Why I'm WILD about horns and Dupstep

[88h88]

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd witness someone dancing the Charleston in a pair of candy kid rave trousers...

I need to have a lie down.

[Michael Ewald Hansen]

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd witness someone dancing the Charleston in a pair of candy kid rave trousers...

I need to have a lie down.

+1..

That was deeply disturbing

[loudsubz]

[zefrenm]

I never thought I'd see the day when I'd witness someone dancing the Charleston in a pair of candy kid rave trousers...

I need to have a lie down.

*thumbs up

[SirNickity]

Hey, not trying to be rude. Just one of those type it on the way out the door comments that apparently came off harshly.... sorry.

It's all good.

Compressors reduce dynamics. That is what they do.

Yeah, of course -- signal leveling is one of a compressor's most obvious uses.

But, you can take advantage of a slow attack so that you only process (compress) the signal after an initial slap (bass), pluck (guitar), consenant (vocal), or strike (drum). In effect, you accentuate -- or even manufacture -- dynamics by delaying the dynamic reduction until you have the transient you want, whether it existed in the raw sound or only from the sudden drop in volume after the compression kicks in. The psycho-acoustic effect of this being plenty of up-front presence without overwhelming the mix.

Waves (and others) have some compression demos on YouTube that show this. I'm not making this stuff up.

Maybe this is mixing 101 to everyone around here, but I feel compression gets a bad rap sometimes -- and rightfully so, when considered in the context of modern mastering practice. When I first started mixing, though, I didn't know about using it as a tool to enhance dynamics. I thought it was entirely negative. I also couldn't understand how experienced engineers got such clear, intelligible, snappy sound. When I learned about this, and tried it on some drums, it made a huge difference. There are enough inexperienced enthusiasts here that it could be the first time they've ever heard of it. I wish I had known from the start.

BTW, I like reverb on a snare too, but to me that seems like a different tool for a different job. I wouldn't use it on a kick, for instance. Compression emphasizes the initial thump, while keeping sustain under control. I.E., for kick sound more like "doomp doomp" rather than "boomp boomp". Even a well-damped drum can be tightened up a bit. And still keep its tits. Sometimes I listen to stuff from the 80s and 90s just to hear that sharp crack. Roger Waters - Radio KAOS is a great example. Now THAT album has dynamics.

[Titanium Hand]

Compression emphasizes the initial thump, while keeping sustain under control. I.E., for kick sound more like "doomp doomp" rather than "boomp boomp".

Now thats exciting. I've got to do me some research on this "Compression" device. I've seen in whilst using Ableton

[cheapbasslovin]

:::Too much stuff:::

And the lightbulb went off in my head. I had always thought of compression as a limiting and leveling tool, but never really as a limiting or leveling tool. This makes the attack control have an entirely different meaning to me. Thanks.