Parallel compression

[Patyk1986]

Hi
Im trying to do the parallel compression thingy on the drums in Reaper.But I dont know how to create those seperate buses/aux in order to achieve this.Right now Ive got a drum buss, which I created by clicking the "create multichannel routing" in the fx tab.So Ive got a seperate channel for the snare, kick etc.And now Im stuck.How do I make an aux send to send the snare, kick and toms to a compressor on it and then blend it with my current drum bus ? Could anybody give me a step by step explanation ?
Thanks

[Danny Danzi]

Theres a few ways to do this, I'll give you 2 that I use. Can't tell you how you'd do it in Reaper, but I can tell you how I do it.

Method 1 Simple way: Send all your individual drum tracks to a bus and place a compressor on the track that isn't too extreme. Just enough to glue the drums to keep them tight with no pumping or breathing type artifacts.

Create a new effects bus and route the sends in that bus to all the drum tracks.

Place another compressor in the new bus and use settings that make it squash hard.

Run the effects sends wide open on the individual drum tracks and use the bus fader to control how much "squash" compression you want mixed in with your original. Don't go crazy...start with the "squash bus" fader all the way down and inch it up a little at a time until you can hear the mixture of the 2 compressors.

From there if you choose, once you get a good sound between the slightly comped bus and the squashed one, you can create another bus if you want and send both of the busses you created to that bus so it would now be the main master control of your drum rig. This of course is not a necessity, but it's nice to grab one fader to control your entire kit once you have the right mixture of these compressors.

Method 2 Extreme: This is the one I use because I like full control and to me it just sounds better. Clone all drum tracks so that you have 2 full kits of the same kit.

Create a bus and put a compressor in it like the "glue" compressor we used in method 1. Send the first kit to this bus. Create another bus and put in the squashed compressor. Send the second kit to that bus and you're done. This time though, the amount of compression present will be controlled by the compressor itself as the bus faders will act like volume controls. Yeah it's crazy with tracks, but it really sounds killer because you are now completely wet with the compressor where with the effect sends method, there is always a little dry signal present no matter what. Having 2 kits also allows you to accentuate certain instruments that you may want a bit more of within the "parallel sound" so to speak. Stuff like this is why most of my mixes hit close to 100 tracks or go over that amount. It's all about control and having no limitations for me. There are other ways to do it which I'm sure some of the others will share with you.....I'd share more but I'm typing a novel as is. Hope this helps, best of luck!

[Patyk1986]

Thanks a lot, Ive managed to connect all the sends and receives and now everything sounds sweet.Although I didnt use your Method no 2 because it drains too much of my computers CPU.But now I have another problem.I want my mix to be loud, so I use a brickwall limiter on the master bus.But after that the drums are squashed and basically a lot of transients are not going thru.Any tip to how avoid it ?

[antonium]

Here is another method which i use:
PSP VW has "mix" knob -
this means that you can mix the compressed
with uncompressed signal at level you want.
Very simple and useful.

[Danny Danzi]

Originally Posted by Patyk1986

I want my mix to be loud, so I use a brickwall limiter on the master bus.But after that the drums are squashed and basically a lot of transients are not going thru.Any tip to how avoid it ?

"Loud" comes from a great mix that has all the right stuff and then it's mastered properly for "loud". Putting a brickwall limiter on your master is destroying both your mix and the fidelity of your music and should be avoided at all times in my opinion. One thing I will give you props on which most people that want "loud" do not care about....the fact that you recognized and used the word "transients".

I mean no offense by what I'm about to say, so think of it as if you knew me and we were friends and I was ribbing at you....yet I'm being serious in a sense, ok? Honest I'm a good guy, but I tell it like it is and how I've lived things.

You saved this post by saying the "transients" thing to be quite honest....because first I was intigued when you asked about parallel compression....but when I read "brick wall limiter in the master bus" and "I want it loud" I was ready to throw up and shut my browser down.

As a recording engineer/mastering engineer/producer or jack-a-lope or whatever else people wanna call me lol, I am totally against the "volume wars" thing and will never share how to achieve that type of sonic mess with anyone. I'll just ignore posts like that because it's ruining music and to me it's like trying to teach someone how to commit suicide and be successful at it.

If you have a clean mix and want it loud, turn up your volume. Why on earth would anyone want to spend weeks on a tune to where it sounds great and then totally ruin the dynamics and over-all timbre of the tune with excessive volume where the wave form looks like this:

████████

████████

It just makes no sense to me. Why would you want to place a brickwall limiter in your master bus when the tune hasn't been mastered yet? I never use brickwall limiting nor do I ever put any type of compressor or limiter in my master bus. That is not for me to decide at THAT point. The tune needs to be mastered FIRST before I'd even think of a limiter and compression/limiting in an over-all mix in the master bus should not happen at the mix stage. Of course if you feel it should, then do as you wish but you will forever experience your transients not coming through. The first thing you notice other than your tune being all one level is, your snare drum will have 0 pop.

It's obvious you care about your music because you noticed the lack of transients....so I salute you for that man, you rock! However, the way you are trying to achieve loudness is not the correct way. As a firm believer in "say no to loudness and musical suicide" this is as far as I can go. Best of luck!

[garageband]

A higher RMS does not equate to perceived loudness. It's all about impact, not "YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!" for 3:23.

[paul999]

I understand Dani's point about the loudness wars. I am in the middle on this issue. There is not denying that when a master is loud and great sounding it makes an impact on my impression of the music. I don't belive in letting the music suffer to achieve loudness though.

I couldn't get the type of masters ITB that achieve the balance that I am looking for. I can get some pretty loud masters but it came with a price. Outboard compression eq to the tune of about $20,000-$25,000 I bet Brandon has some more intelligent things to say on the subject in Killer home recordings.

BTW Dani is right don't squash the hell out of it. The mix is round one of compression. I will take that mix and compress it at as many as 3-5 more times enhancing it each time.

Cheers

[mindundermatter]

I disagree. I pretty much always use buss compression. I fell in love with the SSL buss compressor, and now I use others to mimic it's sound. It's not about 'loud'; it's about gluing it all together. Any transient problems can be fixed with a compressor on the individual tracks.

[paul999]

Originally Posted by mindundermatter

I disagree. I pretty much always use buss compression. I fell in love with the SSL buss compressor, and now I use others to mimic it's sound. It's not about 'loud'; it's about gluing it all together. Any transient problems can be fixed with a compressor on the individual tracks.

I do mix in to a compressor but I don't squash the hell out of it. That is for mastering

[Danny Danzi]

Originally Posted by mindundermatter

I disagree. I pretty much always use buss compression. I fell in love with the SSL buss compressor, and now I use others to mimic it's sound. It's not about 'loud'; it's about gluing it all together. Any transient problems can be fixed with a compressor on the individual tracks.

Buss compression on your master buss or buss compression in general for instrument busses? I'm not quite sure what you're disagreeing about or with whom you are disagreeing?

If by chance it's me you're disagreeing with, I'll explain the method to my madness. I use compressors all over my mixes. There's just about nothing that doesn't go without a compressor unless I get lucky and hear something that simply doesn't need it or doesn't need much. But I use different ones for different things and in different situations. Sometimes layered guitar stacks sound great with minimal or 0 compression. But when they get bussed to an instrument buss, it's nice to compress the stack as an entity depending on what effect you are going for with your layering. Sometimes I'll comp all the guitar tracks subtley and then comp the buss they are being sent to.

The same with back up vocal stacks...sometimes I'll compress them individually, other times I'll compress the buss they are being sent to. By the time I get done with a huge mix like that using all those compressors, can I really make the right call and put in a master buss comp in? Aren't I too close to the mix, have listened to it 3000 times on those monitors and can't I easily make the mistake of possibly ruining my mix with a master buss comp? Aren't I in a sense pre-mastering when in reality, I shouldn't even be going there unless this master buss comp is making a difference for some reason?

The "glue" so to speak, is not my call in my honest opinion at THIS stage of the game. Everyone I talk to that practices this method says "I just use enough to where it's just a bit tighter and you can barely hear it". My question is "well why use it if you can barely tell it's on?" I just think too many engineers can make the wrong call going down roads they don't need to be going down. Every mastering engineer that is credible will tell you "please don't do that...allow me to make that call because I am un-biased to the mix, I am listening to it with fresh ears, I have a room set up for this and it's really not needed...you are taking some control away from me...and if the comp is not making a difference to where you can barely tell whether it is bypassed or not...who are you really fooling here?" You're just adding another processor to your music for the sake of it looking cool or making you think you hear a difference. If you can hear it, you're over-comping...if you can barely hear it, don't use it.

I tell all clients not to do any fade ins fade outs or any master buss comping when they send me stuff to be mastered. When I get a mix that I have to master that shows me the master bus has been compressed and I see even wave forms, or I hear fade ins and outs...I contact them and tell them to make the changes or send it to someone else. Sure, fade individual tracks, compress the hell out of whatever you want, but don't do MY job because all you do is make things more difficult. Anyone that's ever mastered and knew what they were doing will tell you how bad it is to have their creativity stripped away from them due to someone comping the 2 buss too hard or have fade ins and fade outs on the whole mix that wreak havoc on our mastering comps and limiters attemping to raise or lower the faded in/out signal to threshold.

Anyone that feels they have good results with this method...so be it as there are no rules (and quite a few *think* they like this and are making a difference)....unless of course "I" am your mastering engineer because "I" DO have rules. You give ME the mix, I'll give YOU the master...it's not the other way around.