{"id":582,"date":"1999-08-30T00:00:00","date_gmt":"1999-08-30T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/?p=582"},"modified":"2007-04-27T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2007-04-27T00:00:00","slug":"compress-drum-tracks","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/www.sweetwater.com\/sweetcare\/articles\/compress-drum-tracks\/","title":{"rendered":"Why should I compress the drum tracks?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Today’s question comes from one of our readers in Germany: “Everywhere, I hear about compressing the drum tracks in mixing. But how do I set up the compressor, at which threshold, attack value, release time etc.? Why should I compress the drum tracks? Do you have any suggestions about when to compress and how to do it?” HEY! That’s three questions. And mighty big questions they are. First, I suggest you read through our Drum Recording Summit entries, as there are some good tidbits of information in there. The biggest problem is understanding why or why not to compress in the first place. While this is largely a matter of personal taste, drum tracks often do sit better in a mix if they’ve been compressed somewhat. Compressing can deliver a fatter, more full and controlled sound. But we have to remember that a compressor technically does little more than reduce the dynamic range of a signal. In modern recording a little of this goes a long way. The side effects of altered attack, more sustain, pumping, and breathing are often more obvious results of using a compressor and are where the art of using one really makes the difference between it doing something good or bad to your sound. There are so many situations, signals, types and brands of compressors with different capabilities and quality levels that it’s hard to really go into any detail about how to set the knobs that would apply to them all. This is like asking how to play a song on a guitar. There’s no substitute for learning what each control really does and experimenting until you understand the impact on the sound coming through it.If, like many people, the prospect of really learning the details of how and why compressors do what they do seems daunting, there is still an easy way you can use one. I rarely endorse specific products in Technical Tip of the Day, but the Blue Max compressor from PreSonus is an excellent sounding compressor that actually has presets for various instruments and applications. It still has all the controls if you ever want to dig in to it, but the presets sound really, really good and it’s very inexpensive.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","categories":[],"tags":[],"storecat":[],"itemids":[],"manufacturers":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n