good writeup. Long, but good. Talking in circles, but you are correct. and incorrect too.
the key here is using compression correctly. You can compress everything if you want and if it is what the mix is called for. The issue is that many use compression incorrectly. I think the correct answer is to learn what your tools do before you use them everywhere. But, telling people not to compress everything is wrong. Telling them to compress everything is wrong too. They should compress what they need to compress and compress correctly.
So… good answer, just clarifying.
[quote]Roben (05/01/2011)[hr]CLICK ME!! SONIC ACADEMY COMPRESSION VIDEOS
Well Jon, I know you already know what a compressor is and what it does, so since you’re humouring me, i’ll humour you too, since it’l no doubt benefit members of the site possibly reading this.
[quote]Jon_fisher (05/01/2011)[hr]if essentially a compressor is simply a volume controller how can a compressor ruin the sound ? [/quote]
Firstly it comes down to what you’re compressing, is it a single sound hit? Or a audio loop? Or even a synth midi?
Compression at it’s core is about leveling out the audio that’s going into it. So for example, take an audio loop, in that loop there will be low and high peaks at each of it’s transients. Some pretty hard compression on that could take those lower peaks and those higher peaks and level them off to peak around the same level, of course how much is all dependant on how much you’re compressing it.
Why can this be bad? Think of a live drummer, when he hits his drum not every sound will be hit at the exact same velocity, this is what is known as ‘dynamics’.
If you’re hard compressing, you’ll take away those dynamics, now this can be a good thing if you want that effect, but generally it’s not nice, especially if you’re doing it to a full track, it takes away that organic sound. A track with good dynamics is much more enjoyable to listen to than a track that is heavily compressed. *google ‘loudness war’.
How about a single sound? Ok well for a quick example lets take a kick sound, compressing that kick with a fast attack will take away the punch of the kick, this ruins the sound as with kicks you want them to be punchy.
There are plenty of other ways you can ruin audio with a compressor if you don’t know what you’re doing so it’s important to watch the video above and get an idea what each of the parameters of your compressor does before applying it to your sound.
[quote]Jon_fisher (05/01/2011)[hr]
is there anything else i could do instead of using a compressor if i don’t know what I’m doing ?
[/quote]
Your question doesn’t make any sense? What are you trying to achieve?
If you don’t know what you’re doing then find out what it is you’re trying to achieve and turn to YouTube or the Sonic Academy forums, they are your friend.
[quote]Jon_fisher (05/01/2011)[hr]
and how can i control the sound with out and peaks with out a compressor ?[/quote]
If you want to control the peaks then a compressor or limiter is there to help, but have some kinda idea what you’re doing otherwise you’re just dropping something willy nilly onto something without any idea why or what it’s doing, or even if it’s doing anything at all.
For example, if your threshold is too high and the peaks of the audio going into it isn’t reaching that threshold then you’re compressor isn’t actually doing anything as it will only apply it’s compression to anything that reaches the threshold, not under.
If you don’t want to use compressor or limiter then you could manually automate your volume along that particular channel, which in some cases can even be the better option (depending on the sound your modulating and the effect you’re trying to achieve).
If you don’t know what compression is or what it does and you’re serious about music production, i’d advise doing some serious research.
On all that note, just to remind you that how your attack, release, threshold, ratio is set will change how your compressor acts upon the audio, and can - if not used properly - dramatically change the sound for better or for worse.[/quote]
thanks roben, that was exactly what i wanted you to do and yes i was humouring you but it was for the benefit of people reading the thread.
also this part
[quote]Jon_fisher (05/01/2011)[hr]
is there anything else i could do instead of using a compressor if i don’t know what I’m doing ?
[/quote]
Your question doesn’t make any sense? What are you trying to achieve?
If you don’t know what you’re doing then find out what it is you’re trying to achieve and turn to YouTube or the Sonic Academy forums, they are your friend.
ok so it probably wasn’t worded correctly but there are people that don’t work well with compressors for what ever reason they seem to over complicate the process but there are still ways they can control what they are creating by simple use of both automation or velocity, also if they are using a synth you can use the ADSR and also the filter and/or res to help a sound fit easier.
[quote]Jon_fisher (06/01/2011)[hr] for what ever reason they seem to over complicate the process but there are still ways they can control what they are creating by simple use of both automation or velocity, also if they are using a synth you can use the ADSR and also the filter and/or res to help a sound fit easier.
[/quote]
Nail on head!
[quote]howiegroove (06/01/2011)[hr]They should compress what they need to compress and compress correctly.
[/quote]
That’s what i was saying lol 
[quote]Roben (05/01/2011)[hr]Try not to compress everything guys, if it doesn’t need it, don’t use it.[/quote]
But you said this… Personally, I compress almost everything. How much is another story.
Interesting thread!
I think John mentioned this but I just wanted to ask this question:
Before I ask, I’m going to assume you can do it based on what has already been said in this thread i.e. if the mix calls for it then yes.
Question…
Could you EQ a sound, compress the EQ’d sound then EQ that?
So the chain would be EQ/Compress/EQ.
Of course you could!
[quote]djc4 (06/01/2011)[hr]Interesting thread!
I think John mentioned this but I just wanted to ask this question:
Before I ask, I’m going to assume you can do it based on what has already been said in this thread i.e. if the mix calls for it then yes.
Question…
Could you EQ a sound, compress the EQ’d sound then EQ that?
So the chain would be EQ/Compress/EQ.[/quote]
Yes
Thanks Roben.
Eq it squash it add a vocoder reverse it eq it turn it upside down add some reverb and compress it again bounce it down lol
[quote]djc4 (06/01/2011)[hr]Interesting thread!
I think John mentioned this but I just wanted to ask this question:
Before I ask, I’m going to assume you can do it based on what has already been said in this thread i.e. if the mix calls for it then yes.
Question…
Could you EQ a sound, compress the EQ’d sound then EQ that?
So the chain would be EQ/Compress/EQ.[/quote]
sure can and some producers would say thats probably the best way to get a full bass sound, firstly you would cut the frequencies you didn’t want then compress the sound and lastly use a eq to boost anything that the compressor may have taken away or just to simply add a little something.
[quote]Jon_fisher (06/01/2011)[hr][quote]djc4 (06/01/2011)[hr]Interesting thread!
I think John mentioned this but I just wanted to ask this question:
Before I ask, I’m going to assume you can do it based on what has already been said in this thread i.e. if the mix calls for it then yes.
Question…
Could you EQ a sound, compress the EQ’d sound then EQ that?
So the chain would be EQ/Compress/EQ.[/quote]
sure can and some producers would say thats probably the best way to get a full bass sound, firstly you would cut the frequencies you didn’t want then compress the sound and lastly use a eq to boost anything that the compressor may have taken away or just to simply add a little something.[/quote]
Thanks Jon, that’s useful.
The only thing eqing before compressor will effect is the threshold of the compressor.
So if you say boost the highs before the compressor its more likly that when it hits a part of the sound with high frequencies it will trigger the threshold. This may or may not be desirable.
If you eq after the comp. You wont be effecting when the threshold will trigger.
As always best bet is to try out both befote and after and decide what sounds better.
[quote]Jon_fisher (05/01/2011)[hr]if essentially a compressor is simply a volume controller how can a compressor ruin the sound ?
is there anything else i could do instead of using a compressor if i don’t know what I’m doing ?
and how can i control the sound with out and peaks with out a compressor ?[/quote]
Jon, thank you for asking these questions… because there are 50 different ways to do one thing in music production, although it’s easy to understand what something does, like a compressor, it’s often more difficult to really understand where it fits in the grand scheme of things.