HOW TO MIX A GOOD ROCK / METAL GUITAR! PART 2/2

CLICK HERE FOR THE PART 1/2 OF THIS TUTORIAL!

Hello! On the first part of this tutorial we've seen how to acquire the guitar signal and how to Equalize it, this time we're going to analyze the remaining steps to mix it: Compression / Multiband Compression, Tube Saturation / Frequency Excitement / Virtual Console Emulation, Panning.
Let's start from the first step:

- Compression (click here for a dedicated article): this is the first thing check after eqing, and it's crucial:  since gain is a natural compressor, it will already flatten most of the dynamics, so our first aim will be mainly to tame the lows; without compression, in facts, a palm muting will generate high peaks in volume, so we're going to compress in order to cut these peaks leaving the rest of the wave untouched.
The ratio depends on if we're already using a Mix Buss Compression unit on our stereo buss or not (the more compressors are stacked on a sound, the less aggressive should be the settings of each one), but we can start with a ratio as low as 4:1, with an attack as fast as possible ad a release of around 0.50ms, and just pull down the gain reduction until palm muted parts and open parts sounds even. If we push the compression further from this point, the result will sound increasingly harsh and fizzy (avoid it).
Eventually someone even suggest to use a Limiter instead of a compressor, just to keep the lows down, in the same manner we'd use a broadband Compressor, but being even more careful not to process anything else than the palm muting spikes.
In order to have a more focused compression on the lower area avoiding to accidentally ruin the general sound, we may also consider Multiband Compresion: there is a specific setting suggested only to tame the lows on high gain guitar leaving the rest of the spectrum untouched, shared by the famous producer Andy Sneap, which can be seen HERE.

- Tube Saturation / Frequency Excitement / Virtual Console Emulation: these three are alternative solutions; using more than one of them on the same sound will result in a screaming mess, and all of them are optional: they are rarely essential, but sometimes their sligh boosting on the mid-high frequencies will be just the thing we need to add some presence on an excessively flat sound, and they will generally sound better than just boosting the eq.
Let's talk briefly about them, ordered by an increasing effect on the final sound:
Virtual Console Emulation (click here for a dedicated article) adds a sligh colour to the sound, usually pushing it towards the midrange and a gentle compression and saturation, and sometimes these plugins can improve a little the sound just being loaded on the buss. This kind of plugin shares the same logic used on Virtual Channel Strips, which also can be used to colour the sound, and are commonly found on many professional Guitar Busses.
Tube / Tape Saturation (click here for a dedicated article): the natural saturation / compression effect provided by adding some saturation on a Guitar buss will often make the sound smoother, fatter and more controlled, rather than using straight compression and eq, just beware not to overdo, or the excess of gain and harmonics will result in an unpleasant, fizzy sound.
Harmonic Exciters (click here for a dedicated article): I suggest to use these ones only if there is no other way to make the guitar sound to cut through the mix, since usually these processors tend to change the sound in a very aggressive way, adding harmonics on certain areas of the spectrum. My suggestion is to use it only on the high end of the sound, and to not process the low end, otherwise we'll find our guitar sound full of ultra-low frequencies that will only harm the low end of our mix. We can start with a plugin like the free X-Cita, setting the Low Contour control to zero, and raising the Hi Contour knob to taste, until the guitar starts to gain presence, being VERY aware not to overdo!

- Panning (click here for a dedicated article): once we are satisfied with our sound, it's time to record 2 or 4 instances of our guitar, in order to create a wall of sound: with four takes the sound will obviously be thicker than with two, but sometimes a mix with four guitars leaves very few room for the other instruments, so if we have a busy mix it's better to try with just 2 tracks.
If we have two tracks the idea is to set them wide, 90% left and 90% right, or straight full left and full right.
If we have four tracks, we can set two of them at the extreme left and right, the other 2 can be set 70% left and 70% right, and we can also experiment a different sound for these two, or a different eq, to make the sound more rich and various.
Notice: when recording two or four tracks, we'll have to record 2 or 4 different takes, because if we just copy the same take on the other tracks, the only result will be an increase in volume.

So Here's our Chain: Signal -> Subtractive Eq -> Compression ->(Tube Saturation / Harmonic Exciter / Virtual Console Saturation)-> Panning

I hope this was helpful! If you have a different method of guitar mixing, share it with us!

CLICK HERE FOR THE PART 1/2 OF THIS TUTORIAL!

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!

HOW TO MIX A GUITAR SOLO (a guide for dummies)

Hello and welcome to this week's article! Today we're goint to talk abot How to Mix a Guitar solo!
Let's start off assuming that we have already recorded our solo, by Microphoning our amplifier, or using a Guitar Amp Simulator plugins, or even a Hardware Processor.
Once that our track is ready for mixing, we must keep in mind that our Lead Guitar track will share the same mid-range frequencies used by our rhythm guitars, so we must find a way to make the solo cut through while remaining "in the mix" at a volume comparable to the other intruments.
Usually the idea is to push the lead guitar part a little bit more on the mid-range than its rhythmic counterpart, just enough to make it cut through: we can treat it on a way similiar to how we mix Vocals, since usually a Solo takes the place of the voice in a song, therefore we can usually Pan it to the centre of the soundstage, unless we're after some particulare effect.

On the Equalization side we can usually use a wide Hi Pass filter, taking out everything from 160hz down, then (after the Compression) we can do a gentle boost on the "vocal area", somewhere between 3khz and 5khz.
It's a good idea also to cut some db on the rhythm guitars, in the same area we're boosting our solo: this will help us to cut through the mix even better (another Interesting way to cut through it's also to use a different guitar or amplifier than the one we have used for the Rhythm guitar Tracks).

On the Compression side we can use very fast attack and release times (even 10ms or less) and a low ratio, from 2:1 to 10:1 according to the amount of dynamic we want to keep, bearing in mind that the dynamic response it's a very important part of a good guitar solo, so we must not over-squash it: let's use less Compression than the amount we have used on the rhythmic side!

On the Effects chapter, it's important to say that a guitar sound is probably the one that accepts effect processing better, so we can use if we want some very subtle Reverb or some Chorus/doubler to give some thickness, but the most commonly used effect on guitar solos nowadays it's the Delay, which helps the sustain and gives to the sound a pleasant "bounce-back" feel. Some Tube Saturation or Harmonic Excitement can help the sound to cut through the mix even more.

Finally, if after all this processing we feel that our solo isn't emerging from the mix yet, our last resort is to Automate the rhythm guitar tracks to lower their volume a bit (half db or a db will usually be more than enough) in order to clear some headroom, to make our solo soar over them.

So Here's our Chain: Signal -> Subtractive Eq -> Compression -> Boosting Eq -> (Tube Saturation / Harmonic Exciter) -> Delay -> (Reverb)

Click Here if you want to learn how to Mix a Hi Gain Guitar!!

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!

HOW TO USE NOISEGATES (with Free Vst Plugins Inside!)

Hello and welcome to this week's article! Today we're going to talk about Noise Gates!

When we record an audio from a souce, a microphone or straight with the jack into the audio interface, we may have some unwanted noise, generated for example by the hum of the pickups (especially the single coil ones), the quality of the cable, and every other ring on the chain that brings the sound into the Daw.

Let's start by saying that there are different types of "noise": Hiss (which are the frequencies that produces sibilance), Hum (which is the low background noise), Clicks and Crackles (which are the snappy sounds sometimes presents when digitizing vynil recordings, or when a source goes into peak, distorting the signal) and the Ess frequencies, produces by the sibilance of the human voice.

The noisegate usually works by selecting the typical frequencies that we want to remove (for example the hiss frequencies, in the case of the DeHisser), and once they occour, heavily compressing them, lowering their level to silence. 

So we're talking about plugins that are both Equalizers and Gates (a Gate is a Compressor that works on the opposite way: when a signal is below a certain threshold, instead of boosting it, it brings it down to zero decibel).

Also Gates are used when recording an acoustic drumset, to remove unwanted bleed of other drum parts on a microphone (e.g. to remove the snare sound from the kick microphone).

Many commercial noisegates (like Waves, Sonnox or Izotope) features a "Learn" function: you play a part of the track where only the noise you want to remove is hearing, and the program will remove it from the whole track leaving the other frequencies untouched. This function is featured by some free plugin too, as you can see on the list below.

Focusing on guitar sound, the main issue here is the low background noise, or Hum, generated by the pickups and sometimes by the cable too. We need to clean the sound before entering in the amplifier, or, especially if we use the distorted channel, the noise will be distorted and amplified too, resulting in a strong hum and feedback.

If we are recording an amplifier by Microphoning it, we must use a Hum remover OR just manually cut away the silence parts that feature only noise, retaining the full harmonic richness of the played parts.

If we are recording straight to the interface using Virtual Amp Simulators, instead, we can use a Noisegate BEFORE the virtual amp, and before the eventual virtual Overdrive that boosts the amp.

Many DAWs today features a bundled Noisegate that eliminates the hum, but if your bundled noisegate is not good enough or if it's completely absent, here's a selection of the best free Noisegates:

- FRETTED SYNTH GATE PLUS - a Noisegate with all the features of a Compressor.

- GVST GGATE - One of the most used ones, very simple.

- 7AMP NOISE GATE - One knob gate with Learn function: you simple hold your guitar strings for a second, or keep your microphone in silence, allowing the plugin to study noise pattern, then you set filtering level.

- REAGATE - the free Gate from the Reaper Daw

- FLOORFISH - A versatile multi-purpose Gate, with Learn function.

- How to use a Noisegate to remove unwanted background noise or microphone bleed: Let's load a noisegate on the track we wish to "De-Noise", and set the Threshold control wery low, so that no signal is below it, and therefore there is no gating. 

Now raise the Threshold control until only the hum is gated, and adjust the attack and release control in order to decide how fast the Gate should kick in, and for how long it should be active. It's as simple as that, just remember, when you use it to clean up your guitar tone, to adjust it with your distortion on, or the hum will be almost inaudible.

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!

HOW TO USE THE MIX BUSS COMPRESSION (with Free Vst Plugins Inside)

Hello and welcome to this week's article! Today we're celebrating 10'000 visits to my blog, so I've made you a small gift, by updating many articles (such as the ones for Bass, Acoustic Guitar, Vocals...) with more precise settings in terms of Compression, Equalization, Reverb and so on, in order to make them even more helpful than ever :)

Today we're going to add another chapter in the Compression-themed articles, and talk about the Buss Compression. What is it? It's a Compressor loaded on the Stereo Mix buss, with very low settings, that if used since the beginning of the mixing phase, it will help us by giving the mix a more "glued" feeling, and will also make us use lower settings on the single instruments Compressors.

We must keep in mind that sometimes an instruments, e.g. the Bass, will need to pass through many compressors: the single instrument Compressor, or maybe a Compressor and a Limiter, the Buss Compressor, the Mastering Compressor, and the Mastering Limiter, so the various compression stages will stack up and in the end it will be VERY easy to have an oversquashed final sound. On the other hand, having more compressors stacked with lower settings, will lead if set carefully to a more pleasant result, at the same final level of compression.

It's wise to dial the single instrument compressors keeping already in mind (and in our monitors) the mixing Buss compressor, so we will have an immediate feedback on their interaction, thus we will not overdo with the single compressor settings: a slighly lower dynamic range on our mix will lead to less aggressive single compression settings, thus to a more effective and balanced Mastering phase. If the sound arrives already too squashed to the Mastering phase, we need to revert to the mixing phase and fix the problem :)

So, after this important introduction, let's talk about Business: the Buss Compression takes place right at the beginning of the Mixing Phase, and immediately after the Project Preparation Phase, when we have just the levels roughly balanced and the Panning set. Now take your Mixing Stereo Buss (sometimes called Master Fader, is the fader of your DAW that sets the output level of the entire mix), set it to around -10 to -6dbs to avoid any kind of clipping and to have a not too loud final mixed track, and put on the insert a Compressor, so that every single track will pass though it having its dynamic range slighly reduced.

Set the Compressor with low settings, for example an Attack of 30ms, a Release of 100 to 300ms (or, if possible, Automatic), a 2:1 Ratio, and lower the threshold enough to make it activate but without compressing everything.

The more aggressive is the music genre you are mixing, the lower you can go with the gain reduction, for example from 2,5 to 8db of gain reduction, (4db is the perfect "work with anything setting") but bear in mind that this needs to be compensated by using less aggressive settings on the single instruments, in order to avoid ruining everything :)

It is anyway still possible to mix without Buss Compression: we can just compress the single instruments we need and leave the others (like for example the cymbals) alone and then add the final Compression in the Mastering phase: the sound will be more dynamic, but less cohesive, and it will take a hard work of fine tuning to match the result of a project that uses Buss Compression. Often you'll find that if you want to leave some dynamics on your mix it's even better not to sum up mix buss compression with the Mastering one, therefore if the sound it's too squashed, once you have mixed with a mix buss compression, just turn it off and let the mastering compression to take its place. 

Any Compressor can be used on the Mixing Buss (Multiband Compressors too, altough they are not suggested), but there are many dedicated Buss Compression plugins around nowadays, and the best ones (which are not free), such as the Waves SSL, recreates the sound of historical analog units, but there are also many Free ones, and among them, here are the best:

Density MkII

Reacomp, a great all-around compressor

Thrillseeker, a non-linear compressor

Audiocation Freeware Vst Compressor

DC1A, effortless character compressor (nice sound, and only 2 controls!)

FL4TT3RY2, soft knee Compressor

Blockfish, a very versatile Compressor

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!

HOW TO USE TAPE SATURATION / TUBE SATURATION (free Vst Plugins inside)

Hello and welcome our weekly post! This time we're going to talk about Tape Saturation and Tube Saturation.
What are they? We're talking about plugins that tries to emulate the response of the hardware devices that were once used to record which added a distinctive tonality to the sound, that has gone lost with the arrival of digital recording.

- Tape Saturation: is a low-level distortion introduced when recording to tape, which used to add a particular Equalization cut to a recording. In the past, sound engineers used to achieve this effect raising the level of the tape recorder, so that when tape is driven in this way and the level meets 0db (or a little bit beyond) the level clips, but in the analog realm this is known as ‘soft clipping’. When digital recording became available, sound engineers tried to reduce the analog coloring and distortion as much as possible in order to achieve the highest fidelity sound available, but then they eventually realized that something was missing, and that part of the beauty of classic recordings was given also by the "lower fidelity" of analog devices. Tape saturation plugins emulates the sound of an audio recorded to tape, and can give you a punchier sound, since they basically add a very slight Compression and distortion, pushing the sound also a bit towards the mid-frequencies area, and works well on single instruments that requires to be brought forward in the mix, but today its main use is in the Mastering Phase, since to add warmth to single instruments we suggest to use the Tube Saturation we'll discuss further in this same article.

A great free plugin that simulates analog saturation/compression and can help you bringing your mix to life, and that can be used instead of a buss Compressor in the Mastering Phase, is FERRIC TDS, which has three main controls: DYNAMICS, that works as a gentle Compressor, SATURATION, that adds extra harmonics, and LIMITING, that controls peak performances. Another nice free and very simple Vst to try is 1-TIME.

- Tube Saturation: Tube saturation plugins instead, emulates the sound of an audio being processed by a tube preamplifier, and are great for adding analogue "fatness" and warmth to recordings, adding harmonics to the sound. Increasing the amount of drive you can obtain some nice distortion too, but this is not their first aim, so in order to add real distortion is probably better to use other dedidcated plugins. Tube saturation plugins are quite easy to use: the DRIVE control increases the digital input gain. Play with the balance between the drive and output gain to control the amount of saturation required, and you'll be able to add a pleasant, slightly mid-focused colour and harmonics to your GUITAR, VOCALS, SYNTH, KICK, SNARE and other instruments. Since these plugins tends to be a bit more invasive than Tape Saturators, I'd suggest to use them on single instruments, and then use a tape saturator for Mastering, but this is not a rule, just follow your ears.

Today many DAWs features an in-bundle tube saturation plugin, but here's a couple of good free Vst to try: RUBY TUBE, Nick Crow TUBE DRIVER, Voxengo TubeAmp and Hotto Vintage Tube Warmer/Maximizer.

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!

HOW TO USE THE LIMITER (free Vst Plugins included)

Hello and welcome to this week's article! Today we're going to talk about Limiters!
Limiters are basically compressors set with a high ratio (often infinite) and a hard knee, and their aim is to create a volume threshold that cannot be exceeded. Usually this function is needed in the Mastering phase, and it allows you to maximize the impact of your mix and to control the headroom of the sound, reducing the peaks in volume and bringing up the quieter parts (headroom is the dynamic range of a sound before it reaches the distortion level).
Another important use of Limiters comes in the Mixing phase: often you will need to limit certain tracks with a high dynamic range (such as snare drum, guitars, bass, and sometimes vocals), in order to make sure that, although the sound may already be compressed, there will be no chance that any peak will cross the chosen threshold. Each instrument must seat on its place, in order to avoid bad surprises in the Mastering phase! The use of Limiters in the mixing phase is not to maximize the sound or squeeze it, as it may happen in the mastering phase, but just to set the ceiling for the single signals, so don't be aggressive with limiters when mixing: the aim is just to mantain the maximum headroom possible!

During the the Mastering phase, looking at the spectrum of your wave (using Meters, if needed) you will probably notice that there are some high volume peaks (around the 0db area), and others which are a little too low, and you cannot just turn up the volume, since the higher peaks will exceed 0db and distort.
So what we need is to reduce those peaks, thus giving us the opportunity to raise the global volume of the song without surpassing the distortion threshold.

There is a limiter in almost every DAW, but Here is a selection of the best free ones, and among those our suggestion goes to the Yohn W1, a clone of the famous Waves L1 Limiter.

Let's take a look to the basic controls featured on this kind of effect:

- Threshold: controls where the limiter will start to kick in (just like a regular Compressor), eliminating everything above the threshold (in this, limiters are different from compressors, since with comp you can control the amount of the reduction via the Ratio Control). The headroom created by removing those peaks is automatically compensated by raising the quieter sounds. Usually a threshold that goes from -2db to -4db is enough to make the sound punchier, preserving the headroom and without compromising the dynamics, but the most important thing is to always check the meters for clipping and distortions, and whenever they occour, try applying less aggressive settings.

- Ceiling: determines the maximum volume reachable by the limiter. E.g. : if we lower the threshold down to -15db and the ceiling to -6db, the threshold will cut all the peaks above -15db and raise the rest, then the global volume will be raised to -6db. In the mastering phase is suggested to bring the Ceiling Control to around -0.1db, or sometimes even -0.01db.

- Release: it's the less important control here, and most of the times can be left to a default of 100ms. As on the other Compressors, the release control determines the amount of time the sound takes to go from full limiting to no limiting.

It is very important to keep a Dynamic Range (the difference between the quieter and the louder parts) between 14 and 10db, not less, or the sound will result overcompressed and flat, and in order to keep an eye on this we suggest you to use a Metering Tool.
We can also use more than one limiter instance: the first one to raise the perceived volume, then an EQ to compensate if the limiting is taking out some lower frequencies (which may happen sometimes), and then another limiter to trim the volume, just remember that a limiter should Always be the final plugin, and the last limiter should be POST FADER (on the Cubase/Nuendo interface this means that should be placed on the last 2 slots of the effects insert).

- How to use the Limiter: as we've already seen, the base idea is to reduce the highest peaks in order to clear space to raise the overall level of the whole mix, so we must lower the threshold and the ceiling controls of the same amount (many limiters, such as the Waves L2 have an option to link these 2 controls), while keeping an eye to the "Attenuation" meter: we should lower the 2 controls until we have some attenuation, but not too much, just the peaks of the loudest instruments (which is often the snare drum). When we have found the right spot (too much attenuation means distortion and we don't want it! We just want to use the "unused" room to heighten the overall level!), which is when we have just a very occasional attenuation, we have found the right threshold level. Now we can unlink the Treshold and the Ceiling controls, and raise the Ceiling fader up to -0,1 in order to use all the volume we can before the distortion!

Limiters often have other controls like Attack, an in-built Maximizer, a Stereo Expander and others, but here we've just analized the core functions of limiting. Feel free to experiment!

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!

HOW TO USE SIDECHAIN COMPRESSION (free Vst Plugins included)

Hello and welcome to this week's article! Today we're going to talk about an advanced compression technique called "Sidechain Compression", which is widely used in productions that span from extreme metal music to dubstep. To take a look to the Basics of Compression, CLICK HERE.

Sidechain Compression is a technique that consinsts into putting a compressor on a sound (usually the kick), that when is triggered, it applies the compression on another sound (usually the bass, or the synth on dance music), instead of affecting the kick itself;
the aim is to obtain a "pumping" drum sound, almost as the bass is part of the release of the kick itself (therefore largely increasing the groove), and avoids at the same time certain frequencies of the bass to cover the same frequencies of the drum kick, leaving it as much clear and audible as possible.
Let's focus on its most common use, for rock-heavy metal music, and once you've learned how it works, you can try it on more creative ways.

First off, grab a vst compressor that supports sidechaining, Here is a List of Free Sidechain Compressors, and among them I obviously suggest the ReaComp; many DAWs, anyways, already have an "in bundle" compressor that supports sidechaining.

Now load the compressor on your Bass track and activate the "sidechain" control (for example, in Nuendo, it's an orange button on the top left of the effect window, if you lay the cursor on it without clicking it will say "Activate Side-Chain"). Once this control is active, open the kick track and find the "Audio Sends" menu. By clicking on one of the empty slots, it will make you choose the buss where to send your Input, and choose "Sidechains - Reacomp", or whatever  is the compressor you've loaded on your bass track. After you chose, set the "Send Level" to 0.00 db.
Now, by playing the two tracks together, you will notice how the kick will cut through the bass sound much clearer, and the more you will lower the "Threshold" control, the more the bass volume will be lowered when the compressor activates (the ideal would be that when the kick hits, the bass is lowered of around -7db).
The attack time should be set pretty fast, according to the music genre, and so the release time, that may vary orientatively from 250ms to 500.

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!

HOW TO USE MULTIBAND COMPRESSION (free Vst Plugins included)

Hello! Today we're going one step forward on the exploration of some advaced compression techniques (for the Basics of Compression CLICK HERE).

Multiband compressors are nothing but a serie of compressors linked together. They divide the frequency spectrum down into a few areas/slices, depending on how many bands the compressor has (usually from three to five). On most cases, the spectrum is divided into four categories: lows, low mids, high mids and highs.
You can switch a specific frequency spectrum off and on, and you can also determine the frequency range of a specific band, moving it left and right.
For instance, if you want to compress the bass, squash the low mids, ride the high mids and leave the highest frequencies uncompressed it is possible, and all with just one compressor.
Mastering grade multi band compressors can be indispensable tools for reducing the dynamic range of a group of instruments (or the full mix) without modifying excessively the overall sound.
Using this method means that you can work on some areas of your mix without affecting others. Although you may not get the cohesive effect that single band buss compressors achieve it will certainly blend mix elements together on a more surgical way; of course if you feel the need, you can experiment with a mixture of multi-band and single band buss compressors.

Here is a choice of the best FREE multiband VST compressors available (especially the C3 and the Broadcast), and among the others I would suggest REAXCOMP, which is by far the best around.
Here is the Fruity Multiband Compressor, instead, on a page that shows a detailed explaination of the most common controls featured on this kind of plugins.

Here is instead a short example of settings for a 5 band Multiband Compressor:

LOW - tighten up bottom end.
Frequency Range: 0Hz-150Hz
Ratio: 2.5:1
Attack: 20ms
Release: 150ms
Threshold: very low to almost always trigger compression.
Gain: make up gain lost in compression.

LOW MID - tighten up the mix.
Frequency Range: 150Hz-600Hz
Ratio: 3:1
Attack: 20ms
Release: 150ms
Threshold: trigger regularly, but be about 2dB below the point of
rarely triggering.
Gain: make up for compression, or just a little more for warmth.

MID - add punch to the mix.
Frequency Range: 600Hz-1.5Hz
Ratio: 6:1
Attack: 10ms
Release: 150ms
Threshold: set fairly low to almost always trigger compression.
Gain: add 4-6dB or more to make up lost gain and add guts.

MID HI - add presence and increased clarity of individual instruments.
Frequency Range: 1.5KHz-6Hz
Ratio: 3:1
Attack: 10ms
Release: 150ms
Threshold: trigger regularly, but be about 2dB below the point of
rarely triggering.
Gain: add 1-3dB for presence/clarity.

HI - reduce harshness without losing sparkle
Frequency Range: 6KHz-15Hz
Ratio: 2:1
Attack: 10ms
Release: 150ms
Threshold: only trigger when harshness present.
Gain: maybe add 1-2dB to recover sparkle lost in compression.

Gain after each band of compression can be used to shape the sound.

(source:  http://www.dogsonacid.com/showthread.php?threadid=25008 ).

And here is the setting that the world class producer Andy Sneap suggest to use on Heavy Metal guitars, with the Waves C4 Multiband Compressor:  Bypass all bands except one that goes from 65hz to 281hz,
Gain: +0.3
Range: -8.0
Attack: 16.03
Release: 25
Threshold: -26.5

This setting helps taming the lows in the "mud area".

Multiband compression is used much more in mastering than mixing. Since we are dealing with such a wide blend of sources on a master track, some mastering engineers use multiband compression to control certain aspects of a mix, like only tightening up the low end for a punchier bass sound, but multiband compressors can be also found used for drumkits, or vocals.

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!

HOW TO USE PARALLEL COMPRESSION (free Vst Plugins included)

 

Hello and welcome to the advanced part of my Compression Tutorial (for the Basics of  Compression, click HERE).
Today we're going to talk about Parallel Compression, which is a particolar way to apply this effect, in order to achieve certain results which are heavily used on professional studios.

PARALLEL COMPRESSION:

This technique is commonly used for drums or vocals, or even for the whole mix. It consists in creating on your D.A.W. project an Effects Track (or FX Track, or Fx Buss, there are different names according to the software used) or a Group Track, loading on it a Bus Compressor and/or an equalizer or any other effect you may need, and blend this track with the other already-processed tracks that you have.

A drum group is perhaps one of the best examples of when we would use Buss Compression, and since it’s very likely that you would insert individual compressors on some of your separate drum tracks, we can call it Parallel Compression (since e.g. the kick, which you may have already compressed on its own, will be routed along with the other drum parts on the Fx Buss which contains the compression, and the two compressions will be summed).

Let's try this experiment: Record a drum kit, or use a virtual drumset, and apply some equalization and compression on the single parts you need, then create a Stereo Group Channel, load a compressor on it (for example the Audio Damage Rough Rider), and set it very aggressive (threshold -40dB or so, ratio set to infinity). The idea is to blend this heavily compressed sound with the original, softly processed or even unprocessed one, to retain some of the track's original transients and musical dynamics.
 I prefer a long release time (maybe around half a second, more or less), but the real secret to making this work is how you set the attack time, we can start setting it somewhere in between 2-10ms, but it's really all a matter of experimentation and different tastes. Once you've found a sound you like (you can also add an equalizer and try to boost 6db around 100Hz and 10Khz), open your snare, kick tracks and all the others you wish to effect, go to the Fx Send menu of the single tracks, and load the Stereo Group Channel you've created with the Compressor.
From Here, you can blend the effects track with the single instruments tracks, choosing the amount of effect that will affect the single drum tracks.

This compression technique is also known as the New York Compression Trick.

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!

HOW TO USE COMPRESSION (free Vst Plugins included)

Hello! Today we're going to talk about a fundamental effect for mixing and mastering, and take a look to some practical tips on how to use it.
Compression can be seen as an automatic volume control, with the volume being turned down very quickly every time a loud sound occurs, and the volume of the quieter sounds being turned up in order to match the louder parts. The result is a smaller difference between loud and quiet sounds, making the signal sound ‘compressed’.

First off let's take a look to the main controls featured in most of the compression processors:

Threshold: A compressor reduces the level of an audio signal if its amplitude exceeds a certain threshold. This value is commonly set in dB, where a lower threshold (e.g. -50 dB) means a larger portion of the signal will be treated (compared to a higher threshold of −5 dB).


Attack: The 'attack phase' is the period when the compressor is decreasing gain to reach the level that is determined by the ratio. The shorter is the time, the faster the compression will engage.


Release: The 'release phase' is the period when the compressor is increasing gain to the level determined by the ratio, or, to zero dB, once the level has fallen below the threshold. The longer the time, the more the compressor will keep applying the effect before stopping.


Ratio:  This allows the user to control the proportion (usually in decibels) by which signal exceeding the threshold will be reduced. This basically means that the output volume will increase of 1db for each value set on the ratio: the higher the value (es. 20:1), the more the volume differencies between low and high will be normalized.
The highest ratio of ∞:1 is often known as 'limiting'. It is commonly achieved using a ratio of 60:1, and effectively denotes that any signal above the threshold will be brought down to the threshold level (except briefly after a sudden increase in input loudness, known as an "attack").


Make up Gain: Because the compressor is reducing the gain (or level) of the signal, the ability to add a fixed amount of make-up gain at the output is usually provided so that an optimum level can be used.


Soft/Hard knee: Hard knee compression reduces gain abruptly on any signal exceeding the threshold (and not at all on signals below it). Soft knee compression introduces gain reduction gradually on signals approaching the threshold, and progressively (up to the ratio set by the user) as they exceed it. Most compressors with an "auto" function apply soft knee compression when "auto" is selected.

When to use compression: Compression is a great effect to be applied both on single instruments (on the mixing phase), and the whole track, on the mastering phase. The instruments that usually needs to be compressed in order to sound tight are usually (as we have already seen) bass, vocals and drums; guitars don't need always to be compressed, it really depends on the music style (for example funky or other clean styles, like the acoustic guitar, may need it, while heavier genres often stick to gain, which is a natural compressor, and use a tip of compressor only if needed).
In order to see some tips about how to compress these single instruments, click on the links to go to the dedicated article.
On the mastering phase, bus compressor is a valuable ally, since it helps to "glue" the instruments together and give to the mix the punch it needs to sound properly. Today there are many vst bus compressors that emulates the solid state ones that made the history of music, and between them we can suggest some free ones: Density and Antress.

How to start compressing a sound from scratch: Here's the basics to start using a compressor (for example the free ReaComp) on a single instrument, for example the drum kick.
First off, lower the Threshold as far as it will go, and increase the ratio all the way. You should hear that the kick sound is extremely over compressed, now lower the attack time to the shortest setting possible.

Now, If you slowly rise the attack control, you will hear the sound start to ‘click’ – when the click becomes fairly pronounced you know that the transient ‘attack’ on the drum is coming through, and that your attack setting is correct.

Now that the attack is set correctly we can return the threshold and ratio controls to something more realistic, for example a ratio of 5:1. Now raise the threshold to a level where you feel the drum start to come back to life, and keep it there. In this phase you can keep the makeup gain on auto, but if you're not satisfied with the result, you can always turn it off and set the gain manually in order to match the volume of the compressed drum kick with its uncompressed version (hit "bypass" to check).

Setting the release time is also important, as if the compressor has not ‘switched off’ before the next drum hits you will have wasted your time setting the attack control. 

As a general rule you’re going to want to have the release control set on a "not too long" time, but you can get some strange effects if you lower it too far. A good guideline is around 200ms, but it’s a good idea to check that your compressor’s gain reduction meter has returned to zero (or near) before the next drum hit sounds, if you want to be sure not to have any problem.

Addictional awesomeness: Remember that after compression you may also need to EQ a little bass back into your sounds, as compression often affects lower frequencies. Also, if your drums are going to be compressed again after this initial compression (for example with parallel compression, or bus compression), then you may need to be more gentle with your gain reduction, in order to avoid a final result excessively "squeezed" (over compression).
Plus, if you have some compressor that colours the sound on a particular way that you need for your mix, you can also try SERIAL COMPRESSION, which basically consists in using more compressors on the same chain, one after the other, set very low to not oversqueeze the sound. But beware, you really have to be careful, otherwise the obtained sound will be a total disaster!

Here are the Advanced Compression techniques:


PARALLEL COMPRESSION

MULTIBAND COMPRESSION

SIDECHAIN COMPRESSION

BUSS COMPRESSION

Become fan of this blog on Facebook! Share it and contact us to collaborate!!