Elektron Musical Instruments

> When you tell me it's all about compression, it really sounds like
> compression is more important than sound itself. I guess the
> compression  matters some, but after the sound is right and the
> balance is right. But lets say it's all about compression, then I'm
> not going to believe that it is some magical process, that can't be
> explained. I'm not talking about how-compressor-works, but what is it
> that we are trying to achieve through it. What way should people try
> to manipulate dynamics of drums with it. An example, is this what
> should be done with compressor to get thick beefy beats:
>
> Let's take the kick and smash it in compressor really hard, but so
> that compressor reacts to kick a little late, so that it leaves a hard
> attack to kick and lowers dynamics only after that. So the attack is
> fairly slow and release is long.
>
> After this we could route the kick to eq and emphasis the frequency we
> want to punch after attack.
>
> So much for the example. What I mean to say, if somebody says is all
> about to compression, it needs to be clarified somehow. What people
> are exatcly doing with compressors, since they are so important. I've
> found that people can't really answer to this, but they can answer
> what should be done with eq, verbs and stuff like that.
>
> I'm not trying to rant here, I just want to hear if someone can offer
> some explanation of this compression stuff, like you Mati or anyone
> else. And I'm not speaking of ratios, Gain reduction or anything that
> releates to compressor knobs.
>
> As for the books, Ive read couple of them like:
>
> Behind the Glass: Top Record Producers Tell How They Craft the Hits
> (there are top-hit prodicers that don't use compression on bass or
> kick at all.)
> The Art of Mixing (Mix Pro Audio Series)
>
> I've been looking the Waves book, it has example projects (nuendo for
> example) with waves-plugs on a cd. Might be usefull to see how they
> have crafted the mixes.
>
> Toni.

Sure - a compressor is not going to make a shit sound anything other than a
compressed, maybe a bit more warm shit sound. But here is what my process is
with compression on drums.

When tracking - I usually run my kicks through a DBX 165 or 266XL with light
settings- the DBX stuff does a really good job of shaping the front of a
kick to add a little bit to soften or harden the preceived punch, while not
totally destroying the force of the drum over all. The DBX also adds a bit
of warmth and roundness to the sound, even though it is not tube. Really
depends on the kick, but this is what I do most of the time. Sometimes I
will run the kick through an ADL Tube DI with no compression if I just want
to warm it up and deal with dynamics in Protools or Logic.

With snares, depending on how they sit in the mix, sometimes I don't
compress them at all. Sometimes I slam them. If for example, I have a snare
in the MD, layered with something else, and a bit of reverb on it, a
compressor can bring out interesting "breath" type effects on the tail and
add a little bit of movement to the drum track.

Where I use compression the most in on a drum buss. Normally, my Joe Meek
SC2.2 if the drums are not super bass heavy. Or if they are really bassy,
then I will buss the entire drum mix through Vintage Warmer in Protools.
Usually, after bussing through the compression, I have to relevel the whole
drum mix as it will pull or push the hats and or percussion, but it really
give a good seperation from the rest of the mix and polishes up the drum
mix. As an effect - Vintage Warmer can really make a drum track rough and
gritty and less "straight out of a drum machine" if you hit it hard and play
with the drive and high and low frequency settings.

/m