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dylanf
Guest
guys , to see how much compression a sound needs , is it all in the ear ?
No, it's in the eyes too. You can actually see on the waveform how stacked the transients really are and if you have a sound cloud full of just transients but no bottom to it, then you have no good music to listen to, just attacks. I would even say that it is better to have the wave form(s) totally smooth and then gradually add dynamics from there, than to do it the opposite way.
And it's also to a GREAT degree in the monitoring. If you have really good monitoring, you can come really far with just the volume faders. Compression has sort of become a replacement for good monitoring. Don't get me wrong, compression is needed, but you are much less dependent on them if you have a killer sounding monitoring environment to work in.
If you have a good reference mix that you love, print out its waveform and study it well. That will give you an idea of what kind of transient characteristics produce that kind of sound.
I encourage you to try to become as little dependent on compressors as you can by improving the quality of your monitoring and balancing. That will allow for more gentle compression, which also means you do not lose the transient details required for a crisp, clear and interesting sound.
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