Posts Tagged ‘multiband’

Multiband compression part2

Hi

So, where were we???. Besides me regretting trying to write about such an awkward subject . As I mentioned in part 1, you need to make an assessment of what needs doing, before jumping straight on the controls.

Common example:  Heavy sub end (under 70hz) with Little or no need for compression. The idea here, is to find the crossover point for band 1/2. Like a cut off freq for where the compression stops. We can then bypass band 1, or use a small amount of gain reduction purely to blend with the settings through the other bands.

The green area through the centre, shows the compression curve. The most gain reduction being in the mid area, less at the top (squashed hi’s aren’t pretty), and least below 100hz.

Remember, this is basically a dynamic eq, and the green compression line, with its upper and lower boundaries shows that graphically.

Thinking of it as a sort of eq, may help you to realise, that for this thing to work, all it’s parts have to be working as one. The spectrum has to join together at the right times.

Setting up

As I said before, soloing in mastering can be pretty useless, as we’re working on the whole sound. First steps with a multiband compressor can be an exception. To get the main ‘problem band’ pushed into the right shape, may be easier in isolation. We first need to set the amount of gain reduction, and get the release time where it sounds right, so we can then match the other bands to it.

So…solo the problem band. This is usually band 2 (70hz ish to 500hz ish) or band 3 (500hz ish to 4kish). Those are VERY rough freq examples, the point being, the most energy in a track is below 4k , and we don’t usually compress much under 100hz, as we want the sub end to move. I love tracks that go all the way down to 10hz, and with a solid low end, but over compressing under 100hz isn’t usually the answer.

So, with band 3 soloed for instance, begin by setting a starting ratio (maybe 1.7:1) Don’t forget…as with a standard wideband compressor, you want to be paying attention to the attack time. Setting it too fast will try to compress the front of the peak, and will usually make a bad job of it!. That peak power gets dealt with by the limiter later on. So initial setup is a case of finding attack and threshold.

Check out this little vid, showing me setting up band 3. This is a raw file, with no eq etc. It’s purely for demonstration. If the captions don’t show, Click the ‘CC’ button.
Note:Any compression artefact is from the source recording. I couldn’t use a compressor at all, 10 odd years back when I mixed this

Obviously I cheated, by setting it up before doing the screen cap, to keep it short. Band 3 here is the problem band. Not that it’s badly wrong or anything, but it needs slightly inflating to make it keep up with the low end. This is a classic use of multiband, dealing mainly with the mid section. Remember….match the wrong, to the right.

Once this band is roughly setup, it’s time to make the others work with it, and I’ll show that in the next part of this series. Once you have all the bands working together, it’s time to grab those global settings to get things sounding right. But remember….mastering is about striking a balance. You may set band 3 up just the way you want, but find you have to make a slight compromise to get the whole thing sounding natural.

Well, I’ve just accidentally hit the “Publish” button. So I’ll leave this article there. The screencast stuff will become a large part of future posts etc, and will include narration and more depth as I get better setup to do so.

Apologies for this post taking so long. As well as getting the video thing going, I’ve been hands on with some mastering projects. Oh…and there was Christmas .

I’ll start working on part 3, where I’ll be showing the setup through the rest of the bands.

Thanks for stopping by, check back soon, and please leave comments!

Tone