit of encouraging us to mix and master every single instrument instead of working in groups and over work each individual sound because of easy access to a near enough unlimited amount of channels.
I always like to remind myself that people were once doing it off 16, 8 or sometimes even 4 channel mixers and just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should, which means that my answers to you is, Yay! but also Nay! because it is all down to what you are trying to achieve.
Regardless of that, best of luck!
Modern DAWS have a habit of encouraging us to mix and master every single instrument instead of working in groups and over work each individual sound because of easy access to a near enough unlimited amount of channels.
I always like to remind myself that people were once doing it off 16, 8 or sometimes even 4 channel mixers and just because we can do something, doesn't mean we should, which means that my answers to you is, Yay! but also Nay! because it is all down to what you are trying to achieve.
Regardless of that, best of luck!
LightyEyez
Nintendo 64
I let my mastering chain do work on my kick drum.
BeatsByD
New member
Can you tell a little about how this plug in works ?
On one hand I do think it's overkill to do a parallel compression setup just for a single kick. I mean, you can do parallel compression on anything and everything. Where do you draw the line? If you do it with a kick, might as well do it with everything else. On the other hand, if it sounds good, it is good. But I wouldn't do it because it's just too much work and almost worthless since I can probably get the same thing with a single compression that has a "mix" function to mix the processed and not processed signals.
Marcos Pereira
New member
A compressão paralela, funciona muito bem!! Dependendo do som que se quer chegar no bumbo!