Hello! And welcome to another episode of Inside the recording studio. My name is Jody Whitesides and with me as always is Mr. Chris Hellstrom. How are you today? Chris. Am doing all right Jody. It's hot as balls here in Los Angeles at the moment. So Dealing with that, but apart from that I am good. How are you? Mm-hmm I can concur with that statement. I just came off a film set and it has been so record setting in terms of heat where I'm at that we're already setting records for November.
And we're in September as of taping of this, so that's brutal. Yeah And we're in September. Exactly. It's very brutal. What's that You know what would be an awesome thing? Being able to compress the heat with a compressor and make it dissipate. Whoo, I see what you did there very nicely done because today we're talking about Yes. I don't know about all the time in terms of use. compression and Of course compression is something that we use and talk about all the time, isn't it?
but we What can you oh, yeah Yes, of course. I was gonna say like when was the last time you did a mix we didn't use any compression on something Never. All right. We thought that it would be a good idea to do an episode about [ Pause ] compression and [ Pause ] more directly of how to Listen for compression because I remember Initially when I was learning how to do all this kind of stuff and obviously still learning but
It was hard to kind of what am I listening for? What makes a compressor sound good? [ Pause ] How do I know that this is actually a setting I want so we thought we'd shed some light on what at least I listen for And I'm thinking you do as well I don't listen for anything. Presets baby presets it says vocal right in the preset Why would I do that? (laughs) Right.
A brief overview, I think, This would be old hat for a lot of our listeners, but maybe we should go over the general controls what we have in a compressor Yeah, so maybe we'll just blow through it right I'll say that thing and you tell us what it does right threshold because I think we do have an actual episode very early on that we did a couple of years ago that already defines a lot of this more in depth, but yeah. Blow it.
Okay, that is the setting that you use to tell the compressor at this particular volume Right. Then we got our ratio. level start doing your thing. Crystal clear, crystal clear. Well, how about we do a double here, attack time and release time. That's the setting on a compressor that once the compressor is told to do its thing by the threshold how much to do its thing. Both of these settings tell the compressor how Fair enough. And lastly, makeup gain.
soon to react and how long to release. This is telling the compressor I want you to boost There we go. And that's your general overview of the controls anyway. the signal at the output this much! Damn right!
What to listen for what the compressor is actually doing. The best advice I could give [ Pause ] somebody and I think you'd echo this would be to start with really extreme settings to kind of hear what it actually is doing because things can be very subtle when we compress or they can be extreme right but in order to hear them and start dialing in our ears to what it actually is doing I think it's always a good idea to start with rather extreme settings so you can really hear
what actually is doing. Yeah, I think so. Oh, good. I had a That's not a bad idea. Yeah, I'm gonna concur with it. Yeah. Or you could go higher if your compressor will do it. feeling you would. So maybe starting with like a ratio of maybe like eight to one. So sure, but eight to one, you One would hope. should probably be able to hear what it's kind of doing. One [ would hope if not, these tricks will kind of help you to guide
your ear to do that. And then I would set my threshold relatively low so you're audio] actually getting a fair bit of compression on your signal because again that makes it more obvious, right? Yeah. I want to clarify that when you say relatively low. You're talking in relation to the actual volume level of the audio. [silence] audio. And when you mean low, like at the volume level of the audio is it peak dynamics of minus
18, you're probably setting your threshold so that it's starting at minus 30 dB. So you're getting like 10 dB of hit in there on the peaks. What are you talking about? Exactly. Yeah, I'm setting it drastically lower than the input level. So I might be getting [BLANK_AUDIO] 5 or 10 dB of gain reduction on the signal. That's obviously the threshold would be dependent on You're really hearing the compression cuz it's hitting.
how much signal you're going in, right? But the value that you mentioned there, if you have like minus 18, you go down to like minus 25 or minus 30 or something, just so that you're really hitting. Exactly, yeah, 999 times out of 1000, you would never leave it at these settings, but No, of course not. we're just learning how to kind of listen to it, right? Now we have a drastic amount of gain Mm hmm. Mm hmm.
reduction going on and we're probably hearing what it's actually doing. In my opinion, it's time to start playing around with the really important settings of attack and release time. I think that's from somebody who's starting out, those are perhaps controls that are left alone. Let's say Or at least understood for that matter. that you have just like that too. And perhaps there's a correlation there. We don't understand
them. So we pull up the vocal preset and go, all right, it's set it here. This should be fine. Mm hmm. Right. And it might be, but the better off you are understanding these, I think it helps a great deal. Okay. Uh huh. I think that's pretty good. I think that's pretty good. Okay. And then, I would start with like a medium setting on both of those probably maybe. And when I say medium,
I'm thinking like 100 millisecond perhaps, perhaps a little bit less. And then I will start with the attack time. Dialing that so it's faster and faster and then listening for what that does to the transients and the attacks of your signal. We said vocals here, like you might hear like the initial parts of words uh huh, get sort of lopped off and we start losing the impact of that.
And I think that is a great way to hear when you might have not only too much compression, but you're listening to when the attack time is set too fast. Where you might be chopping off and actually losing impact. How did you go about learning how to listen to these, Joey? pretty much the same way.
Right. So it goes. Yeah, we get to the release here in a second, I guess, but setting the You start with really long attack and release times and start dialing them back to hear how it's beginning to affect the sound from a transient perspective. Not so much the release time because that's the tail end of things, but the attack time of things is the transients. Yep. (silence)
attack time. So we're here that it's actually affecting the signal, it goes from pleasing And one thing that I would like to actually point out here amount of kind of snap and attack on those transients to just really dulling them if it's too short. So yeah. and why people are probably thinking, [Silence] well, why the hell do I have to worry about the attack time when I'm setting a threshold?
The main reason for that is, is the attack time is actually the delay for when the compressor is going to start applying the compression based on your threshold and your ratio. It is going to allow essentially most of the full signal through before the attack actually clamps down onto the signal with the threshold and the ratio.
Uh-huh. Yeah, I believe the absolute definition of the attack time is the compressor actually starts reacting immediately as soon as it hits a threshold, but it's the time until it reaches maximum compression until it applies all of those. In this case, we had like eight to one, right? So it's the time it takes for the maximum compression level to be reached. So it's it. And one other thing that we probably should mention that we didn't put in the general
Yes. Yeah. Hmm. overview of the controls is there's also sometimes Yes. something called the knee. And that's how sharp that's going to affect the compression Yes. once it hits that attack time and how quick that's going to react is based on the knee. Now a soft knee means that it's gonna be kind of a curvature and it's gonna gradually get there. And a hard knee means it hits that point
Right. Yeah. And that we're going to wrap up this podcast today by talking a little and boom, you're compressing. (laughing) bit about different types of compression. But for right now, when you're doing all of these experiments and learning how to listen, I would strongly recommend just doing a standard digital compressor and not worry too much about whether you're using an analog emulation
of something, right? Just using your standard compressor that sumally comes with your DAW is absolutely perfect for this. That'll work. And moving on, we have our release time and how it affects the material. Absolutely. Right, so here is pretty much the same thing. We can think What would you say? (sighs) [silence] about release time, how long it takes for the compression to taper off from that it's hit maximum compression.
Right here's something where depending on what we want to do we have to play with this so it's suitable It sounds like it goes without saying right if we have a really transient heavy material Drums. Spitting rhymes. Mm hmm.
we might drums or if it's like hyper fast rapper, let's say right who's There you go We want to make sure that we don't have too long of a release time Because that will not allow the compressor to ease up before it's time for the next transient That would be a good example of how a shorter Well, part of the reason for that is because as you're trying to denote here, the compressor Release time might be suitable for the material
But again here we want to listen to that if we have too long of a release if we have again that really heavy Transient material and we have a really long release. We notice that it starts again kind of like sucking the life out of it it doesn't breathe anymore because it doesn't have. Yes, good clarification.
if the release time is set too long will stay in compression mode when the next transient hits and it's already compressing signal which means that next transient doesn't pop out and give you that impact of the transient. Absolutely. And also, instead of a drum kit or a vocal, If we have it on, it's commonly used on the snare, for example. If we have too short of a release time, we might not get the same sort of full-bodiedness.
What we're trying to do here with compression a lot of times is obviously just even out dynamics. So if we have a snare that possibly is not ringing out as long as we would like, Huh? The tail end. having a little bit of a longer release time on that can actually grab on to that ringing out of a snare tail to have a little bit more of an impact. So Uh huh. there's a case where you might have a little bit longer but not long enough
where it doesn't have time to react for the next snare hit that type of thing. So again here just experimenting with our ear and listening for how a really short release time versus a long release time affects the track that you're compressing. Well, I think if you're trying to sort of play along at home And with that, we're going to take a quick break for a word from our sponsors. we're back and we're going to move on with clarifying a few more ideas
and how to train your ears. What do you got for us, Chris? Yes. here with your compressor and taking these ideas in mind, it should help you to identify what each control of the compressor is doing, or in how it affects your sound. If we're tuned into what this does with this sort of standard digital compressor, Mm hmm.
we have a basic understanding of what it actually does, then it might be a good idea to start experimenting with some analog emulations, like an 1176 type of compressor and LA2A, that kind of thing. Both of which just to point out have different types of controls. Yeah. Yes. Some have more, some have less, but these have technically two very different sets of Right. But what I also think that is good to bring up here is of controls going on. Neither of these have a knee setting on them.
that because you mentioned the knee when we didn't talk about controls. But in internal need that is quite different. Yes, very, very different. And they are hard set to how they're hard wired. [BLANK_AUDIO] Yeah, so they sort of have that sound baked into them, right? How would you describe the difference between an 1176 topic compressor and an LA-2A? Just sound-wise and not so much like... From the near from sound.
Or just from a sound, how they... from a standpoint, how they would differ in your [BLANK_AUDIO] mind of how they sound, why you would use one or the other type of thing. Yeah. To me, the LA2A or the LA2, which is the precursor to the 2A, is a rounder, more forgiving type of compression to me.
Yeah. Yeah, the 1176 to me would be something where you could, you know, make sure that you're And I think that's based also on the fact that its primary circuit is what they call an opto circuit, which is a photographic element, light based. And then the 1176 is a much more surgical, more precision type of compression that I would almost call limiting. Yes. be something where you could, it's very, very fast. It's really, really fast. So depending on what it is that we Sure.
Okay. Okay. want to do, that might be a great choice for percussive material, if you want to try to tame those peaks a little bit, not always the right choice. But if you have it, it could be on drums and things that could sound really, really good can sound really, really good on just about anything, as we've talked about in the past but the LA2A, you used a word that I think is really That sounds good. good for giving because it is to me it's a lot softer sounding. It doesn't mean that No.
Hmm. you can't get extreme reduction on it. It's a lot slower in its attack. To me a Right. lot of times it's really really good on vocals that type of thing where you're not necessarily clamping down on masses of transients that you have to catch one by one after the next. So if we look visually here I would say that 1176 Yeah, I would say the LA 2A and its ilk is using a soft knee type of compression and
has a probably very very steep knee and the LA-2A does not. It's a lot rounder type of a thing. There you go. That's the word I was looking for. So why do we want to the 1176 is a hard knee. Damn right. All right, let's move it on. worry about compression and all this kind of stuff? What are the benefits of using compression Jodie?
One of the first things that I think a lot of people will use, especially with musicians that are a little bit more green in the studio, that don't have great miking technique or have maybe poor performance abilities. I don't want to be an asshole about it, but some people have a problem with their ability to control their dynamics in their performances. Okay. And so compression is a method to help control things that are overly dynamic in a performance.
Okay, so give us an example of what kind of instrument that you were envisioning right now. ( Video playing) Well, you've spoken a lot about vocals. Sure. So let's talk about vocals here.
A really, really seasoned singer or rapper [BLANK_AUDIO] or anybody getting on a vocal mic most likely has the ability to move themselves forward So you're talking about if they need to project more, they'll back off a little and back from the mic to help control dynamics of a performance, which helps to create a more even sounding performance without compression. That doesn't, sure, yeah.
bit and vice versa. Yeah. [no speech detected] If it comes to something say of a guitar part and you're recording a single pass on a guitar that might have multiple channels of switching in sounds and the guitar player hasn't spent a lot of time dialing in their different sounds, you might go from a distortion sound that has one volume level to a clean sound that has an entirely different volume level and not necessarily on purpose.
This sounds like less of a compression issue and more of a guitar player issue to me. It is, but the idea of using compression Yeah. is to help even out that flow between the two. And that's probably the primary reason why most people start to get into the concept of compression as they're trying to control dynamics. Yeah, to get on my high horse here, I think what you just said is very true. Now we're talking about compression, so move on.
I think that's where people sort of start and they're trying to do it that way. I think there are probably better parts of going about that, but that's not what we're talking about today. I say when I'm thinking about, well, another thing I'd like to add to just this from dynamics, What's the next thing? Right. right, would be not also from a performance type part, but let's say that you are dealing with, Right.
let's say a percussionist, where you have a lot of hits going on at the same time, and to make out Right. Whatever it is. The that some percussion drums will inevitably not be as loud as the others. This could be a way of word wordy
controlling dynamics that way. So I'm not thinking necessarily from, while it is a performance, hum dist I'm not thinking about difference in sound and level, it's more about the whole performance racism where we minimize the dynamics that could make it sit a little bit better in our track curriculum important if we have that.
Yes. The other thing is of course when we talked about attack and release time in here and what we use it as a lot, at least I do, I know you do too, but it creates an impact Yes. and punch in the sound if used correctly, right? Yes. So we can have that snare drum that we mentioned really, really pop and we can have syllables of a vocal sound really, really even with ease of compression and all these things.
So those are all good things to do with a compressor where we can make something just actually sit better in our track and just have the gloriousness that is intended of (laughs) the performance, right? Exactly. Generally speaking, if you're not real familiar But of course, the pitfalls as well, right? So what are you looking at here?
with how to use a compressor and you're thinking, man, I just want everything to sound even, you might end up using an extreme setting on the compressor, including a very short attack time and a long release time and heavy threshold and a high ratio thinking, I'm really making this sound loud, but what it ends up doing is sucking all the life out of that performance, Yeah, yeah, no, I agree with that. and thus doing generally a disservice to the track.
Now, sometimes you might do that on purpose for one particular piece of an entire track, but it's not something you do a hundred percent of the time. What about you? [Silence] I think it just it can just suck the life right out of it. And important part here to keep in mind as well is if we're talking about just one or a group of tracks in a mix, right? They might sound really cool by themselves with extreme compression settings.
But then once you add them into the track, you might go, what happened? You know, there's no life left because you squeezed every ounce of dynamic range out of it. reduces the impact of the track or said instruments in the group. So absolutely. It can be. Sometimes when we mix, that's also a little bit of a moving target, right? So don't be afraid to go back and adjust obviously. Okay. Are you ready? Excuse me. Let's say I like to have a little bit of compression on my Master Bus for example.
Are you okay? When I mix, I mix into it. I don't add it afterwards. I mix into it. or But it can be during the process of a mix that I have to go back and revisit that because now when things are getting into place it might be taking off a little bit too much. And you learn how to kind of listen for that. [BLANK_AUDIO]
So then it's time to back off, you know, on the threshold usually for me, where you start getting to me, I don't like to get much more than if I get like Right. 3 dB of gain reduction on my master buzz, it starts getting noticeably duller and lifeless to me. [BLANK_AUDIO] That's something that I keep in mind. Something that happened, we talked about this relatively recently, I think, when we talked about pumping and there was a time when that was a really Yep.
I think they still use it a fair amount. desired effect primarily in the EDM and dance world. I think it's that... ( they might still do but I remember when I heard ( audio cuts out) I think it was Madonna's Ray of Light where it had just... Hmm. ( it was used to drastic effect and you can really really hear pumping. audio cuts out) Yes. If we're not careful and we're not going for that Generally speaking, in the way you're talking about it, in the way it's sometimes set up,
That's a very much an unintended effect, right? So we have to... is that you're using the kick drum to actually intentionally create that pumping. Mm-hmm. to actually intentionally create that pumping. So that the kick drum is very prominent [silence] and the rest of the track kind of gets sucked out and then breathe back in once the kick is done.
It can be an intended consequence, but generally speaking, if you're being super heavy handed with it and you didn't intend it, it can cause issues with your mix to sound like it's wavering in volume. And even if it's not on the master bus, it's like just on an individual track, (sighs) Mm-hmm. you can always get there. You go, "Where did my bass go?" You know, you might have a little bit [ Pause ]
too long of a release time there, perhaps playing with that. One thing I wanted to mention before we put a bow on proceedings here was all the points that we discussed of how to learn how to listen to the compressor. Of course, once you start hearing what it's actually doing and you get it to the effect that you kind of want primarily with your attack and your release time, then you dial back the threshold and possibly even the ratio to a level where you think they're [Silence]
actually really suited in your track. So it's not like okay I've found I can hear what it's doing now that must be the correct setting. That's half the battle. Compression is a fickle mistress Now that's half the battle. [Silence] until we understand it, right? [Laughs] Make sweet love to her. Boy, has it been a busy week. And then we move on to our Friday Fines. Chris, what have you got today? today. It sure has. Yeah, don't say. But I am choosing to go with another outing from Heaviosity.
The good people of Heaviosity. Mm-hmm. I do because you know how much I like Heaviosity. Mm-Hm You And they have had a trend for, I don't know, maybe a year, perhaps longer, perhaps a little bit less, where they come out with You these sample instruments they call foundations. And they are free. And they just released one this week for synth bass. So Ooh. Yeehaw. anything that has the name heavy ossity on it, I'm a big fan of.
So my Friday fine is heavy ossity, their foundation is another free offering called Synth Base. Now, what about you? OK, like you mentioned, there's just so much new going on. [ Pause ] [ Pause ] And in fact, Apple has just announced something that is extremely cool. [ Pause ] [ Pause ]
And of course, if you're not an Apple user for the iPhone and AirPods, and this is specifically about AirPods on this, [ Pause ] they've recently announced a new thing for their AirPods Pro [ Pause ] and the new iPhones. . And I'm as I don't know how many generations this will go back >> Thank you. in terms of the iPhone, but at least with the AirPods, >> Thank you. [Silence]
it's the new AirPods that they're pro that they're releasing that you use your iPhone with your AirPods in your ears. And then I guess it uses the camera on the iPhone and does a scan of your head and your ears so that you can have a customized spatial audio environment that is then tied to your AirPods and your iPhone. That is mind-blowingly cool. Yes, it is. It's like, wow, that's badass. Now, That's pretty fucking cool. Yeah. Go for it.
I'm going to go with a second thing here because of just the sheer amount of stuff You can have two. that has been coming out. I will also, I'll have to, I'm gonna take two. Yeah. [ Pause ] I'm gonna eat my cake and eat it too. I just said I'm gonna eat my cake. I'm gonna have my cake and eat it too. The second thing is iZotope also recently announced a new version of RX. It is now RX 10. They have multiple ways that you can get it. whether it's a bundle or buy it outright, that kind of thing.
It has some nifty updates, especially for guys in the production world that are dealing with dialogue. [ Pause ] They have a new function in Rx that allows you to track who said what using text navigation. So if you need to navigate your audio files using text, you need Rx10. Yeah. Well done, sir. And that there is my two Friday finds of this week. Yeah, while we've got your attention, we ask that you go to inside the recording studio [ Pause ] dot com and sign up for our mailing list. [ Pause ]
Doing so will get you weekly reminders about the Tuesday tips when they come out and we'll [ Pause ] make sure you don't miss any future episodes of the podcast. Send us an email at gold star G O L D S T A R at inside the recording studio dot com with the word compression and we'll make sure you get something cool back in your inbox.
If you have a topic or suggestion for Chris and I to explain in a future episode, contact us at the contact page and we'll put it into consideration for a future See you later, Jody. episode. With that, I'll say, see you next week. >> [SOUND] Thanks for listening, everybody. - Bye.