Original subtitles

today I want to talk about mix plus

compression but I don't want to talk

about setting one up exactly but more

about how to hear compression

I've got a few videos on the channel

That go deep into how to use compression

and what all the different parameters do

and how they alter the shape of the

sound and the tonality

so go back into the archives and have a

look at those if you want to go deeper

on applying compression as such

this video I really just wanted to

concentrate on hearing compression and

hearing how the parameters

affect the sound and particularly with

regard to the mix bus because everything

is funneled through your mix bus so

anything that you do with compression

with EQ with distortion

all gets affected in a big way if you

just go about it in a slightly

heavy-handed way

so what I want this video to do is to

train your ears to hear these subtleties

and that might mean going backwards and

forwards and having a listen over to

some of the examples that I'm going to

give you today but it's really important

and it's the only way that you're ever

going to learn how to hear compression

and that's to put the practice in

now there are a few terms banded about

when people talk about mixed bus

compression on what it actually brings

to the mix and the most popular word is

glue

um which is one of those subjective

words you think you know what it means

but then when you really start to dig

into it you're not quite sure especially

if you're a beginner and you're trying

to hear these things and understand

these terms and relate them to your own

mixes

so glue to me is where things start to

feel a little bit more focused like

they're in the same Zone like the

instruments are all tucked in together

into the same bed if you like

just like they belong together and I

think what's happening is that the

transients are being controlled so so

the dynamic therefore is being reduced

slightly and the effect of that just

gives a mix and over an overall feel of

more cohesion and just starts to sound

like a record the other thing as well

that mix bus compression brings is apart

from the control associated with taming

those transients

is also tone most compressors

particularly the analog emulations have

a sound and that's a good reason for

wanting to apply a mixbus compressor is

you want to capture that sound across

your whole recording and that sound

comes down to tone and perceived as

depth and width and that's one of the

reasons I particularly like to try

mixbus compression to see if it works

for me so those are the two main reasons

for thinking about applying a compressor

to your mix bus transient control and

turn

so the disadvantages of mixbus

compression if you over compress a loss

of transients you get too much in the

way of dynamic control and your mix

starts to sound a little flat and

one-dimensional so it's important to

approach mix bus compression with a

level of

subtlety fine touch and that is

reflected in what you actually hear

hence why sometimes you might feel as

though you can't hear what mix bus

compression is doing

but it's better that way than pushing it

too far and

causing your mix to just sound boring

alternatively it's entirely possible to

have your mix sounding really aggressive

by using heavy mix bus compression and

that might suit the style of music you

mix and be exactly what you are looking

for that's an important point to

understand is when applying mix bus

compression for yourself

it the amount that you apply needs to

conform to the style of music that you

mix today with this mix I'm looking for

something that's reasonably transparent

and I'm looking for a gentle

enhancements and gentle control and the

benefit of that for you in this video is

that it's likely going to result in some

subtle results and subtle changes but by

concentrating on those you'll be

draining your ear to hear those

subtleties in your own mixes and know

when it's okay to stop because you've

done exactly what you intended to do

with the compressor

I've got my own kind of golden rule that

I like to adhere to when I'm using mix

bust compression because of how

impactful it can be on an entire mix is

that I like to use small ratios so 1.5

or 2 to 1 as opposed to four to one

which you may see for more aggressive

styles of music but for me I find the

two to one or 1.5 to 1 is The Sweet Spot

I just want gentle control and then

after I've applied that ratio I'm really

only looking for one or two DBS of

compression and I want to show you today

that you can't actually hear that it

doesn't sound like a lot but with

practice you can actually hear that

foreign

often asked is when do you actually

apply mix plus compression and I've seen

it done all different ways and

personally I've used it often from the

very start of the mix the reason for

applying that compressor was for tonal

reasons initially so I wanted to be able

to make EQ decisions with that tone

um already applied across all the tracks

later on in the mix then I'd start to

dial down the threshold to building some

control for the transients another

approach is to go as far as you can into

the mix without a mix bus compressor so

you're kind of building in all of that

automatically by using various different

transient controlling options and

getting the mix sounding as close as

possible before you even add the

compressor because that then means the

compressor has less work to do and is

even more transparent sounding and

that's an approach I've been doing more

recently the key to that for me though

is to apply that compressor before I

bring the vocals into the mix but that's

just my workflow some people bring the

vocals in way sooner than I do I've

always historically preferred to mix

from the drum mix from the start so

again in my drums sounding great and

then building in each layer of

instrumentation on top of that which

then means the vocals come in at the

very end of my mix process once I've got

the mix sounding great the instrumental

mix then I'll think is there a way this

can be improved well let's try mix bus

compression

now you don't even have to use mixbus

compression if you don't feel as though

your mix needs it don't think that you

have to because everybody does it

because everybody doesn't do it it's

really important to have a reason

for applying a compressor don't just

stick one on and start randomly

twiddling knobs and hoping for the best

have a reason

so the mix I've got here is a rock mix

it's from my latest Rock mixing master

class so the mix bus compressor I'm

going to use on this mix is the cytomic

glue this compressor has been around for

a long long time but it's only a recent

addition to my plug-in list all you need

to know about it is that it's a VCA

compressor it's based on the SSL bus

compressor it has one or two of its own

unique features I think it's a really

simple plugin to understand it's got all

the controls you'd expect to see on a

compressor and it doesn't go too

overboard with options now in the course

I actually had this on trial and the

reason I had it on my mix bus was I

wanted to experiment with it because in

the past SSL mixbus compressor plugins

just haven't really worked for me I felt

as though they collapsed the mix down

made the mix feel much more narrow and I

could never seem to quite get the

balance right I was never totally happy

and then I ended up moving over to using

the Neve

33609 compressor for a long time and

that was fine but after a while you

start to kind of get used to the how

these things sound and in the end I felt

that was constricting my mixes as well

so for a long time now I've actually not

been using a mix bus compressor at all

and been preferring that result

so in trialing this I was intrigued and

I was approaching it very much with

fresh ears as to how this was going to

affect my mix so this is my mix and this

this here is my mix boss so it's just at

the point where I'm thinking I'm gonna

bring in the vocals now and start to mix

the vocals into this mix so

hence the reason for trying out a mixed

mix plus compressor so up until this

point I haven't created this mix with a

mix plus compressor in place if I switch

the compressor out let's have a listen

to this mix so you can get an idea of

the instrumentation

[Music]

oh

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

okay that was just going through reverse

chorus and then into the solo that mix

sounds great I like the width I

certainly don't want to lose that I like

the depth so it'd be great if we can

enhance that a little bit but also in

terms of tone it'd be great to see what

this compressor can do to help me get a

little bit more thump and control on

those transients particularly on the

snare I just want to tuck things in a

little bit tame things a little bit just

contain them in a reasonably transparent

way so first of all compressors switched

out I'm going to play through that verse

again and I'm going to switch the

compressor in so there's nothing dialed

in here we're at a two to one ratio

threshold is completely down makeup gain

is completely down it's set to automatic

on the release which is a great approach

to take on a mix bus compressor and SSL

Style mix plus compressor the only thing

that's dialed in is an 80 Hertz filter

on the side chain it'll take everything

at 80 Hertz and below and sort of

bypass the compressor and send it

straight out to the mix bus so that it's

not acting on the compressor compressors

react the most to low frequencies so by

taking them out of the compressor

detector circuit then it's they're not

going to trigger the compressors so that

it's just going to be working on 80

Hertz and above what can happen is it

when you leave those in is that those

low frequencies will trigger the

compressor and you can actually start to

hear it depending on how much

low frequency content you've got and you

can start to hear the compressor working

and pulling down what things like symbol

sustain and other sustaining instruments

so as a matter of course I tend to just

put an 80 Hertz side chain filter in to

stop that happening but in a more

aggressive styles of music it's very

common to not even to not use that

sidechain filter and to actually go for

that more aggressive pumping moving

compression sound so first of all we'll

play this verse and then I'll just

switch the compressor in and let's see

if we can hear anything initially

foreign

[Music]

okay the first thing I hear

was the low end extension I the way that

this compressor was handling the kick

drum during that section I really liked

what it was adding and that was that

more that chest

thumping punch the low end to the kick

that's always something I listened for

and love to hear in my mixes so that's a

win straight away the other thing I

heard was in the uh sharper hits of The

Snare were being contained a little bit

not quite a Snappy sounding which I

actually like and wanted to control more

in this mix

so quickly again let's do that start

we'll play it again and so I'll start

with the compressor out and then I'll

bring it in

[Music]

foreign

so I hope you heard that then

first two points

I'm now joined by my other Studio

assistant

those two points being

thump on the cake low end extension on

the kick and

controlling those snare transients so

that's a great start that's a win for

for me on two fronts but we haven't even

dialed in this compressor yet so let's

do that shall we as I said at the start

I like to work subtly with compression

so that one to two DBS of gain reduction

needs to be happening across the loudest

part of the mix so that of course well

in this case and probably in most cases

is the chorus so I'm going to play

through the chorus and start to dial

this compression in and I've already set

the ratio I'm happy with the release on

auto I'm happy with the attack on 30

milliseconds 30 milliseconds is the

widest slowest attack on this compressor

and what that's going to do is going to

allow all the transients through

something to know as well is that even

though the threshold is at zero that

doesn't mean to say that no signal is

going through the compressor it is and

how much signal all depends on how

loudly you tend to mix I tend to mix on

the louder side so this compressor even

just by switching it in is working you

might not see any movement on the needle

but it is working under the hood and

affecting the sound if I was mixing at a

much lower level that wouldn't

necessarily be the case and that's the

reason why we were already hearing

something happening when I just switched

the compressor in and out on the mix so

on the chorus I want to see one or two

DBS of gain reduction so let's dial that

in

thank you

you can see the needle moving just

slightly before I've even started

lowering the threshold

[Music]

so I started to hear even more low end

thump coming into the kick toe my next

move is to start bypassing this plugin

or switching it in and out to decide

whether I've applied enough compression

or not and if I like the sound of the

compression but before I do that I want

to level match I want to make sure that

the bypass signal is the same level as

the compressed signal

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

so that's my quick process just doing it

by ear setting the makeup again to make

up for the level we've lost through that

one to two DBS of gain reduction you

already get a taste by doing that

switching the compressor in and out

you're already getting a flavor of the

what the compressor is actually doing so

let's switch it out

and do a smooth switch in as you're

listening through to this chorus

[Music]

okay I really like what that's doing

it's tucking the snare into the mix so

it's taking a hold of those Peaks and

just bringing them down and at the same

token it's bringing up the low end of

the kick drum uh the punch of the kick

drum I should say it's bringing them

closer together and that's adding to

that whole perception of glue

cohesiveness with the mix let's see what

it sounds like on a verse which is

quieter I'll start with the compressor

out and then I'll bring it in

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

sounds great it's doing everything I

wanted it to do in the chorus is

actually having an enhancing effect in

the verses as well more so I heard in

the instrumentation there coming more

into Focus along with the drums so the

the guitars came up in body and feel the

keyboards the synth came up in in body

and feel so I really like that so have a

listen again this time don't listen to

the

drums if he can just listen to the

guitars and the synths start with it out

and I'll bring it in

[Music]

okay that is really subtle sometimes

it's not so much what you hear but just

sometimes it's a Feeling

so uh it's really subjective I know but

um I'm trying to articulate what I'm

hearing here to help you understand and

perhaps hear the same thing yourself now

if we felt as though this mix was still

sounding a little bit Snappy and the

transients were needed a bit more

control yet we didn't really want to

apply much more compression as such gain

reduction

then that's where we would go to the

attack and start to speed it up so that

it starts to clamp down quicker on those

initial transients and you're going to

hear that on typically the snare and the

kick let's try that see if it see if we

can hear it and a lot of videos or a lot

of techniques oftentimes people will

really compress

over compress the sound to help you hear

that and that's what I do do in some of

the earlier videos talking about

compression

but in this case if I want to keep this

level of compression the same throughout

this video so that you can you can

attune to it

and not get confused with the level of

compression going up and down so

um I hope that makes sense so let's hear

this verse listen to the transient of

the kick and probably more so the snare

as I start to speed up this the attack

[Music]

foreign

[Music]

so I'm only dropping that down to 10

milliseconds these mix bus compresses

the SSL style tent on a mixed bus tend

to usually end up in either 10 or 30

milliseconds and what you heard then on

the snare it it dulled off the transient

it sounded as though the snare was

tucked in and a little bit further back

in the mix to be honest I like that as

well so it just comes down to choices

what it is you've decided you want to

get from your compressor

let's go a bit faster then I'll start

with it open at 30 so that's all the

transients have been allowed through and

then I'll perhaps I'll bring it down to

say three milliseconds

[Music]

and for me the snares just pushed back

even further there it's not not gotten

nowhere near as much snap and I wanted

to try and keep that this is a rock song

so that attack is pretty important

because I'd done a lot of work up front

to the attack of the snare I've already

done a lot of work there so I don't need

to do as much with regard to transient

control on the compressor on the mix bus

so I'm gonna put that back to 30

milliseconds I'll play through whilst I

do that and listen to the the snare

[Music]

oh

okay hopefully heard that if not

rewind have a listen till you do

probably uh it might be quite good to

listen to this on really good quality

headphones and you can really sort of

hone in on that on that aspect of the

sound that initial peak of the sound

let's turn our attention to release for

a second

and see if we can hear how that's

affecting the shape of the sound the

release will affect how controlled the

mix feels in terms of its overall level

and its overall smoothness and that can

have a great effect on that tucking in

effect but it's really easy to go too

far with the release and end up with it

overly smooth and sounding flat and a

bit boring and lifeless can also make

the mix feel far away

I'm going to take it out of Auto and I'm

going to move it to the 100 millisecond

setting so this setting here we've got

is a slow attack and a fast release and

nine times out of ten this works really

well on Rock mixers and what I'll do as

we play through is I'll gradually slow

down the release and take it round to

say 600 milliseconds at 800 milliseconds

and see how that affects the uh the

overall mix

foreign

[Music]

subtle but you can just hear this

rounding off this tucking in it's the

only way I can I can think of to explain

it rather than all the sort of spiky

edges it just gets a little bit more

smoothed smoothed out and controlled and

round

let's do it again I'll start from 800

and then I'll bring it back to 100.

[Music]

and I was hearing it on the snare more

than anywhere else in that particular

playback so let's try it again

[Music]

and it's affecting the width as well or

the separation

I could hear at 100 milliseconds I could

hear the instrumentation in there in its

own space a little bit more than when it

was round at 1.2 uh everything felt a

little bit more squished together not in

a bad way in a controlled way so let me

play that again I'll start at 1.2 and

then I'll quickly bring it around to 100

milliseconds and listen to the placement

of the guitars I think that's where I

heard it the most and hear how the

guitars kind of get Blended in at 1.2

but then seem to jump into their own

space at 100

oh

[Music]

so I hope you heard that you could hear

it on the acoustic and the electric it

just felt as though they'd had a little

bit more life with the faster release

now again this is all dependent on the

tracks you're mixing on the way they've

been recorded on the way they've been

processed on the run up to the mix bus

so there are no settings that will work

for every recording you've got to play

around and see what works for you again

based on what it is your reason for

putting the mix bus compressor on in the

first place

so I'm going back to Auto so one last

thing I want to do is actually take this

side chain filter out to see and try and

explain

how I'm hearing the tonality of the

compression change when I do that so

we've been used to listening to the mix

with that in place I'm going to take

that out and let's listen to the mix and

have a look at the meter and see what

effect that has on the gain reduction

taking place

[Music]

thank you

[Music]

so without the filtering you've seen a

tiny bit more movement on the needle so

the compressor was working harder and

compressing more but also then I was

hearing that the kick didn't feel as

present it felt slightly recessed in the

mix some more that might be a different

story if you were mixing with a

compressor on right from the outset with

the sidechain filter off because you

would compensate for that as you mix by

adding more

low end in earlier up in the chain

consequently that's also going to mean

you're going to see more compression at

the mix bus compressor but there will

come a point where you will feel as

though you're getting that punch back

but then you've also got to be aware

that the sustain of your instrumentation

isn't being affected and you're not

getting any sort of pumping and that's

where the Release Control being on auto

can really be your best friend if that

is something that you you're worried

might start to happen so that's it

that's the aspect of hearing compression

that I wanted to cover really in this

video because it's how how I hear the

compression on the mix bus I always

listen to the transient first once I've

got the compression dialed into the

right amount I'll play around with the

attack until I feel as though I like the

way the transients are being controlled

then I may have a go with the release

and decide whether I want to try and

bring a little bit more focus and

Clarity into the instrumentation and

also whether it has any great effect on

the drum mix that I've already built up

am I getting the glue am I getting that

cohesion

does it help the mix feel a lot more

like a record with that with it than

without it and if the answer is yes

and that's a big win and I'm going to

keep it on my mix bus for the remainder

of the mix when I start to bring the

vocals in so I hope that's helped You

Hear What compression does to a mix we

heard the low end extend on the kick

drum we heard the transients getting

controlled ever so slightly on the snare

as they were being tucked into the mix

and I also heard more depth and I also

heard the width that was being preserved

that I'd built into the mix and if

anything enhanced a little bit more so

with those four factors in mind low end

extension snare transient control depth

and width let's just quickly go through

a chorus and I'll switch the compressor

in and out so you can try and hear those

four aspects that I just mentioned I'll

start with the compressor out and then

I'll bring it in

thank you

[Music]

thank you

foreign

[Music]

happy with how that's sounding I ended

up buying this plugin because I really

liked what it did to this particular mix

I think it's a really great example of

how to hear compression I apologize if

you still feel as though this is all a

bit too subtle but that's exactly what I

wanted to focus in on on this video I

didn't want to wind in lots of

compression and over compression I don't

want you to get used to that sound

because that's over compression I want

you to learn the subtleties of

compression so that you can use it in a

considered way in a transparent way so I

hope this video has done that so if you

like this video give it a thumbs up

underneath if you have any questions

about what I've covered in the video

just drop them in the comments below if

you'd like to hear me mix this song

right from start to finish then you'll

find a link in the description to my

simply mixing Rock Master Class course

so thanks for watching and I'll see you

in the next video

foreign