How often do you guys use compression?

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Lost to the Void
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

tomhades wrote:Well, i think you kind of hit it there ... i think i was "wandering around" the last years ... i still am kind of "proud" on the path i followed and still stand behind a lot of releases i did in the past as well, even if they went in different directions & styles ... but i guess, as i also said in my introduction on the forum, i still have a big love to stronger & faster techno ... i have shitload of that stuff on my hard drive but somehow it seems that it was never the time nor the place to get it out ... maybe even in an different way of thinking about it : when i tried to get a bit "stronger" (read : more dirt & raw feeling) it was never ever received in a good way, i would even say with lots of disrespect on that ... somehow sad on the way things something go but it is reality ... the only thing i will never understand is why nowadays a music career is being influenced for only 5% based on music and 95% on marketing & social media & pr & ... isn't music normally something we judge with our ears and not with our eyes ?

But... that might be also the reason why i'm on this forum ... i want to have another "point of view" on things and want to get in contact with people who are following a different path as well ... i want to have honest opinions and not the once based on the "hype of the moment" ...

Being in the scene for many years is a blessing but sometimes also a curse ... as for me it feels like i challenged myself that much that i'm not sure anymore if i'm still getting the same satisfying outcome as it did in the past ...

And now, regarding the way of working : i think i really follow you in here ! Maybe i should get out of my "old school" of studio working ... but just to clear out things : i'm still doing lots of processing & resampling during the production work ... only thing i don't do in there is literally try to get the "best sound" (in terms of eq, compression, ...) ... i tend to leave those in the mixing stage where i try to open up & place every element in its frequency spectrum ...

Ok, that was way too much philosophical i think for tonight ! :) haha ! :)

But thanks for the kind words ! It means a lot for me, believe me ! I tried to do what i love most and that passion for techno will never disappear i think ...
Well I'm not really talking about stronger or faster per second. Just less commercial, more experimental stuff, going back to the true spirit of techno.
You clearly have the musical chops and production experience to do something really different and something that stands on its own.
I think with the way music has diversified and blended and cross bred, now is as good a time as ever to experiment without having to worry about not being accepted, by DJs or the audience.

And yeah, shit has changed, marketing, perception, social media blah blah. All the bullshit that has nothing to do with the music is now a huge driving factor in things.
But you don't have to conform to that shit.

Come to Subsekt, join us cunts, have your mind corrupted and get back in the studio and do something that really makes people stand up and say "holy shit!!" (Stealth it under a different name perhaps?).
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Mslwte »

Bring back the dark bassline!
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by tomhades »

Lost to the Void wrote:
tomhades wrote:Well, i think you kind of hit it there ... i think i was "wandering around" the last years ... i still am kind of "proud" on the path i followed and still stand behind a lot of releases i did in the past as well, even if they went in different directions & styles ... but i guess, as i also said in my introduction on the forum, i still have a big love to stronger & faster techno ... i have shitload of that stuff on my hard drive but somehow it seems that it was never the time nor the place to get it out ... maybe even in an different way of thinking about it : when i tried to get a bit "stronger" (read : more dirt & raw feeling) it was never ever received in a good way, i would even say with lots of disrespect on that ... somehow sad on the way things something go but it is reality ... the only thing i will never understand is why nowadays a music career is being influenced for only 5% based on music and 95% on marketing & social media & pr & ... isn't music normally something we judge with our ears and not with our eyes ?

But... that might be also the reason why i'm on this forum ... i want to have another "point of view" on things and want to get in contact with people who are following a different path as well ... i want to have honest opinions and not the once based on the "hype of the moment" ...

Being in the scene for many years is a blessing but sometimes also a curse ... as for me it feels like i challenged myself that much that i'm not sure anymore if i'm still getting the same satisfying outcome as it did in the past ...

And now, regarding the way of working : i think i really follow you in here ! Maybe i should get out of my "old school" of studio working ... but just to clear out things : i'm still doing lots of processing & resampling during the production work ... only thing i don't do in there is literally try to get the "best sound" (in terms of eq, compression, ...) ... i tend to leave those in the mixing stage where i try to open up & place every element in its frequency spectrum ...

Ok, that was way too much philosophical i think for tonight ! :) haha ! :)

But thanks for the kind words ! It means a lot for me, believe me ! I tried to do what i love most and that passion for techno will never disappear i think ...
Well I'm not really talking about stronger or faster per second. Just less commercial, more experimental stuff, going back to the true spirit of techno.
You clearly have the musical chops and production experience to do something really different and something that stands on its own.
I think with the way music has diversified and blended and cross bred, now is as good a time as ever to experiment without having to worry about not being accepted, by DJs or the audience.

And yeah, shit has changed, marketing, perception, social media blah blah. All the bullshit that has nothing to do with the music is now a huge driving factor in things.
But you don't have to conform to that shit.

Come to Subsekt, join us cunts, have your mind corrupted and get back in the studio and do something that really makes people stand up and say "holy shit!!" (Stealth it under a different name perhaps?).
ok, let me see what i can get out of my sleeve :) i might have some nice production methods in the back of my head that i can't remember of :)
and a different name ? yeah, why not ... any propositions ? :p :)

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Prophän »

I'd just move one 's' and make it Tom shade :lol:

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by tomhades »

Prophän wrote:I'd just move one 's' and make it Tom shade :lol:
good one ! :)

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by ggroove »

Lost to the Void wrote:
...

It would be much easier to do a video and demonstrate various techniques.
I really need a nice (free) video capture software.

Compression combined with reverb for example = win.
Hey Steve! I've been lurking the forum quite a while now and I've learned a lot from you, Mattias and all the rest.

I bet there would be at least 20 of us willing to chip in a little bit of money for a video series, maybe on a subscription level like Patreon. Or perhaps like a "premium" (shivers) member section. Of course that would equal more work and perhaps also go against what this forum was intended to be, a free forum for techno nerds.

With that being said, time is money and it's only fair to get a little kickback for producing quality production/mixing videos. If you feel like you have the time of course.

At least an option to donate via Paypal? What's your take on this?

Just wanted to raise the question.

Peace!

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by over9000 »

i would donate money for vid streaming definitely, as i learned everything i know until now more or less from this forum. not too much but 20 bucks would be fine,
but i would prefer to make it accessible for everyone.
i have no problem with paying for something that others can enjoy too.
video series gogogogo :mrgreen:

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Divjak »

Hello!

I have also been a silent member of this forum for many years, digging into old threads has always given me inspiration, laughs and respect for music makers, who invested a lifetime into making techniques and are willing to share them with others.

Steves posts are pure gold and I have big respect for him (and his music), of course I would like to learn even more from him. But I have a problem with your mind set ggrove. Not because I would like to save my 20 - 30 bucks, but beacuse it creates this fucking elitism on the forum that (in my opinion) techno is trying to run away from. I get shivers down my spine if i think about subsekt becoming pay to win. Thats my little opinion, I mean no offence to you. :)
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

There`s no elitism in paying someone for their time.
At least that excuse wouldn`t have worked on the builder who fitted my new floor.

I`ll have to think about this, it would be a time sink to do.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by over9000 »

well i think there would even be a "middle way":
i bet there will be alot of people (including myself) who are willing to pay a small ammount for some good, spot on vids about production techniques eg compression/distortion, master processing, innovative sound design, you name it.

Then i dont see any point in making these vids private or establishing some kind of premium member system.
they could just be hosted on some cheap ftp or dropbox with a thread in the forum pointing to it.

So the people who payed something have their informational vids, voidloss has some monetary reward for his great work in explaining production, and good information is spreaded for those who are able to find it.

i would be up to it!

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by ggroove »

over9000 wrote:well i think there would even be a "middle way":
i bet there will be alot of people (including myself) who are willing to pay a small ammount for some good, spot on vids about production techniques eg compression/distortion, master processing, innovative sound design, you name it.

Then i dont see any point in making these vids private or establishing some kind of premium member system.
they could just be hosted on some cheap ftp or dropbox with a thread in the forum pointing to it.

So the people who payed something have their informational vids, voidloss has some monetary reward for his great work in explaining production, and good information is spreaded for those who are able to find it.

i would be up to it!
Exactly! I deliberately included all thinkable solutions in order to stir up some debate. What you proposed sounds good to me, new videos sporadically with the possibility to donate and enough people (crucial) backing to keep Steve interested for the long term. If members truly appreciate the tips they get as much as they say they do 5$ could actually be enough donation/person considering the sheer volume of members giving praise under the stickies. It can happen, but... people are lazy.. so you never know.


About video: I should underline that I really don't expect 30-45 mins of professional edited videos. 10-15 minutes of basic screen capture with annotations is exponentially more explanatory than an article and that difference is the selling point, not gimmicky intro's, webcams in 4K with cutscenes etc. I wanted to make that clear.

I would rather give a couple of bucks to an independent creator than a "music school". Add: I've probably saved quite a bit of money already after reading reviews here at Subsekt and tips on how to use free or very cheap plugins. There are of course a gazillion video courses on e.g. compression, but a lot of them are very very basic (or very expensive) and almost none under the scope of, dare I say, proper techno. That's why I think this is interesting in the first place.

Sorry for typos! It's late and I'm swedish :shock:

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by ggroove »

Divjak wrote:Hello!

I have also been a silent member of this forum for many years, digging into old threads has always given me inspiration, laughs and respect for music makers, who invested a lifetime into making techniques and are willing to share them with others.

Steves posts are pure gold and I have big respect for him (and his music), of course I would like to learn even more from him. But I have a problem with your mind set ggrove. Not because I would like to save my 20 - 30 bucks, but beacuse it creates this fucking elitism on the forum that (in my opinion) techno is trying to run away from. I get shivers down my spine if i think about subsekt becoming pay to win. Thats my little opinion, I mean no offence to you. :)
All good! I think you misread, I stated 20 of us (as in 20 people). When I wrote this I was thinking more like 5-10 bucks. Again it's only fair to get payed a bit. Time = money! But I think I understand where you are coming from. I share your view and hatred towards music education going VIP-secretmemberbullshit and Subsekt would never go down that route! It should be open to all members and if the content is not up to par (even for arbitrary 5$) people would stop buying them. And if you're not living on existence minimum, 5 bucks is not a problem... and again there is the donation-model as an alternative. I'm happy either way! :)

Peace!

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

Well if I were to do this I want it to be done properly. I am a perfectionist.

I've done loads of guest lecturing at universities and private tuition, I wouldn't want to just do a rambling unplanned screen grab. There are already plenty of them, I'd rather plan something and keep it tight, concise and useful. Maybe 30 (45?) minute videos on different processes and try to go fairly deep with each process.

I'm fine with editing. Screen grab software I'm a little clueless, so I'd need to find out what is good to use.
I might need a webcam. Maybe a go pro would do it.
In terms of my time it would be pretty time consuming, and any time out of the mastering studio is time away from earning.
But I have been thinking about doing this for a while. There are some subjects and techniques that I just can't write about effectively as they require demonstration to make audible sense.

Yeah, have to think about this. I think bandcamp have opened like a patreon type service, I'm not sure if you can also sell video content. That would be ideal as I could control the price, keep it to an affordable level.

Could maybe do a voting system to see what subjects to cover next etc.

It's a lot to commit to.

I might stick up a vote topic just to see if anyone is really interested.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by ggroove »

Lost to the Void wrote:Well if I were to do this I want it to be done properly. I am a perfectionist.

I've done loads of guest lecturing at universities and private tuition, I wouldn't want to just do a rambling unplanned screen grab. There are already plenty of them, I'd rather plan something and keep it tight, concise and useful. Maybe 30 (45?) minute videos on different processes and try to go fairly deep with each process.

I'm fine with editing. Screen grab software I'm a little clueless, so I'd need to find out what is good to use.
I might need a webcam. Maybe a go pro would do it.
In terms of my time it would be pretty time consuming, and any time out of the mastering studio is time away from earning.
But I have been thinking about doing this for a while. There are some subjects and techniques that I just can't write about effectively as they require demonstration to make audible sense.

Yeah, have to think about this. I think bandcamp have opened like a patreon type service, I'm not sure if you can also sell video content. That would be ideal as I could control the price, keep it to an affordable level.

Could maybe do a voting system to see what subjects to cover next etc.

It's a lot to commit to.

I might stick up a vote topic just to see if anyone is really interested.
Sounds like a plan, test the waters with a vote! Happy to hear you've a background in teaching(!!!) and also wanting to create more extensive content. That's just a big bonus!

The price should of course reflect the breadth of the content. I would sign up right away!

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Hades »

Mono-xID wrote:
tomhades wrote:Well, i think you kind of hit it there ... i think i was "wandering around" the last years ... i still am kind of "proud" on the path i followed and still stand behind a lot of releases i did in the past as well, even if they went in different directions & styles ... but i guess, as i also said in my introduction on the forum, i still have a big love to stronger & faster techno ... i have shitload of that stuff on my hard drive but somehow it seems that it was never the time nor the place to get it out ... maybe even in an different way of thinking about it : when i tried to get a bit "stronger" (read : more dirt & raw feeling) it was never ever received in a good way, i would even say with lots of disrespect on that ... somehow sad on the way things something go but it is reality ... the only thing i will never understand is why nowadays a music career is being influenced for only 5% based on music and 95% on marketing & social media & pr & ... isn't music normally something we judge with our ears and not with our eyes ?

But... that might be also the reason why i'm on this forum ... i want to have another "point of view" on things and want to get in contact with people who are following a different path as well ... i want to have honest opinions and not the once based on the "hype of the moment" ...

Being in the scene for many years is a blessing but sometimes also a curse ... as for me it feels like i challenged myself that much that i'm not sure anymore if i'm still getting the same satisfying outcome as it did in the past ...

And now, regarding the way of working : i think i really follow you in here ! Maybe i should get out of my "old school" of studio working ... but just to clear out things : i'm still doing lots of processing & resampling during the production work ... only thing i don't do in there is literally try to get the "best sound" (in terms of eq, compression, ...) ... i tend to leave those in the mixing stage where i try to open up & place every element in its frequency spectrum ...

Ok, that was way too much philosophical i think for tonight ! :) haha ! :)

But thanks for the kind words ! It means a lot for me, believe me ! I tried to do what i love most and that passion for techno will never disappear i think ...
A post of class from a veteran. Big respect, Tom.
.
+1
it's nice to see someone who's such a veteran still genuinely caring so much about the music.
After all, the music is all that counts.

However, are you sure you don't just need better promo pics though ?? :D
;)
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Hades
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Hades »

to answer OP's question :
I don't use a lot of compression,
or better : I use side-chain compression lots of times, on like 70% of my different parts,
but it's only to get things to gel better together in the mix,
deciding where your priorities are, even after you cut away with EQ whatever was possible.

I guess it's safe to say I always use compression on kicks, and most of the time on bass.
(and pretty much always side-chain between kick and bass/sub)
And I might use some form of compression on a percussion bus, but that's mostly the exception.
I just don't really believe that what I do personally suits an over-compressed sound.
If I make tracks with others, I have no problem using more of the standard stuff (compress it as much as possible, use transition FX,...), but when I make my own stuff, I just don't want to use say a white noise riser,
or a heavily pumped up sound. I'm not judging anyone who does, and I love a big sounding track as much as anyone here, it's just that I feel it's not really fitting for what I do myself, although I do realize that I'm far from using compression techniques like Steve described here above, where compression becomes a creative tool rather than a loudness/almost semi-mastering tool, sort of... :)

Anyway, not sure if that makes much sense at all.
Just saying I personally don't use much compression because I think it's a mostly over-used production technique, and my own music is not exactly fit for what most people try to do with compressors.
I am a huge user of transient designers though... :)
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Careland »

Isnt a transient shaper kind of the same thing as compression though? What is the difference? I use compression alot of the times for shaping/controlling transients would I be better off with a transient designer?

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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Hades »

Careland wrote:Isnt a transient shaper kind of the same thing as compression though? What is the difference? I use compression alot of the times for shaping/controlling transients would I be better off with a transient designer?
well, no doubt people like Steve or Mattias are by far better skilled to answer that question,
but if I'm not mistaken, using only a transient designer can make your sounds cut through a bit better, especially if you turn up the transients, while preserving the rest of the signal pretty much untouched.
When you use compression however, you most of the time leave the transients to cut through at the level they were at originally, while you're compressing the rest of your signal.
But of course, this is talking about the most general use of compression.

please do correct me if I'm wrong.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Lost to the Void »

Careland wrote:Isnt a transient shaper kind of the same thing as compression though? What is the difference? I use compression alot of the times for shaping/controlling transients would I be better off with a transient designer?
Yes, a transient shaper is essentially a function limited compressor with very fast envelopes.
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Re: How often do you guys use compression?

Post by Críoch »

Re: Steves, or anyones vids or efforts.

Ffs.. you can't have the world for free.

It's got nothing to do with subsekt.

Sharing people's knowledge is not a right. It's a gift.

Theres altruism.. and then theres sucking the marrow out of someones bones. Who can afford to stop working? Stop eating?

And then you have stupidity. Being dopey with hippy dippy suggestions that'll make sure no videos are ever made. *clap clap*

Build it & they'll come. Whatever it is Steve.. I'd support it. If others don't value it cos theyre tight & selfish - fuck em! Their loss.
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