Your thoughts on Compression?(Mainly Drum Compression)

S

StanleySteamer

New member
Hey guys, so I recently switched of FL Studio and switched to maschine and have been loving it so far minus a few road blocks.

I am working on a beat and on the group settings you can add eqs and effects and what not to the whole group or you could do individual sounds whatever you like i'm sure maschine is not the only type of beat making software that allows this.

Anyways I have a drum compressor on the drums group so it effects all the drums I'm using and I was doing something where I accidentally removed or muted the compressor off the group it made my drums sound a whole lot less cloud/muddy and overall just like fat and too beefed up sounding I guess.

This could be for a number of reasons of course but I am just assuming it was the compression.

I've heard people say they love compression and then I have heard people say that outside of side chain compression they don't use it because its too much of a crutch and tends to make things muddy and cloudy, kind of similar to what I noticed. i was curious as to what you guys think about compression and how/if you apply it to your drums and what not?
 
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I am with Bruce Swedien as a staunch anti-compression advocate: I agree that a compressor is often used as a crutch in today's production environments. For the most part compressors are used to remove dynamic range rather than enhance it....

I won't record real drums with a compressor on, as proper gain staging at the start of the session will eliminate the need to do so.

I will rarely use a compressor to fix a dynamic problem preferring to revisit my MIDI velocity data first if I am using virtual drums or rerecording the whole kit if using a real drummer.

I even disagree with the idea of using a compressor to glue everything together in a mix; I prefer very subtle almost inaudible reverb to do that job
 
I don't see any reason to use compression on programmed drums unless you wanted to shape the tone of an element, and ideally you'd pick a different sample.

Maybe use it as an obvious effect to make a unique sound.

I do use parallel compression on snares If I want just a brutal, intense snare.
 
Most of the time you are going to use compression somewhere on drums, rather it be for glue, punch, tone, shape ect. ect.. If you want it to sound modern, you will use compressors.
 
how do you guys feel about side chain compression for bassline/808s to the kick? or side chaining a sample to duck below the kick as well? just a few side chaining techniques i've picked up and I'm just curious as to what u guys think.
 
There is nothing wrong with compression period, it was invented to make things go faster with workflow, instead of riding a fader you slap on a compressor and we also use it for color, control ect. Ain't nobody got time to go in and fader ride a while drum take.
 
People absolutely fader ride all kinds of takes. And I don't know for sure, but I doubt the invention of a compressor had anything to do with mixing a specific element of music.

It obviously makes more sense for a wild drum take, but hopefully the drummer doesn't play a wild take, and you shouldn't have a wild take on programmed drums.

Remember that bc has been doing this a long ass time and could probably get a group of people together that will nail a take and not need compression, or at the very least know to re-record it.

Some of us need a crutch. Or a wheelchair. Or a ****ing exo skeleton.
 
compressors were created for the radio industry (and are still used there) to ensure that the audio hitting the transmitters was not clipping before being modulated for broadcast.

their adoption in the audio industry was done solely to address issues where people did not have the time or patience to do things right, about the same time that modern pop took off in the late 1950's: consoles were not equipped to manage the higher dynamic ranges and higher spls of full bore drum kits and rather than get a drummer and others to play softer and thereby ruin the performance they adopted a technology to assist in managing the overall dynamic range.

As console technology expanded to cope with the wider dynamic ranges, most engineers opted to maintain their way of working instead of using gain staging to manage the problem. Some of this came back to working with tape as the medium used to store the recordings, but it was mostly I'll do what I know will work.

it is interesting to listen to early recordings of jazz and blues that were done direct to disk (recording straight to the acetate/reproduction medium) and hear that everything is well balanced and not OTT and still the drums have a wide dynamic range: no compressors in use at that time

Modern direct to disk recordings show similar dynamic ranges and also do not use compressors as part of the recording chain, so an obsession with compression only suggests to me that what these folks ar e really saying is "this is all I know how to fix this problem!....."
 
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I only use it if i need it and this is 2014 not the 70's. Most of the shit you hear on the radio is heavily compressed across the board. Not saying it's right or there isnt other ways to go about things but stop acting like compression is bad, if you can ehar it it's to much unless you are going for an effect. I do like some dynamics but lets face facts, who here actually produces Jazz?!?!? Not many, lets use real world situations for the people you are addressing.

Compressors were most certainly inveted to control the level of the signal rather its on the front end or not, how else would you control it before a compressor was invented? RIDING THE LEVEL manually.. smh.. unsubscribing to this thread now, demonizing compression is hilarious..
 
ah but you see I know of at least half a dozen jazz producers here

and my forays into direct to disk were actually rock n roll records high intensity amps and drumkits so please stop pretending that you know more than you do and accept that when it comes to audio you still need to learn a few things
 
Nutek Studios said:
I only use it if i need it and this is 2014 not the 70's. Most of the shit you hear on the radio is heavily compressed across the board. Not saying it's right or there isnt other ways to go about things but stop acting like compression is bad, if you can ehar it it's to much unless you are going for an effect. I do like some dynamics but lets face facts, who here actually produces Jazz?!?!? Not many, lets use real world situations for the people you are addressing.

Compressors were most certainly inveted to control the level of the signal rather its on the front end or not, how else would you control it before a compressor was invented? RIDING THE LEVEL manually.. smh.. unsubscribing to this thread now, demonizing compression is hilarious..
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In the old days they didn't have digital automation. There is nothing hard about riding a signal. An entire vocal track can only take long in perspective to compressing the signal. In reality it could take less than 5 minutes to ride a vox take with automation.

Also nobody has demonized compression. The only feelings expressed here were opinions and corrections of your random facts backed with no research.

James Trashy said:
I treat compression like a condiment. You want just a tad on everything.
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Uhh
 
Also worth mentioning I have produced a number of Jazz projects (The Downtown Shimmy recently, really great album for those who are Jazz-Blues inclined). I used compression on the drums for every song. They're live drums. But with Hip Hop and EDM projects compression isn't the same concept. It's not that compression is a bad thing on program drums, it's just they're usually already compressed and the producers are generally pretty careful about their drum choices. A lot of time the drums are pretty much right.
 
was that at the tracking stage or post-production???? i.e. capturing the sound or manipulating the sound????
 
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WeissSound said:
Also worth mentioning I have produced a number of Jazz projects (The Downtown Shimmy recently, really great album for those who are Jazz-Blues inclined). I used compression on the drums for every song. They're live drums. But with Hip Hop and EDM projects compression isn't the same concept. It's not that compression is a bad thing on program drums, it's just they're usually already compressed and the producers are generally pretty careful about their drum choices. A lot of time the drums are pretty much right.
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Totally agree, it does depend on the producer, i am the type that makes my sounds, sometimes i will grab a heavily processed sound sometimes i don't. I still find myself needing compression especially when laying or grouping, even if it's light. Sometimes i don't use it at all but at some point drums are going to see some compression at least in my mixes..
 
Since I love modern metal (and rock and metal in general) I use lots of compression yes.
But "lots" have a lot of different meanings.

Someone can use lots of it and destroy the signal for loudness but also use lots of it and
make it work .

I never choose loudness over dynamics, but compression for me really works for:

* Glueing (SSL Comp on Master Channel on 2 or 4 ratio for example)
* Color (1176 Bluey change the mids noticeably, as an example)
* Punch to the kick, snare, toms
* Making Synths work as one
* and so on

You can really use compressors without sacrificing the dynamic range too, but to enhance it, for "punch" as I said.
I also use compressors in series and splitting the signal into 2 to help the compressor work in a more gentle way.
The more compressors doesn't necessarily means more compression, it really depends on your settings and your Gain Reduction.
 
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