Mixing 101 - EQ + Compression Essentials for Music Production

1. Welcome to this EQ + Compression Essentials Course: Hello and welcome to this course all about e que and compression. So my name is Thomas George, and I'm a music producer. So we start off this course by showing you all about acute and compression how exactly it works. So this class is for anyone who's brand new to music production or you being producing a while and you want to know the fundamentals off e que and compression. So by the end of this course will be able to understand e que and compression in a lot more detail to help you with your music mixing. 2. EQ Introduction: Hi and welcome to this lecture where we're going to be looking at e que so e que on equalizer allows you to boost or attenuate certain frequency rangers, which allows you to make them louder or quieter. To accuse will have a frequency band that goes from the human range of hearing, which is around 20 hertz to 20,000 hertz. The accused will typically be a Parametric equaliser like this one or a graphic equalizer like this One graphic accused like this one, for example, will boost or attenuate frequency bands which will already be in place for you to adjust. This means their frequencies are fixed so the bandwidth can't be adjusted. This one here we can see the set frequency bands and there are 10 of them a parametric eq. You'd like this one though this was kind of the same but allows you to adjust the bandwidth of the frequency bands on also allows you to adjust the center frequency off each band. So overall, parametric eq, you will give you more precision when e queuing. It also depends if you want to add some color to your sound, as some accuse can add color but of it you accuse can be transparent and not add any additional sound to the signal that you re queuing. Okay, so that's just a quick introduction into you going in the next lecture begin to look at a graphic eq you. And then after that, we're going to look at a parametric eq you. Thanks for watching. 3. Graphic EQ Overview: Okay, let's first have a look at a graphic. EQ you This one on the screen is the vintage graphic EQ you in logic pro temp. But the techniques I teach you in this lecture, you be able to apply them to pretty much any other graphic eq you. So this one's actually called a vintage e que so A vintage e que. Or this one which emulates a vintage EQ. You can give you nice tones or sounds to your mixes as well as you queueing so this can actually add some color or saturation to your sound as well as just e queuing. They seek you here is actually modeled after Ah, hardware graphic EQ OUB So what the Q does is that basically boost or cuts to signal in the frequency spectrum? So with a graphic EQ, you like this? The frequencies are set with ease. Certain bands, which actually go up each active. So with this CQ here, we actually have 10 different bands that we can control. So I'm just going to play a drum leap. Now I'm just going to boost and attenuate some of these frequency bands and just have a listen. If you can hear the difference with these boosted or attenuated. Obviously there you can hear of boost of the low end so you can really hear the kick drum on. I've cut out a lot of the high ends. It can't really hear the hi hats or the symbols as well. Okay, now, I'm actually going to take out all of the lows on going to do this by actually removing is five lower bands here. So this will really get rid of the lows. And we should only really be able to hear the top end of the kick snare the symbols that low end will completely become. Let's do vice versa. I'm just going to actually put these, But to a zoo there were. So this week you actually just put them back to the center by his an option and click. So let's actually cut out these higher frequency bands just for this example. I'm just gonna gradually boost them in again. So graphic eq you like? This is quite simple. You may have seen this for live sound applications as well. Ah, lot of live sound engineers will also work with the hardware graphic EQ You something to this. You may have seen graphic EQ you on guitar bass pedals as well, so it's just a simple he could like this. We can boost or attenuate set frequency bands. One of the thing to mention with you Q. And really, any plug in is you want to make sure the output signal is the same as the input signal. So you basically want the audio the same level with the plug in, off and on. The accused will have output as well, so make sure you adjust this outputs of the level is the same of the plug it on or the Blufgan off. So I'm just going to make some simple Ikuo changes now, and I'm going to make sure the output volume is the same as the plug in bypassed. So I have really increased the signal there by boosting these certain frequency bands. So what need to do now is reduced the output volume, so it's a similar level as the plug in bypassed and this is the plug in bypassed, but you can hear it slightly quite eso with the plug in enabled. I'm just going to turn down the output volume off this book it so this really need to reduce it around 2.5 to free db. So the plug in on we're not thinking the signal sounds better just because louder really want to have this plug in the same level bypassed as un bypassed. Some digital plug ins like this may have a input bottom, but I'm not going to use this because this may still keep some of the output settings. I'll just use the bypass button on in logic prayer. Is this button in the top left in your digital audio workstation? If you're not using logic pro, there will be a bypass button before the plug in as well. This particular graphic EQ you actually has a few of the features as well. So this one here, we can actually change the tuning This particular graphic eq you allows you to tune up or chewing down your EQ. You bands up or down 12 7 times you see there the numbers are actually changing when I just this tune. So Noel, graphic EQ use will have this feature. This is more of an added bonus to this particular graphic eq you so with this tuning option , though we have a few different options If you want to find certain frequency center for your bats. Also on this particular you cue, that is an output model. This actually models the output stage off over vintage Accuse. If we click on this drop down menu here, you notice here we have a few different modes. So this is basically different saturation modes on this will add some output drive or saturation to your signal after it's gone through the Cuban stage on this particular ECOWAS . Well, we do have a phase option here. We can choose natural or we can choose. Linear natural is a non linear phase e que. So this means you can hear all of the natural phase cancellations and interactions between the different frequency bands on the next one is linear or linear. Phase on. This basically minimizes the phase between bands on. It means we won't be changing the phase as we make adjustments to the e que on below this we have output volume, so if you make some boost or cuts, you can adjust this volume so it sounds about the same level as the plug in bypassed Okay, so that's the graphic. Eq you in the next lecture, We're going to be looking at a parametric EQ You? 4. Parametric EQ Overview: Hello and welcome to this lecture where we're going to be looking at a parametric eq You So there, Zeke, you hear Similar to a graphic EQ, you will have a frequency range off 20 hurts all the way over to 20,000 hertz. So this allows you to boost or attenuate the volumes at these different frequencies. Unlike a graphic eq you a parametric eq. You allows you to really go in and find the exact frequency you want to boost or cut this parametric eq you is the channel eq you and logic Pro TEM. It's quite a typical standard parametric eq you on. It really has the essentials for most e queuing applications. So this e que is actually quite a transparency que so it's not really going to add much tone or color to your signal. So on the Parametric eq you like this as well. We have free usable bands that have three different shapes. You can see them appear on with this one. We can actually click on them to turn them on or off and they are each in different colors as well, which can be useful. The ones in the middle are called bands, So these are a band of frequency, which allows us to increase or decrease the gain for these bands. They have a shape over here. It's called a shelf, so this allows you to cut or boost the signal and will keep the signal cut or boost it. So we have two of these one on the right on one on the left, so the one on the left is for the lower frequencies on the one on the right is for the higher frequencies, so the one for the higher frequencies is called a high shelf. On the one for the lower frequencies is called a low shelf. On the other shape is called a filter, and this allows you to cut the frequencies that you select, and it will actually continue to cut the frequencies where the filter, though we can't beat the frequencies we can only cut, so the one on the left is called a high pass filter. This one here, this is called a high pass filter because it allows the highest to pass fruit on. It cuts or filters out the low frequencies on the filter on the rights is called a low pass filter, so this allows the lows to pass and cuts out or filters the high frequencies. So for filters, when you hear the word pass, it basically means allow. So high pass allows the highs, and low pass allows the lows. Okay, let's go back to these shapes in a bit more detail. Let's start off with these bands here, so these bands allow you to cut or boost a signal between arrange at a certain center frequency. So with this you keep, you can actually click and drag these around, or you can adjust the settings at the bottom here. So if every band on the Parametric EQ you are free, different settings, we can adjust. The 1st 1 is frequency, so this allows us to find the exact frequency center, which we wish to boost or cut. So if I decrease this, it will be a lower frequency on. If I increase this, it will be a higher frequency. So I'm just going to play the lute back now and then scroll through the different frequencies available to here. It's getting the highest here on when the Grover to the lows. It's going to be cutting the lower frequencies on this drum loop. So this really allows us to find the exact frequency center which you wish to boost or cuts on going down. We have gained so negative numbers will be attenuation, and positive numbers will be a boost on then going down. We have bandwidth, also known as cue, so this allows us to widen or tighten the range of the band. So if you want to adjust a tighter range of frequency, we can do this with you. Larger amounts would give us a tighter key on smaller amounts will give us a wide acute on with this e que that are of a band's weaken that as well. And we just turn these certain bands on the rough by just clicking above. And we can just drag these nose up or down to find the center frequency to just a gain. And we can actually drag these vertical lines to affect the queue. What? We can do it down here with the controls. So let's just turn these off for now on. Let's have a look at the shelves, Okay. With shelves, the controls are a little bit different than the bands with the first control down here, we don't have a cent of frequency. We have middle slope frequency. So the number would choose Is the middle off the slope, not the line. So the number we choose will give us the middle off the slope and you'll be able to see this if I add or reduce some gain, concede he hits in the middle of the slope, not the start of the slope. And of course, the next control is gain where we can boost or attenuate this slope on the Firth. Control is a cue for their shelf. And if we increase this number for a boost, we will get a cut off just before the slope on for a cut. We will get a boost just before the slope on. If we make this boost even more extreme, we can get a larger boost just before the cut off and even larger cut off just before the boost. Now let's turn this off and have a look at the filter. So instead of a center frequency here for the filter, we actually have a cut off frequency. So this isn't the exact place it gets cut off we are actually selecting where the signal has been cooked by free db. So it's not actually where the slope starts. It's a little after or free DB after and then for the filter instead of gain, we've actually got a slope control. So this allows us to create steeper slopes or more gradual filter slopes, so this allows us to actually choose the cut per octave. So here, 12 db means we're cutting 12 db every active. And if we increase this to, say, 24 db, this means we're cutting 24 db per octave on the more we cut, productive, steeper slope will get. And if you go over here, it's the exact same settings for the low shelf on the high pass filter, as it is for the high shelf on the low pass filter on for the filter instead of Q. We actually have a residence control, so resonance is when you boost the frequency at the cut off points. Let's just increase this and you can see here we're adding some resonance when filtering lower frequencies. For example, the residents could be useful because it gives you a bit of a boost before the cut off points. This means the low end will still sound full. Also, having a resonance before the low pass filter could also be useful if you filter out the highs and you want to boost just before the field to cut off, as this will ensure that the high end still maintains some presence. Some Parametric EQ used may have a slight variation to this settings, but this to be on this is quite a generic parametric. EQ. You and the settings should be similar on pretty much any other Parametric. Eq You okay? So just cleared all the settings for this e que. And I'm just going to play you this. Look back now on, Let's go over the shelves on the filters. First of all, if we add a low pass filter, we can really filter out these highs if you wish. And now that's actually add a high pass filter. So we're going to filter out some of the lows, and now there's just a specific area that we can hear. Let's just turn off the low pass filter. Now let's turn off the high pass filter on the shelf like a set of a shelf weaken, boost or attenuate, and let's now add a low shelf. You can really hear the kick punch through there on just for this example that's cut with this shelf as well. Okay, let's now use a band, find a specific frequency and then actually narrow this with the Q control. And then I'm going to attenuate this frequency so this could be useful if you've got any problematic frequencies. Final Frequency first findings that problem and then reduce that frequency. There isn't really that many problems with this recording. But say, for example, you're getting a ringing sound or that something that you don't really want in the mix. You can go through and find the exact frequency and then attenuate or get rid of this frequency. Also, remember when you're queuing to adjust the gain control. So, for example, here we are cutting out a lot of the frequencies, so generally we're going to be making this quieter. So go free with this, gain control and try and balance the signal. So it's the same level of the blood and enabled on the plug in bypassed. - Why did there's found the kind of center frequency of the kick drum boosted this game the little bits. And then I had a listen for the high hats and just boosted this as well to make it sound a little brighter. I'm just for this example, I felt without some of the highs with this low pass filter, I probably wouldn't do this normally. What might do, though it's filter out some of the lower frequencies because it's not really that audible around about 20 Hertz, but lots of that can just be background noise and rumble. And then I'd probably balanced the mix with the gain slider to make sure it's the same level with the plug in Bypassed on Enabled. Also you notice. Here there is a real time an ELISA. A lot of the accused will have an analyzer function with this particular e que. There is an analyzer button. Here. You can use an analyzer as a starting points as it will allow you to see the frequencies as a visual guide. However, not all the EQ use will have an analyzer function on a do you recommend using good years and train yourself to use an E cube of out an analyzer if possible. However, this one's got one, just in case you do want the visual guide for these frequencies. Also, remember that you queueing. It's for solving problems. Don't just geeky for the sake of it. So eking can be useful if you want to boost certain frequency that you want to bring out in the mix or reduce certain frequency that you want to bring down in the mix. So don't just geeky for the sake of it. Always use your ears and also IKI for the overall mix. Don't just eq you the interest mints, so load you in the instrument to sit well in the overall mix. Okay, so that's a parametric eq you It can give you a lot more control. Lot more flexibility than graphic eq you. I hope you find this. Let's useful and I'll see you in the next one 5. Compression Introduction: hello and welcome to this lecture. We're going to be looking at compression, so compressor is an effect that actually changes the dynamic range off audio. So what we're doing is basically effecting the volume off audio over time by compressing it down and then pulling up the overall level of the volume with makeup gain. So really, we're mixing. Compression is one of the most basic tools. So, for example, compressing vocals is a very common thing to do. So usually compression allows you to level out the volume of a performance to make the dynamics more even in the mix. Every digital audio, workstation or audio editing software will include a base compressor plug in, but some compresses will have more advanced features. Logic Pro has a compressor, which you'll see here on the screen. So Logic Pro has a very useful and advance compressor plug and built into this digital audio workstation. So there are many of a compresses you conduce in different digital audio workstation, but the one in logic really has all you need. There are a lot of different fared party compressor plug ins, but the one logic pro, to be honest, is great and it really does everything you need in terms of compression. We are going to look out over compresses, though not just this one. I'm going to teach you the basics of how to use a compressor with this logic pro compressor . But if you're using a different digital audio workstation, skills and techniques teach, you are applicable for pretty much any compressor. So in this course, we're going to be looking at all the different dials and knobs here. Such is fresh hold ratio, makeup gain, knee attack release, and then we're going to look at some more advanced features for compression. So this compress, the model here that we're looking at is actually called the Platinum Digital Compressor. This is a very clean compressor on in logic pro. In this compressor, there are actually different models we can look up, such as the studio V. C. A studio effects classic V. C, a vintage V. C. A vintage fete on vintage Opto. But this we're going to be looking at the plast in digital because this is the cleanest. As of all of these different compresses, these compressor models actually emulate popular analog compresses, so they'll give you a different kind of flavor, a different kind of color than the clean plus and digital compressor. But this we're going to be looking at this clean the plus them digital. And of course, I want you to use the theory on the techniques are show you about compression to apply to any other compressor. This compressor also has a built in limiter on. Going down also has distortion on the mixed are where we can actually apply Parral compression. We're going to be looking at all of this in next few lectures so much you're going to adjust the settings now, so there's no compression actually happening, so I'm just going to actually increase That's fresh old 200 db Drop the ratio all the way down. Make sure the makeup gain is on zero on Have the attacking about the middle on for released . Let's leave it where it is. But make sure we uncheck this auto button and also make sure also gain for the makeup gain is off. Ondas Well, make sure the limiter is off on when I play the audio back. Now you're noticed in this display up here that the war will be no gain reduction. This needle will not be moving on If we drag the fresh hold all the way back and then increase the ratio on play this loop back. Now, this is just drum loop. You'll notice the needle will be moving on. We will be applying some compression. We're going to look at this and a lot more detail in the next few lectures. I just want to quickly show you that compression is actually happening right now. I normally wouldn't apply that much compression, but just want to quickly show you how you can apply compression with just a threshold and ratio. Okay, so that's just a quick introduction into compression of what you're going to learn in the next few lectures. Join me in the next lesson where we're going to be diving into compression and I'll be telling you the essentials of compression, including fresh hold on ratio 6. Threshold and Ratio: Hello and welcome to this lecture. We're going to give you a basic overview off the essentials off compression. So compressor is really used to control the dynamic range off an audio signal. You can actually manually change the gain of your track for at time. With automation, however, compressor will change the game levels automatically on will save you a lot of time. So what compressor does is it basically compresses or reduces the dynamic range? Doing this actually makes the overall level quieter, so the loud sections war become quieter, so you will need to increase the overall level on. We can do this of something called makeup again, which would be looking at shortly. Let's just first talk about this display in the middle so most compresses will have a display, even a meter display like this, which a lot of analog compresses will have, or even a real time graph display like this. Let's go back to the meter. So this meat, it actually shows you how much gain reduction you're applying to the signal in real time. Let's just play some audio for this now. I'm just going to reduce the fresh hold on increase the ratio. Look at their slates room, and you noticed that the needle will be moving on, actually applying some gain reduction. Let's go over to the graph you. The thing I like about the graph display is actually shows the new setting. We'll be looking at NIH later rum to be on this. I prefer using the meat of you, though from using analog compressors because they will use a needle display like this. Okay, so the most important controls for any compressor on the fresh hold on the ratio. So the ratio is how much compression you are applying. It's actually a factor of how much you applying, so lower ratios is less. Compression on high ratios is more compression. However, the ratio is not enough. You will have to adjust the fresh hold as well. On the fresh hold determines when the compression is actually happening. So the fresh hold allows you to select the specific level with the audio will be reduced or compressed. With this compressor, we have a dial for the fresh hold over compresses. You may have a vertical slider, and if the threshold is up all the way to zero DB, then there won't actually be any compression because the signal cannot pass zero db without clipping. So if you pull the fresh hold down, this allows a signal to go past the fresh hold on. Then the signal can be compressed at a certain factor that we set with the ratio. So now anything that's above 20 db will be compressed. At ratio are Frito one. So therefore, early signals that go above the threshold at a louder than the fresh hold that we set will actually be compressed on the amount of compression applied is to do with the amount of ratio that we set. So going back to the fresh hold, this might not be all of the audio. This might just be certain parts of the audio, the louder parts. So we're just going to be compressing down the ladder parts to make the dynamics off the audio more consistent. So let's just play this loop again on I'm actually going to play around with the fresh hold on the ratio so the threshold will be what's actually being compressed. So, for example, here anything that's above 30 db will be compressed on the amount is the ratio so the more we increase the ratio, the more compression we're going to apply. First of all, that I'm going to put ratio all the way down on. But the fresh hold back to zero db and you'll notice with the needle here how much game reductions or how much compression is being applied when actually turn the fresh hold back on, increase the ratio. So let's have a listen to loot now. And I'm just going to adjust this fresh old and also the ratio and keep an eye out for this needle here on watch. How much game reduction is being applied? You should notice there when I decrease the fresh hold on. Increase the ratio. We were getting some game reduction here on the meter. This signal isn't the hottest. We do have a lot of head room here, which is why the fresh hold all the way back. Because a lot of the signal won't actually be passing se minus 15 db so it will have to drag this back. If the signal's not so loud. You can, of course, add gained before the compressor. The reserve input gain here on this compressor. But generally I prefer leaving the gain on zero. Because when I bypassed his plug in and I tend the plug in, um, I wanted to be a similar volume level of rise. Your mind may play tricks on you, and you would think something's better just because it's louder so would normally leave the input gain. Zero on. Add gained beforehand if you need to. However, this isn't a problem. We just have to drag the fresh hold back even further on then dial in inappropriate ratio. OK, and now let's actually bypass this plug in and then I'm going toe tend the compressor run again. Just an example. I'm going to make a really extreme setting here. I wouldn't normally do this. Maybe if I was applying parallel compression, which we look at later on. But normally I wouldn't have the compression this extreme. But just this example, just so you can hear what the compresses actually doing. Let's start a fresh hold all the way back hand. Increase the ratio. Obviously the dynamics are far too tight. There you really are ruining the performance of the drums. But having some compression and taming those dynamics will really help you of mixing okay, going back to ratio. So this goes from 1 to 1 to 2 to 13 to one and 5 to 1 etcetera. So basically higher ratios means there'll be even more game reduction, orm or compression. The most extreme form of compression, though, is actually brick wall. Limiting with signals actually stopped. A fresh hold level brick wall limiting is normally just used for mastering to prevent any digital overloads, and it's also used as a tall to raise the overall level off the mix. When compressing those mixing, you still want to preserve some of the musical dynamics on I don't recommend compressing too much. Okay, so I've had a quick overview of compression in this lecture. We've had a look at a threshold and ratio. The next lecture. We're going to continue looking at compression. 7. Make up Gain: hi and welcome to this lecture where we're going to continue looking at compression. So previously we had look at fresh hold on ratio, which are really the two most important controls for compression on. Now we're going to have a look at makeup gain. It's a makeup gain allows you to add gain to the compressed signal. So when you're actually reducing gain or compressing the loudest parts of the signal, you're going to be turning down the overall level off the signal. With makeup gain, you can turn on a level, so it's at similar level to the UN compressed signal. Obviously, the dynamics will sound difference. But when you're working with any audio plug ins, really, you want the signal bypassed on bypassed about the same level? Because but if it's louder, bypassed or turned on, your brain may think it sounds better. So like a said, makeup again actually adds gain to the signal after is being compressed and for some compresses as well the maybe auto gain function. So the auto game of this actually allows you to change the makeup gain back to zero db, and it has to reference levels off. Zero db on minus 12 db So you know, actually going to be reducing the audio by minus 12 db for example, this is just a reference level, so of auto. The compressor will automatically determine the makeup gain based on the settings and also the mega K needed. However, I do prefer them manually adjusting the makeup gain. But if you're new to compression, you could always have a look at auto gain for makeup game. Okay, so that's just an overview off makeup. Gainful compression. Makeup gain, though, is really just a way of increasing the overall level off your audio. Once your audio has been compressed, though, makeup gain. It's just the way, really, of making it a bit louder. So it's a similar level to the UN compressed signal. So thank you for watching this lecture all about makeup gain, and I'll see you in the next one 8. Attack and Release: Hello. Welcome back in this lecture, we're going to be looking at attack on release for compression. So the attack on the release of both in milliseconds and for some compresses also, you'll have an auto function for release. So let's first have a look at attack. So the attack is how long it takes the signal to go up a fresh hold before gained reduction actually starts. So it's basically how long does it take for the signal to go past the threshold until the compression starts kicking it. So when we increase the attack time, we're actually here some of the front transients Onda at the start or sairin similar to the original loop so before the compression kicks in. So if we have a very fast attack for this example, let's just put it all the way down to zero. Which means as soon as the signal crosses a threshold, the compression will kick him. Let's just increase the attack time on. When you do this, you may hear some of the original material, however, sometimes there, for example, maybe a kick drum. You may want the attack all the way down because you may want the compression to kick in. Soon as the signal goes above the threshold. I do recommend experimenting both with attack and release because it really depends on what you want to happen with your mix. Now let's have a look at release similar to attack. This is in milliseconds as well. On is basically how long the compressor is holding onto the compressed signal before it lets it go. So this is how long it takes the signal to stop being compressed. This is easier to explain if we look at the needle up here, so I'm just going to put the release all the way down to five milliseconds and you'll notice the needle jumps back really fast. Let's just add some or extreme compression settings just for this example, so you can see the needle snapped back on. If we increase the release time all by up, you'll notice the needle does not snap back again. Obviously, this is a very extreme setting. If you probably would not want the release time at five seconds, so I'm just going to decrease this. If you have the release time up too high than the release can actually go into the next part of the audio, which probably won't want of this specific compress that there is also button. Many compresses will have auto release, but maybe not all of them. So what this auto bottom will do is it will actually look ahead and will adjust a release time based on the audio. You'll still have to adjust the release Dulles Well, because it's actually going to work in a range that you select. If you do want to use a release auto function, I still recommend setting the release around a similar area that you want it. Okay, Is that that is attack on release for compression? Hope you found this lecture useful, and I'll see you in the next one where we're going to be looking at NIH. 9. Knee: Hello. Welcome to this lecture or be going to be looking at NIH. So first of all, no all compresses will have any control. But what need control will do is it allows you to actually control how the signal responds when it approaches and also exceeds the threshold you may hear something called a hard knee on a soft me So hard knee is at zero Onda Sophonie is all the way out. One. So on this compressor, Sophonie is all the way to the right. On the hard knee is all the way to the left. It's all the way to the right, a sophonie. So if we swap over to the graph mode just going to adjust the settings here on, if we go over to the right, you can see there's a curve for the Sophonie, and if we go over to the hard knee, you can see the curve goes on. It's a straight line. Let's have a look at the soft knee. First of all, so a softy means if the signals are slightly over the threshold than they will be compressed less or even that a lower ratio in the signals that much higher above the threshold, so basically louder signals will be compressed more than softer signals. If we spot this over to hardening, we can see in this graph so hard knee treat signals lightly over the fresh hold. The same signals much higher or above the threshold. So if you want your lower or quieter signals to sound less compressed than you may want to have a soft me. Ah, hard knee, though, means all of the signal above the threshold will be compressed the same also of Ah, hardly compression isn't working until the signal exceeds the threshold, and then the gain reduction will begin instantly. Also of, ah, hard need. Game reduction stops as soon as a signal falls below the threshold, so certain instruments might want to hardly setting, such as a kick drum or a snap and then going back to the soft me. This will apply more gradual compression as the signal approaches. The fresh hold gain reduction will then happen at a lower level, with a signal is near. The fresh hold on the ratio will increase when the signal goes past. The fresh hold on will reach its full amount just after the fresh hold level so softly allows you to suit in the compression before and after. It really does depend on your mix. Some compresses. They may not have any setting. You notice some of the different models here don't actually have any setting. That's because these air trying to emulate certain analog compresses. And if we click for you can see the need change on this graph display because the knee setting is actually part off these analog compresses sounds or the digital emulation off these analog compresses. So there isn't actually in the all of these different models in this logic pro compressor. Like you said, some compresses will have a name. Others will not if you do have any, hopefully now you know what need does on the difference between Ah hard me Onda softly So thank you for watching this lecture and I'll see you in the next one 10. Limiter, Distortion + Parallel Compression: okay, some compresses as well. We also have included limiter. So after the compressor, the limiter could be used to actually tame any peaks that managed to get past The compressor for this limited, though, is very simple. There's just on off switch on a fresh hold dial. This is a very simple limiter, but they can come in handy. So what limiter does is it basically limits the signal suit? Don't clip some compresses as well. We'll have a output distortion option. So this lets you tell the compressor how to treat the clipping signals. You do want clean Sando? Make sure the distortion is on off. However, it can be nice to add a little bit of distortion to your compressor of this setting. With this logic pro compressor, you can add a few different distortion settings. So is actually how you treat the clip signals. Soft will round off the signal and then going over too hard. This will round off the signal in ah Hardaway and then clip well, actually square off the signal. So this is basically how the compressor handles clip signals. So conceive a smooth them over where soft or apply a hard clipped the signal or square them off with clip. So basically soft will give you a soft overdrive Hard will give you a hard overdrive and clipping will give you it even harder. Overdrive the distortion setting in a digital compressor or Emily a tube characteristics from analog compresses. However, the distortion will only work when the signal is clipping. So right now, the signal isn't clipping, so it won't actually hear this distortion. But if we drive the signal to make clip, weaken, go through some of these different distortion options, we do have a lot of head room for the signal so much you're going to drive some gain into the compressor with their input gain. Normally, I would use a separate gained plug in before the compressor if wanted to add more gain. So when they're bypassed on on bypass this plug in a bit the same level. But just this example. I'm just going to drive some gain into this and you notice the limiter will start working on for this compressor. The limiter actually flash you notice to be some red in the inputs, which means slipping and the output there won't be any red mostly going to set the distortion to offer. Now let's have a listen to this with a limiter working so you can see that 11 D B Obviously that's slipping on the output was on zero db. I'm just going to reduce this to minus 0.3 db. That's a very hot signal. Probably wouldn't have it that hot. But just for this example, you can see the limiter stops the output from clipping. Okay, let's actually set the input level. But down 20 db on there's one more thing on to mention on that is parallel compression, So parallel compression is when you mix the wet signal with the dry signal. For some compresses, you will have a mixed style. If you want just the compressed signal, make sure it's at 100% or all the way wet or if you just have the dry signal. 0%. We just hear the UN compressed signal on parallel Compression is basically when you just mix the two together, so if you have it less than 100% you will mix in some of the UN compressed signal. Like I said, if you have a 0% it would just be the dry signal, so parallel compression will give you a slight different effect, and it can be quite useful to use with drums. Using a parallel compression were drums allows you to use more extreme compression settings on then that should dial the mix back on. Blend in the highly compressed signal with the dry signal. So just this example. I'm gonna put the fresh hold all the way down, put the ratio all the way up. It's quite extreme setting. Going. Increase the makeup gain as well. Let's hear the dry signal now that's here, the more extreme compressed signal. And now let's use this mixed. I'll tow, apply some parallel compression and get mixed off the to. Using parallel compression allows us to actually apply more aggressive compression settings , but blending it with the UN compressed signal. Okay, so in this lecture, we've gone over limiter distortion settings on also a mixed setting that you may find in some of your compresses. So thanks watching this lecture, hope you found it useful, and I'll see you in the next one 11. Sidechain Compression: Hello. Welcome to this lecture where we're going to be looking at side chain compression. So a side chain is when you have one signal affecting another signal on. We can use side chain compression to duck an instrument down when another instrument is playing the typical way. Offside. Shane is having an instrument or instruments duck down or compressed down when the kick drum place to This allows space for the kick drum to still punch out and be heard in the mix for this project. In logic, Pro 10 have created a small loop with a drum kit bass sound on our paginated simp sound on a bad sound on I'm going to play side chain compression to the base, the simple on the pad and used the kick drum as a side chain source every time, the picture and place the basis since on the pad will duck that, So this will create a pumping sound. I will also allow the kick drum to punch out in the mix, so let's have a quick listen to this loop now. Okay, so for now, let's go on to the base, and I'm just going to add a compressor So in logic, Pro. I'm just going to go on the channel, strip here and go down to the blood and area and go down to dynamics compressor. And when we play this back at the compressor will act as normal. It's going to reduce some of the dynamic range, but will not side chain yet. Okay, so what we need to do now is actually use something called a ghost track. So we're not actually going to use the kick drum directly to trigger the compressor? We're going to use another track that's actually playing the same information as the kick drum. We can also have this ghost trap muted, so you won't hear it. But it was still trigger the compressor to do this. I'm just going to duplicate the drums, and then I'm going to drag over this midi information. You can also use audio as well as a sample of or software instrument as the side chain sauce. So I'm just going to hold down bolts, drive this down, open up this mini information, and then delete everything that isn't the kick drum. So every time this kick drum pattern plays on this ghost track, I'm going to have it ducked down the other instruments. This is just a four to the floor or every quarter. Notes. Crotch. It's on every beats. It's a very simple button, but this is really the most common passenger will use for sideshow compression. You can use other patterns. It doesn't have to be this, but the crutch it pattern or the quarter net pattern is the most common pattern for the side chain sauce. I'm actually going to meet this or we're going to have the kick drum playing at the same time. On it might mess with a mix on the much you're going to rename this side chain. Societe Compression can be used as a mix and technique to allow certain instruments to be reduced volume when the kick drum place that the kick drum can still punch out or sideshow compression can be used as a pumping effect, which is very popular in Elektronik music, which I'm going to create in this lecture. I'm actually now going to use an orcs track and send the bass synth on the pad sound to disorders track on. Then just apply the compressor on their This will give us a more solid mix, as the instruments will be going through the same effect with the same settings and can also save on CPU power, as you only knew one compressor for the side chain effect, rather than having separate compressor plug ins for each instrument to want to add side chain compress into. Obviously, this is quite small projects, but this could really help when you're working with much bigger projects, then for the other instruments. We don't want to apply side chain compression to. We just make sure that out but doesn't go to this auxiliary. However, if you just want to add side chain compression toe one instruments that you won't need to use or extract. To do this, you can just add a compressor on to this one track. Okay, so let's open up the mixer on the investments we want Outside chain compression to are the pads synths on the base. The easiest way of doing this in Logic Pro is to click on that, but and then go down to bus on. Just find available bus that's choose bus for, and then Bus four will appear here is going to rename this so double click on the truck s C for side chain and also on the scent I'm going to click on the act puts ongoing bus And here we have SC and same again for the base changed outputs two bus Andi s E. So, basically, the outputs off these free instruments will be this auxiliary traffic. So for solo this now we're here. The pad, the simple on the base. So we're going to add a compressor onto this auxiliary. Let's go on the plug in, slapped here, go down to dynamics and then compressor. And in logic, pro, we have side chain menu here. Many other compresses will allow you to select a side chain source, but it may be in the slight different location. So let's click on this and let's go down to wet says side Jane, If you haven't named your instrument, it will not say side chain. So make sure you remember what it's called or rename it. Now if we play this back, waken instantly here and see the pumping effects when ever the kick drum place, we can see that needle bounce up and down. And obviously, if you want to more extreme setting within. Decrease the fresh hold on. Increase the ratio. Obviously, Now you can really hear that pumping effect. It is a little bit too extreme for this mix, but I'm sure you can hear the pumping effect also in parts of your song. We don't want to side chain compression. Make sure you remove your side chains source or your ghost track in your project. So just this example Here, I'm going to have a section of out any side train compression. So just leapt over the pads for two bars and you can see on the ghost truck here. That isn't any midi. Information to this section here won't trigger citing compression. So let's open up their compressor again on when this gets to about five. You noticed there won't be any side chain compression on when this gets to about five. You noticed there won't be any side chain compression. That's because the side chains source this ghost track didn't have anything to send into the compressor. Okay, lets just readjust asleep again on open up their compressor again, this side chain compressor. So this we can also adjust the attack and release times. So if we actually increase the attack time we can hear it takes longer for the side chain compression to kick in. Let's just make some more extreme settings just for this example to this concerned a little smoother and less gated with a long attack time. But if you just want the audio to duck down when the kick is playing, maybe don't have the attack or released time too long. But for musical effect, you can experiment with the attack time on the release time. However, if you want more gated effect a recommend using faster attack time. Wait one where the warning is. If the release time is too long, side chain compression won't really take effect properly. So for sideshow compression, I don't recommend having the release time too long. So using the side chain compression doesn't have to only be for dance, music or electronic music. You can use of pajamas as well can be used as more of a musical sound like this, or we can use it for mixing technique. For really, all genres can be a great way of ducking the instruments down when the kick drum place and allowing that kick drum to punch out and be heard a lot clearer. But besides chain compression, you really don't want to overdo this unless you're using this as an effect. You just want the kick drum to kind of pop out and be heard in the mix and have the instruments stuck down a bit behind it. Okay, so that is side chain compression. And that's how can set it up in logic pro 10 of a digital audio workstations. It will be a similar process to this. The side chain feature, maybe in a different place for over compresses. But the technique of setting up a side chain should still be the same. So thanks for watching this lecture and I'll see you in the next one. 12. Other Compressor (in Ableton Live): Hello and welcome to this lecture. We're going to be looking at another compressor. So what I've taught you in the previous lecture, all about compression could be applicable in a vote Compresses as well. So let's have a look at this compressor here, which is the standard stock compressor in able to life. You can see straightaway. We have the same settings that maybe in a different place, but they will do the same thing. So here we have fresh holds. Anything above here be compressed. I'm just going to play this drum kit. Now, that's just drag of the compression down. You can see instantly there or the gain reduction. So this G R meter here is gained reduction. You also notice we have this button here called makeup. So this is makeup gayness. So when this is off, you hear the difference much quieter. And if we hit this makeup button, it will automatically apply makeup gain on. We'll just the outputs. Okay? Going across, we have ratio. This is the ratio off the compression, so this will determine how much the signal will be compressed. So for more compression, that's increase this ratio for less compression Let's decreases ratio. Okay, Going down. We also have attack. So if we increase the attack, you can hear it takes longer for the compressor to kick in and then going down. We have release. So this is how long it takes for the compression to stop after the signal dropped after the signal drops below the threshold, there's also an auto release button which will automatically set the release time. It is important for the game reduction to go back to zero before the next transient starts . So I normally leave this auto button. Um, weaken Mandy, change the released if you wish. Okay, Going across. We have a few different modes for this compressor. We have peak, so this will adjust the compressor based on incoming peaks that are detected and then going down. We have RMS, which is root me and squared. So this compresses based on the average volume rather than a peak volume, I'm going down. We also have an expander option for this compressor. So compressor takes the highest points on make some quieter. So instead of reducing the elements and expand, there were actually increase the dynamic range and will expand the dynamic range. So you can use this if you over compress something and you want to expand the dynamic range , I'm just going to put this back to peak and then going down. We have a dry, wet dial so you can use this for parallel compression so you can mix the compressed signal with the UN compressed dry signal, okay? And then going across we have knee. So this is the band area around Fresh old. So if you increase this, we would get a soft Ernie. And if we decrease this, we will get ah hardening. So if we changed this view over to the classic view, we can see the need a bit clearer. And if we decrease this to ah, hard, any you can see these lines around the knee will get closer. If we decreased this number and change it to a hard knee, you can see these lines appear get closer. And if we increase this to a soft knee, you can see these lines spread out. And here we get a softer knee or a softer compression. If we decrease, this number can see these lines get closer on. This will give us a sharper compression on. If we increase this number, we will get a soft knee or softer compression. We also have another view here, which is a real time analyzer for this compressor. So here we can see the gain reduction in yellow. We can change the threshold now appear on the threshold is represented by this blue line. We could even change the threshold with numbers. Or we could just drive this line up or down with this real time analyzer view. We can see the game reduction in real time. Okay, this compressor also has look ahead. So this sets the amount of time the signal will be delayed. So this basically analyzes the signal and then applies the compression. So add in some look ahead, Eva, one millisecond or 10 millisecond could be useful with fast transients and could be very effective on snares on vocals. Okay, And then going along, we can choose longer ethnic mode or linear mode. Logarithmic mode means sharply compress speaks will have a faster release time than less compressed material. So, basically logarithmic Moken give you a smoother compression than linear mode. So you can experiment with this setting as well. Okay, also on this compressor. We have this arrow appear on this will bring up some more features, which is the side chain on the filter for this compressor. So here we have the side chain button, which we can enable, and we can also select audio from. So from here we can choose the drum kit and we can also choose the specific drum in the drum kit, which could be very useful. So can have kick pre FX post effects or post mixer. I haven't got any effects on this kick right now, so I'm just going to choose pre effects, just going to change a fuse. Now you can see the game reduction that's being applied every time the kick from it's being played. I'm just going to drive this compress and now over to the base just to demonstrate side chain compression with this base just going to bypass this compressor right now and play about the bass sound. Okay, Now let's enable this compressor and you notice whenever the kick drum plays, you hear some game reduction and create a pumping sound for this base. That's just increased ratio. I'm just going to increase the attack as well because we were getting some popping sounds on. If we increase the attack, it will get rid of that popping sound. And let's hear the compression bypassed. Let's turn this side chain compression on the get Let's hear this with the drums when we have the site. Train compression enabled. Increasing the attack time also make the pumping sound less punchy. There's also a filter here as well. So if we hit this EQ you button weaken, turn on the filter. So this allows us to filter out some of the frequencies before going into the compressor. So, for example, if we use this high pass filter on, we cut out some of the lows you hear the lows aren't going into the compressor and you notice some of the lows aren't being side chained. So if we drag this frequency all the way back, anything above 30 hertz will be side chained. And if we increase it to around 1000 hertz, anything below 1000 hertz will not be site chained. So the audio that's been side chain right now is anything above 1000 Hertz way have various different filter shapes to choose from and We can also adjust a cue off the key for the filter. If we don't want to make you all feel to this, you can just deactivate this button. Okay, so that's the stock compressor in able to life. This is a great compressor as well. You noticed. It is very similar to the other compressor we looked at, but does have a few different features. And some of the settings are in slightly different places. So I hope you found this lecture useful just exploring another compressor looking at compression again.