Infinitoar.
The TelenatorThis comes from the guy who is a leader in fighting the battle against the “Loudness Wars.” You may have heard about some of this. If you want a quick tutorial, just TRY to listen to Metallica’s compressed-to-death And Justice for All!
I’ve followed Ian’s comments for quite a while, and can testify that his mixing and mastering advice is always on the money. For a younger fellow, he is actually rather conservative in his views regarding engineering and production. In any case, he’s also pushing a new book these days, and I wish him all the best. Meanwhile, he has been dumping all manner of good info that pertains directly to our own efforts in his effort to also gain expose for his book. (No worries — he won’t junk mail you incessantly!)
I found this 1-hour free webinar very accurate and enjoyable. It first aired last year, and it was a bit tough to get a view of it back then. If you find this of interest, you will certainly enjoy his various other pages, his studio blogs in particular.
With so many would-be experts currently on the Net giving all manner of mixing and mastering advice (some of it directly opposite what the next will say), I thought it might be helpful to post an example of someone who has his head on straight in this dodgy subject. It can be hard at times to weed out the bad info on the internet, so here is one who has:
http://productionadvice.co.uk/mwmbc-webinar/
Disclaimer: I am in no way financially associated with Mr. Shepard or his studio.
kim_otcjYes. The only time I ever use multiband compression on an entire track is when I do live recordings of my band. And I only use it then because the music isn’t multi-tracked.
If I have to use compression, I’ll do it on individual tracks while I’m mixing. That way, at least, I’m not killing all the dynamics on the song.
InfinitoarIf I may add:
The only time I use compression is on my snare and kick drums. And only if I’m layering drum samples, and even then the compression I use does not kill the overall dynamics of the audio. Because as I also learned, your audio needs to breathe still, have “body”. Not be balled up and silenced.[thank goodness for YouTube]
I’ve learned a LOT during my self teachings for music production.[without going to any school for it, mind you] I told a fellow artist this [and I unfortunately love this movie] and it 100% relates to my quest for making decent or even my own greatest scores in my musical future:
James Cameron’s: AVATAR
Jake: “With Neytiri it’s learn fast, or die.”
This is how I view my life as an solo artist. Learn fast or my future as a musician could “die”. 😉
But on the topic of compression I know how to use it, and do’s and don’t’s! However as always Telenator, it’s good to read your posts from time to time, seeing how you are still helping those you can, who will pay attention. 🙂
The TelenatorIf you investigate Ian and his whole approach more thoroughly, you will discover that he is of your inclinations regarding compression; HOWEVER, he has entered the realm of mastering engineer in the last few years and is subject to the egos and demands of the artists who say, “make it louder, much louder, we’re paying you” and etc.
I’ve been in this dodgy bind, tho I don’t master (not yet anyway!), just mix for others on a select basis (read: only when artist is good friend, I need the money, someone in bad shape musically needs help, somebody got a bad job at the referred place, etc.)
I hope you understand that compression — when subtle and used sparingly — can actually help your music to breathe. It is very misunderstood. It is NOT just to control clipping/levels or make overall project louder as most think.
Every comp has a sound of its own, too. I have just reviewed some dozen of them and put 2/3 of them in my shredder. But the ones I kept? Ooooh! Sound to die for.
Finally, at least a touch of comp (multi flavoured is the only way to go in mastering), is almost a requirement to glue a whole CD of tunes together, keep levels and feel the same throughout all, and more. Brick wall limiting is practically a must, too. I never go above 1dB headroom on peak (This leaves space for the inevitable intersample clipping that WILL occur.) Next, I maintain a minimum of 6dB of dynamic range. An unfortunate exception as an example that I made to that is my friend Joe wanted his vocals in your face and pushed for a DR of about 3, and he paid the price (this should be the last tune I posted in Tunes here on forum I believe — listen for the squash and the small but audible distortion on it. I have since repaired it some but still sucks IYAM.) Anyway, 6 is well away from the ‘loudness wars’ but a good 6 or so shy of classical music dynamics. But I do rock and rock blues, so I rarely have such pianissimo passages — i.e., I try to rock (even at my age, laddies). Ian goes for 8dB, unless someone has a gun to his head, which is more often than you might imagine.
Whatever your thoughts, don’t sell compression short. It definitely has its place per channel some, at the mix, and multi-comp at mastering time. (And thank yourself you didn’t go to one of those magazine ad sound eng. schools, infinitoar! Few are taught by the real masters; most are a bunch of kids teaching how to squeeze the life out and take you to the war — and perhaps 1.5dB dynamic range, which is no dynamics at all really.)
All the best to you in your decisions, infinitoar. If it makes you feel any better, Podium just ate one of my projects whole when I went to switch ASIOs in order to test a theory. Fortunately, it was my MIDI test field tracks, and wouldn’t you know it but I saved another version of it a couple weeks ago by mistake!!! Oh, BTW, I am about to post a rather long review of Podium and some important issues that need facing. It is all written before our evening dinner, so I just need to enter it shortly. I think you may find it of interest. Cheers!
InfinitoarI learned from YouTube, this video to only use -4dB on single tracks and never go beyond -4dB.
Also I never go beyond +2dB on my single tracks either. If I have to, like the vid says, I re-mix the track, OR I look within the plugin to see if something is causing the dramatic increase in audio.[chances are that could be the culprit]
I just don’t rely on one vid either, I have tons of vids I’ve overviewed, and viewed in general NUMEROUS times. This gave me a “overall common technique” view of what to do. Plus of course, like my mentor, I discovered learning on my own and doing research keeps an open mind on you not thinking from what you learned in school, “Hey this is how this was done, and this is the only way it SHOULD BE done!” I’m not saying school is “bad”, but there is a LOT of things in life you can learn on your own without going to school. I know many successful musicians, even some I actually talk to, that have never touched a SAE College[“Sound, Audio Engineering” for those who read and want to know] and make amazing mixes. This only inspired me to do the same. 🙂
The only compressors I use are MeldaCompressor[rarely], FabFilter Pro-C[frequently] and Stardust by Arguru Software [moderately and I use it on my Master Chain]
And I know about making sure you music “breathes” and leaves dynamic range. I don’t like overcompressed music anyway. 😛
Honestly, it does not make me feel better that you are having problems with Podium. But of course if I say anything, critically judging Podium or Podium Free, well…I’ll just leave it at that…[you can most likely “guess”]
Anyway hope you can relate to what I do in the video![Note: I do not follow the video to the “letter” but some of those techniques I use and it helps a lot! 🙂 ]