What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Electronic Music Production // Dark Arts
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Plyphon
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What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by Plyphon »

Heya,

This might be an obvious question - it's fairly obvious when something has been smashed to shit.

But there is a state between "smashed to shit" and "a good mix" where compression via saturation/distortion has crept up to a state where the mix would be improved by backing it all off a bit - learning to spot that is what I'm interested in.

Are there any tell tale signs you can teach yourself to learnt to spot when compression is ramping up just enough to start to be detrimental to the mix?

Cheers

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ZenoSupreme
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Re: What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by ZenoSupreme »

This is done by listening. what sounds good in music is relative. The sign would be when you think it sounds good and when not. I've heared tracks that sound to compressed in my opinion, but the maker tought it was just fine that way...

CRDM
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Re: What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by CRDM »

As the poster above said it's all relative and it's down to taste.

Sometimes something being smashed can work in context of the track, sometimes it's not going to work at all. If your talking buss compression there's already a really good guide on here from voidloss. In most cases I feel like it's best to back things off on busses to make sure your not over doing it.

Like with all things music just experiment and see what works for you. What works for one song is unlikely to work for another, though there are certain practises you may follow if it lends towards your overall sound. This is all based on taste and finding what works for you personally, someone else's ideals on compression might not sound good to you or your song. Your song might not need any compression at all, it completely depends what your going for and the only way to know that is keep experimenting until you get a feel for what works.

dubdub
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Re: What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by dubdub »

I think this is a pretty hard question, compression can be incredibly subtle, my ears are not very good at judging this kind of stuff so I tend to stay on the more cautious side. Some ideas:

1) Use meters, look at RMS and dynamic range.

2) Listen with fresh ears. Check all the compressors in your mix. Bypass them (/w adjusted gain obviously). Do you really need them? Are they really adding anything? Are they making things more intersting? Are they improving things? If not, get rid of them.

3) A/B with tracks that have a good mix of punch and dynamic range. Pay attention to the transients specifically.

4) Back off the treshhold/GR on certain or even all comps by 20-30% or something. Print the mix. Adjust gain and A/B with the old mix with fresh ears.

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Lost to the Void
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Re: What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

Are you talking about channels or whole tracks?
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dubdub
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Re: What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by dubdub »

Lost to the Void wrote:Are you talking about channels or whole tracks?
I think he's talking about mixes a whole. I'd like to know how to judge for individual channels though because I really can't tell most of the time.

Dattington
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Re: What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by Dattington »

Lost to the Void wrote:Are you talking about channels or whole tracks?
I'd be interested in both actually.

Saying it's subjective is fine but there must be a point when enough is enough.

What are the tell tail signs (if any) do you think?
Previews and clips are in the playlist below:

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Lost to the Void
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Re: What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

With a whole track, there are signs of over overcompression, but the causes are related to the different parameters.

A lifeless mix with no punch for example. Snares have no snap, kicks have no thwack, synths no longer cut through the mix, this can be a number of causes. Attack set too fast, ratio too high, too much gain reduction. Backing off attack let's the life back in to a track.
Transients vanish in this scenario.

Stiff obvious pumping can be due to too much gain reduction and attack and release not being set sympathetically with the groove. Sounds will pump too late or too early, throwing out the groove.

A release being too long may mean gain recovery takes too long, so the whole tune remains at constant compression until a breakdown where the level pops up.

Distortion can occur from very high ratios, or input being too hot.

Super peaky transients can occur when there is high gain reduction but an attack that is snapping in just after transients, so the body of the audio is vastly reduce in comparison to the transients (conversely this can be a technique to try to add snap to a lifeless track).

It's always most noticeable with the transients, so practice listening to whole tracks and picking out the transient portions of all the sounds in the mix.
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Dattington
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Re: What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by Dattington »

Ok cool, that makes a lot of sense. Cheers!
Previews and clips are in the playlist below:

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Plyphon
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Re: What are the tell-tale signs of too much compression?

Post by Plyphon »

Thanks everyone, great post from Voidloss again.

Yeah, interested as the mix as a whole. but also at a channel level.

I need to learn to hear transients when considering a mixdown

Thanks


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