Final MIx Compression

[Gloryland Productions]

I am back to get my butt kicked again.

I would like some ideas on final mix compression. It is obvious to me, looking at the waveform of most recordings, that final mixes are compressed. However, I have yet to prefect the art. Due to my lack of touch, it seems to me that final mix compression is a detriment to my mix.

I would like to hear of successes, in terms of relative settings, methods, and procedures. Also is there recommended hardware?

[spicyitaliano]

The waveforms you're looking at most likely have gone through the process of mastering, which is (simply put) the final stage of music production, which involves compression/limiting and EQ to bring a unity in sound quality to all the songs. It ensures consistent volume levels throughout and will provide the most accurate reproduction of your mix from one sound system to another. After all, not everyone uses speakers with the quality of a typical studio monitor system.

In my own experience, I have found mastering to be an incredibly difficult artform to grasp. Mastering engineers are a different animal from the recording engineers. Mastering is an art and science that requires the ability to intently focus on the actual sonic quality of a final mix. And to be totally honest, I can't do that. That's why I'm a recording engineer. Cymbals a little dark? Give 'em some air around 14k. Bass guitar got some honk? Pull out some 350Hz. Your new female diva sound like a dying cat? Get a new singer. You see, this is how the recording engineer thinks. A mastering engineer uses a different though process. They have to sit down and truely analzye each and every little feature of a mix from top to bottom. On top of that, they have to compare one track to the next to ensure that they each carry the same sonic-quality DNA.

So where do you start? Probably by giving your mixes to a mastering engineer. And a real one, too. Hey I can master just fine, but I know that a true mastering engineer will work wonders. We all know names like Bob Ludwig and Ted Jenson, both of which are legendary mastering engineers with huge names under them, and both of which have mastered some of my projects. And let me say, they did an incredible job of breathing new life into my mixes. I could easily compare my rock tracks to the biggest rockers in the biz. Same with my hip-hop work. Dr. Dre's got nothin' on me. Except for some platinum albums, anyway.

But if you'd like to venture in this field on your own, which is totally cool, then you need to let us know what you're mastering and on what kind of system you plan to run it. Analog or digital system? Would you like hardware? Do you have the budget? Do you have the monitors? And most imprortantly, do you have the patience? Running a simple search on the sweetwater site for some gear will give you some ideas of what you can use out there. There's some great software out there, including compressors, limiters, and EQ. All of which do a fantastic job. Or if you'd like to go with hardware, names like Weiss and Avalon come up often.

So do some research and see what you learn. There's a wealth of knowledge out there on the web on this topic. And there's plenty right here, too.

Good Luck! :smokin:

[djui5]

I like the SSL compressors in the boards..

But if your going to comp the master buss, I'd recommend at first hitting it really really hard. Ratio of like 8:1, fast attack and slow release, hard knee. Get a feel for what it's doing, listen to how it affects the song. Comping a master buss is a lot different than comping say a bass track or something.
Then when you get an idea of what it's doing, set your ratio to 2-3:1, with a moderate attack and release. Adjust these on a song by song basis. This is a good way to make a song pump a little..make it breath.
Be carefull though..it's really easy to kill a song completely using compressors.



http://www.google.com/search?q=%22Compressing+the+stereo+buss