1. Don’t compress everything 2. Compress bus first, not individual tracks 3. Compress first, then eq (if it sounds good) 4. Fast Attack = Aggressive 5. Release Time = Tone 6. Level Match Signal - input to output
If it sounds good there's no need to Eq it...And even at times yr vocal can come out good not needing Eq or Compression...Lol..But looking at the fact that we recording in our rooms,We'll Eq and compress a lot
@@HomeStudioCorner Love your videos! I'll be sure to give you a shoutout when I inevitably get knighted for my amazing mixing skills. I'll have to actually FINISH a project, move to the UK (unless Americans can get knighted), and learn what all these pretty buttons do but all that shouldn't take more than a few weeks
@@HomeStudioCorner Yes, indeed, made me think of someone who also thought atonal music is an abomination as an indisputable fact, who actually is quite (in)famous for committing war crimes, in fact he might be one of the most (in)famous men of history, he too was quite a master of powerful communication.
I thought I was going to dismiss this video pretty quick. Ended up watching the whole thing, taking notes, and subscribing. Great walkthrough, loved the way you explained attack (aggression) and release (tone). And really needed that point about level matching.
I've been learning mixing for years, though magazines and online courses, but this explanation of the compressor is the clearest I've come across. Very understandable!
It's worth differentiating "aggressive compression" from an "aggressive sound." Aggressive compression will kill all transients (zero attack), but an aggressive sound has strong transients (nonzero attack).
Joe, this is one of the finest (if not THE finest) tutorials on Compression that I have ever seen. Your visual approach and explanation on how to view the Attack and Release knobs was excellent; clear and memorable. Always look forward to your videos.
Your narratives and excellent translation on how to apply compression has really helped to understand this complex and quite often contentious subject matter much better. Thank you so much! ❤
Depends on the context. Sometimes when your ratio is set to high the signal loses its dynamic character, especially true with vocals, and things sound monotone and bleh
But in modern music genres, you actually intentionally want that compression. Like Metal or EDM or anything else really, including pop. Sometimes they even throw a multiband compressor + regular compression + bus compression (like a glue comp) + parallel compression. Of course over-doing it is bad, but subtle compression is still there. Plus a lot of "dynamics" in modern music is pretty much fake-d out.
There are always beginner and expert explainers, but rarely anything in between, for music or any other topic. You've struck a good balance in delivering general knowledge (instead of miopic tutorials) for everyone between beginner & expert.
Joe, this with, 'butter compression' and the K series limiter videos were to me, the MOST helpful videos I've come across. I can't tell you what a difference it made on my mixes. I was driving myself crazy with every inserted plugin. I also would make an observation on compressing individual tracks rather than squashing everything at the master buss. Your K video was having the tumblers lined up to open the safe. Man, I can't thank you enough
Except the good/bad rule kinda works the opposite way. What he's describing in Rule 3 is literally just a linear amplifier. Whereas compressors take the loudest elements and turn them down, bringing them closer in level to the quietest elements; making the whole signal lower. To compensate people apply make-up gain to bring the overall level back up, except now the ratio between good and bad or louder and softer elements is smaller (they are closer together in amplitude). There are still plenty of reasons why one would want to eq before compressing or vice versa, especially affecting how the compressor is going to behave. LPF and HPFs also play a different role in this relationship than bell/shelf parametric eq.
Love the drawing, Joe - It makes the concepts much clearer than showing it in an actual plugin (for me anyway) Thx for making a complex topic easier to comprehend.
Man I had so much struggle really understanding all of this and in 12 min you litterally learned me what I tried to learn in over a year. You have my support ❤
Dude. This was just PACKED FULL of info. So many people will not get into the breakdowns like this. Ive gotten around a DAW fairly well but still didn’t realize about the gain being designed to level the volume for a comparison. The in and outputs need to be the same or else we aren’t hearing it right. Man Joe..... Really helpful bud!
I have seen many compression videos in this last month and i can bet that no one has ever explained this topic so crystal and clear. Good job sir. Thank you.
This is great, the concepts of attack/aggression and release/tone clarify me about the process of compression. Thanks Joe!! God bless you !! i'm from Chile !!
So would you out say 2 different guitars into a bus? I'm brand new to using them so trying to figure out best practices. I'm mostly recording 2 or 3 guitar parts, bass and drums. Bus all the drums makes sense but the guitars? Definitely not the bass, right?
Wayne Owen you can group anything, as long as it makes sense. For example you can group all your rhythm guitars (call it Rhythm Guitar Bus, for example). Process it. Then if you have lead guitars, you can do the same. Then send those 2 groups into a main group called Guitars. As long as you have a purpose and you are improving your mix, use the tools. Regarding the bass, if it’s just one track, then leave it alone. Again, unless you have a purpose for grouping guitars and bass together, don’t do it. They have different purposes in the mix. Even for drums, I tend to group all tracks and leave the kick separate
Leonardo Druscovich you don’t need the right type of compressor if it sounds bad and change your compressor it will also sound bad even if you have a totally different compressor it’s not your year that’s bad it’s your songs learn mixing
Yes. You're right. Some compressors are transparent and are sensitive to micro-dynamics, with a hard knee... some are opto, which means they use the incoming audio to feed a lighting element; this will create some inherent delay in the response. Some describe this as smooth and musical. There are many styles of compressors for different jobs to ensure that you have a good mix... but I'm pretty sure You knew that ;)
@@meow_meow_J there are different types of compressors. There's Clean(a.ka. Transparent), Opto, Pumping, Vintage(with coloration), etc... And there two kinds of compressor, wideband and multiband. Choosing the right type of compressor is essential for getting the right type of sound you want to achieve. Moreover, on that "sound bad" part, it seems you got over the fact that it was already discussed in the video. In his on words, "If it sounds good, compress. If it sounds bad, EQ or get it right at the source".
I literally disagree on some level with every single rule. I can’t believe no one in the comments has had any disagreement with the rules. #1 The primary purpose of compression is to manage the dynamic range of individual instruments, groups of instruments and the overall mix. Sure, part of that includes how you effect the attack, sustain and tonality of what you are compressing, which you get to later. However, if all of the instruments have too wide a dynamic range it can be hell to hear all of the instruments without riding the sliders constantly. You should decide how many instruments to compress based off of your ear. You may also make a decision to try to get things to a certain consistent level. However I would still say, you should never make a rule that may or may not be appropriate for you mix. USE YOUR EARS to decide how much compression should be used and what you should and shouldn’t compress. #2 Compressing a bus may be the right decision to make, however, it WILL affect the integrity of your performance, particularly when used on a drum performance as shown. Nuance will be the first thing to go. You like those ghost notes on the snare that help drive that groove. When you do group compression without compressing individual drums first, the louder drums your hitting will cause peaks that will engage the compressor, thus cutting down the whole kit and covering up that subtle snare or hi hat pattern. #3 I thought we might get some next level info here on the signal chain and wether or not you want compression to come first before your tone shaping. That’s not what happened. I will tell you handling that correctly is a very important thing. For instance, if you have a muddy bass guitar and you compress first, the compressor will engage more with the deeper heavier stuff you play, which will change the sound. If you EQ first (order of effects), then compress, your compression will have a more natural sound. It also matters how much coloration you are getting from your EQ. If you’re using a plug in that gives a bit of grit, for instance, compression first will make that grit quality happen more consistently. If you compress after you’ll get less of that effect but a more balanced level. #4 He explained this just the opposite of the way this effect works for many compressors, thus it shouldn’t be a sure fire rule. For instance, some compressors allow the signal to pass thru UNTIL the compressor engages. That means, that initial attack sneaks thru when your attack time is later NOT sooner. I’ve also dealt with compressors where the attack knob had nothing to do with the compressors attack time and just changed the tonality, making it rounder or have a certain sharpness. Attack should not be simplified down to equaling aggression. #5 Release does not affect “Tone” at all. It has everything to do with SUSTAIN!!! It also affects how quickly the compressor sort of resets. A slow release on a bass guitar, for instance, might be good for long open sections in a piece. Maybe he goes to some long whole notes to make room for a long open solo section for a guitarist and you want to keep the bottom end and support there. It will slowly ride the bass gain up. Then again, if you’re setting the release for a snare you probably want it fast because the instrument doesn’t ring out that long any ways. You aren’t increasing its sustain necessarily. You may be affecting its snappiness or crack by letting the initial stick hit come thru then the tonality of the compressor warms up the resonance that follows it, giving a nice balanced sound. #6 This rule is only useful in ONE circumstance... When you are comparing the before and after of the effect you’ve created with the compressor. You don’t understand what compression is doing if you even believe that you even can “Match” the levels. Compression’s main job is to literally change the levels! If you even can match your levels, your compressor isn’t engaged. Generally speaking, it’s wise to set your compressors output to as loud as possible without clipping, for noise purposes. A mastering engineer (who almost exclusively uses EQ and compression to touch up your overall mix) would NEVER set his compressor to “level match”. The object is to get good consistent levels. This is the first “negative” post I have ever made on RU-vid. However, for the common good of my fellow musicians and sound people I felt obligated to do so. There are SOME usable ideas in this video. However, that is not the way it is titled. The video calls these ideas RULES. Again, I couldn’t disagree more. Now roast me.
Thanks for this comment. I was also surprised by some of these guidelines but as you say while there are some useful ideas here, we should take everything with a grain of salt. Anyway, it's nice to have a counterpoint to this video in order to think critically about what we're doing!
Firstly This was fun! roast me back Okay the audience for this video are home studio all in the box people it seems. Let's keep that in mind. And also it looks like you're agreeing with the video a lot. However #6 I heavily disagree with you. #1 "You should decide how many instruments to compress based off of your ear." 1:30 "just because you LOOK at your insert area and see there's nothing there doesn't mean you should put something there." aka use your ears #2 "Nuance will be the first thing to go" 3:51 "The important thing here is just to try it first" he's suggesting just trying it first and then going in and compressing individual tracks. If the drum part is just some 4 on the floor pattern then you'll probably stop at the bus. If it's some Gavin Harrison player then you'll move on to compressing every track. Both your point and his points work well together. #3 " if you have a muddy bass guitar and you compress first, the compressor will engage more with the deeper heavier stuff you play, which will change the sound" 4:58 "if we use some EQ (before compression) we can turn those bad frequencies down a little bit (before compression boosts the whole signal)." Again literally the same thing. muddy frequencies are bad. EQ them out before compression #4 are you talking about the attack of the sound or the attack of the compressor? He's talking about the attack of the compressor and it seems like youre talking about the attack of a sound. Also we're not really talking about analog compressors here everyone of those is different and finicky and the audience here are home studio people. #5 okay I agree with this to a certain extent but I think his vocal performance (haha) made that pretty clear what release does. However I agree with everything you're saying in your #5. These are great suggestions for beginners. However, what you're saying still lines up with the video #6 okay hold up nope. The man is talking about peak levels. There is no compressor plug in I've come across which has a good auto make up gain. You need to A/B compressors while they're *peaking at the same dBs because compressors are about turning the levels of the loudest sounds down and keeping the quietest sounds the same. So you need to adjust for this and turn the whole signal up in order to have the peaks be at about the same level they were before compression. This way you can really isolate exactly what the compressor is doing and use your ears better. Lastly, he literally in the first minute he explains that these rules are meant to be pushed against and this is just how he does it. again, roast me back!
@@almdmilk Thanks man, you saved me a lot of typing. I was going to say all this. On Rule 6, he also says match them so they SOUND the same, not so that they are scientifically moving the exact same cubic meters of air molecules in an isolated room played with a flat response driver in an theoretically perfect enclosure. And if you, as a mixing engineer, cannot level match your pre- and post- compressed signal by ear, perhaps it's time to take on painting? (see the roast? painting, pffff)
Yeah, there are some amazing atonal pieces, but after listening to a few pieces featuring 3 violin players scratching their strings, swinging their heads around awkwardly and “caw”ing at each other + the audience, I can understand writing off the entire practice as a waste of energy. In Uni, it seems like the art version of modern Critical Race Theory & Gender Studies: a joke. But one that, on occasion, raises an important point.
I tried tons of videos to understand what's behind the subtle art of compression, but yours is far above everything i saw, even in my native language (french)! Really love the drawing style explaination and now i can know what i do when i use release and attack, instead of turning buttons pretty much randomly... Thank you Joe, you're the magic! (So guess what? I subscribed!)
@@diamonddavemc Dont listen to anybody do whatever you want just be realistic and dont expect it to go platinum. Experimental music and art is necessary and he's wrong there's some atonal that isn't even that bad, it's just obviously a different listening experience.
yeah I think this is going to be useful. It's a clear description of a lot of concepts of compression that I haven't really got my head around yet - but this I think will help me to figure out what I'm aiming for with compression and how to get there.
This video taught me in a few minutes what I couldn’t get right for years asking many people or reading on the matter. So clearly explained, love it man! Cheers from Costa Rica.
Your explanations and visualizations are absolutely top class. I have read and watched so much about this topic - and no one has ever managed to explain the matter so clearly and understandable. This has opened new doors and gates for me. Many thanks! greetings from Switzerland
Nearly all Beatles sessions had bus Compressors on drums Just one good Compressor and master bus with a stereo fairchild which gives a natural open but still breathing mix! Over Processing Just kills the mixes. And commiting the sound at first place is a key to that... Thanks for your tips Joe Love your content
Can I just say. I am absolutely blown away by these masterclasses. In a metaverse contaminated by millions and billions of tutorials, kids talking garb-ash, with the fanciest setups you cool ever imagined. (Must confess I watched many) we are gifted to come across the simplicity and clarity of Joe’s videos. With nothing else than pen and paper. The imaginary he provides makes visible the invisible boosting the cognitive processes of the viewer -is just pure mastery, effective pedagogy and outstanding subject knowledge. Special mention goes to that very moment when the + - feature of the stylus app/pen, is used by Joe to explain the concept behind rule 3. Simply GENIUS. Keeps you wondering if Joe planned this beforehand or was a discovery of the moment? Looking forward to seeing more. Diego xx from London
Such GREAT visuals to explain beautifully!!!! Best tutorial I've seen in a long time. Rule #3 gave me an aha moment - even though I already intellectually knew this. Something just clicked. Thx for a great vid!
I’m a complete novice and I understood this! That’s rare 😂 but seriously, this really helped, thank you. Instant subscription 👌🏻 and now I’ll work my way through everything you’ve posted!
as a drummer / sound designer / mix engineer been scouring the internet for years learning tips and tricks, along with time spent observing and studying with older pros and this is hands down the most informative best channel with killer info. amazing, instant sub.
