Multibandcompression On Master, Where To Split The Bands And How Much To Compress?

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petrus250

New member
Hello,

I've been making music for years now, everything from blues to metal, now I'm more into electronic music. One thing I've never been 100% about is the multiband compression, usually I split the lowest band where I can't hear the snare, and compress the bass a few db, and give it some db's of make-up gain. Especially the other bands, I'm not so sure about where to split? I usually make a very small compression at the hi-mids and also at the very highs. Any knowledge or thumb rules on this?
 
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maximum of 4 bands beyond that there are diminishing returns

look up 4-way crossover systems for live sound and take some hints from what they believe to be the optimum crossover frequencies

you are essentially looking at lows, low mids, high mids and highs

If I were to use one I would be looking at 150Hz, 600Hz and 2.4kHz as my 3 crossover freqs., giving each band roughly 2 octaves of coverage
 
I understand, and how much do you usually compress? I see that you are very active in this community, do you have a Soundcloud or YouTube account?
 
Why use a multiband compressor on the mix at all? I've never used it on the master channel, and of the hundreds of records I've had mastered by pro masterers the most multiband they've used on my mix is a bit of de-ess. And even that has been rare.
 
WeissSound said:
Why use a multiband compressor on the mix at all? I've never used it on the master channel, and of the hundreds of records I've had mastered by pro masterers the most multiband they've used on my mix is a bit of de-ess. And even that has been rare.
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It's a way to compress dynamics in different frequencies areas. It can give the song a different feel and help to achieve loudness.
 
petrus250 said:
I understand, and how much do you usually compress? I see that you are very active in this community, do you have a Soundcloud or YouTube account?
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I usually do not compress as I view compression as method for taming dynamics rather than sculpting a sound without dynamics

WeissSound said:
Why use a multiband compressor on the mix at all? I've never used it on the master channel, and of the hundreds of records I've had mastered by pro masterers the most multiband they've used on my mix is a bit of de-ess. And even that has been rare.
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I don't, but if someone wants to it helps if they have some guidance

I have used alligator - a 3 band gate device - to create some interesting vocal effects in reason 6/6.5 but tend to leave multiband anything alone unless working with a pa system
 
petrus250 said:
It's a way to compress dynamics in different frequencies areas. It can give the song a different feel and help to achieve loudness.
Click to expand...

What exactly are you doing with the multi-band compressor? Are you using it on a stereo track within the mix, maybe a sample of something?

Or are you talking about using it on the stereo buss? i.e. applying it to your entire mix?

I ask because using it on the stereo buss to control dynamics seems counter-productive, since you already have full control of all the dynamics by mixing to the balance you want. Use the faders.

But if you're stuck with a pre-recorded track of which you have no control over the levels, then it might make sense to use it.
 
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Hosey said:
What exactly are you doing with the multi-band compressor? Are you using it on a stereo track within the mix, maybe a sample of something?

Or are you talking about using it on the stereo buss? i.e. applying it to your entire mix?

I ask because using it on the stereo buss to control dynamics seems counter-productive, since you already have full control of all the dynamics by mixing to the balance you want. Use the faders.

But if you're stuck with a pre-recorded track of which you have no control over the levels, then it might make sense to use it.
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I use a lot of multibandcompression, not just on my master. But I was mainly talking about the master-stereo-output. I don't think it ruins dynamics, because when we talk about mastering, we are talking about very subtle changes. I just compress a few db's with a ratio from 1 to 3 and use it to cut of the very high peaks in the mix.

Compressing the bass area is important to me, this will make the bass more even trough the whole song, and it doesn't peak around.

I've used multibandcompression on all my tracks I've made from 2013.

https://soundcloud.com/petrus250
https://soundcloud.com/heavyelectronix
 
Hosey said:
What exactly are you doing with the multi-band compressor? Are you using it on a stereo track within the mix, maybe a sample of something?

Or are you talking about using it on the stereo buss? i.e. applying it to your entire mix?
Click to expand...

Multiband compressors are commonly used where singleband compressors give nasty surprises, very often on sounds where the bass can cause the compressor to act on higher frequencies.
Though there could be more cases when it's good to use it, that I've forgotten.
 
Most of the time, you want to use a MBC when you do not have access to the individual frequencies. If you just want to tighten up the bass, do so at the track level. If you have different tracks that you want to tighten up together, group them and compress there.
 
sleepy said:
Most of the time, you want to use a MBC when you do not have access to the individual frequencies. If you just want to tighten up the bass, do so at the track level. If you have different tracks that you want to tighten up together, group them and compress there.
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parallel processing and parallel compression, huh?

i.e. process each frequency band as part of its own channel in sw or hardware

Flint said:
Anyone have suggestions on a free open source multi band compressor for pro tools
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picks from the first page of this search at kvr audio

KVR: MjMultibandCompressor by Smart Electronix - Details

KVR: Multiband by mda - Details

KVR: C3 Multi Band Compressor by slim slow slider - Details
 
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