Saturday, July 23, 2011

postheadericon New York / parallel compression technique - basics

There has been a lot of talk over the years regarding the differences between mixing styles from around the world. These styles are often broken down into three distinct groups. The London sound, New York sound and Californian sound. These locations refer to mixing styles and they are actually quite easy to identify and distinguish from each other. The Californian sound is very open and natural with a tendency to move away from hard compression styles. Kinda laid back and "O-Natural" like Californians is some ways. The New York sound, thats a lot more compressed, with bigger, harder "in your face" kinda sounds. Kinda like New Yorkers! And the London sound? Again lots of compression but specifically multi-layered effects and arrangements. Kind a like Londoners? I dunno about that one.
Something that seemed to be very prominent in New York was the use of a particular parallel compression technique often employed on drums. This technique really does put a lot of punch into mixes and can be a fantastic way of adding energy to your masterpieces. But like many things, don't over do it! 

So where did it all begin? 

The internal circuitry of Dolby A noise reduction, introduced in 1965, contained parallel buses with heavy compression on one of them, the two mixed together in a flexible ratio.In October 1977, an article by Mike Bevelle was published in Studio Sound magazine, describing the technique as applied to studio recordings. Bevelle called it "side-chain" compression, though that term made for confusion with the side-chain compression technique which uses an external "key" or "side chain" signal to determine compression on a target signal. Bevelle's article, entitled "Compressors and Limiters", was reprinted in the same magazine in June 1988. Bob Katz coined the term "parallel compression", and has described it as an implementation of "upward compression", the increase in audibility of softer passages. Studio engineers in New York City became known for reliance on the technique, and it picked up the name "New York compression, 
The human ear is sensitive to loud sounds being suddenly reduced in volume, but less so to soft sounds being increased in volume—parallel compression takes advantage of this difference. Unlike normal limiting and downward compression, fast transients in music are retained in parallel compression, preserving the "feel" and immediacy of a live performance. Because the method is less audible to the human ear, the compressor can be set aggressively, with high ratios for strong effect.
So where does this leave us and how can we use this technique to our advantage? Its quite a simple technique to employ, either inside or outside the "box". I'm not going to blather on for hours and hours about the exact setting's. Your going to have to do the difficult part yourself. Using your ears. So here we go,,,,, This is how you setup and use parallel compression.

The basic concept. 

All in all this is a very basic thing to do.  In this case we are going to be using drums as an example. All your really doing is splitting your source sound. sending the split to a compressor. Compressing the living crap out of the parallel sound "to taste" and mixing it back into the track along with the "untreated" drum recordings. A common addition to this is the use of at equalizer post compression. Boosting the highs to taste.


Notes on compression settings.


I'm not even going to start on the intricate and open topic of compression settings and I'm going to assume that you already know how to use a compressor. So some basic tips here. What your going to want to go for is a really over-compressed sound. When doing this you need to ensure the your attack and release settings are as "rhythmic" as possible. Timing issues on these settings become extremely noticeable when compressing to these extremes so be careful! If working with drums your more than lightly going to need a "slowish" attack time. To allow transients through and a "fastish" release to allow for "full recovery" before the next transient. but be very careful! If your release is too fast it will send your cymbal sustains into the background. So think musically, time based controls demand rhythmic settings!  Your threshold should be almost all the way down and you should be getting quite a bit of gain reduction. And ratio settings can be in the extreme. Then obviously boost the crap out of the makeup gain, and there you go. Over-compression deluxe!   

The use of the Teletronix LA-2A compressor became very popular for this technique. Although the LA-2A doesn't have any attack or release controls it does provide a lot of what I can saturation. 

The LA-2A is a hand-wired, tube-based, compressor. It uses an electro-luminescent panel together with a cadmium-sulfide light dependent resistor to provide gain reduction, which, in the LA-2A, is called the T4 cell. The properties of the T4 give the LA-2A its unique character by making it an entirely program dependent design. The attack time is 10 milliseconds and the release time is about 60 ms for 50% release and 0.5 to 5 seconds for full release, depending on the previous program material.
The LA-2A has simple controls: a Peak-Reduction knob controls the gain of the side-chain circuit, and therefore, the gain reduction; a Gain Control for make-up gain; and a Limit/Compress switch which alter the compression ratio. The VU meter may also be switched to show gain reduction or output level.
The LA-2A has a sonic character that make it sought after by many recording engineers. 

Notes on Mixing 

This uber compressed drum sound is then mixed into the track and balanced (wet/dry) with the "untreated" drum kit sound.  If your drum kit is already mixed to level in the track. Your going to find that after adding the new compressed version, the drums get way, way louder (Isn't that a good thing?:) This addition is going to cause the drums to completely overpower everything else in the mix. Well unless your looking for that it's not really going to impress you guitarist and vocalist very much. This is why you should really have your untreated drums grouped to one or two faders. So your can re-balance between the original and over compressed counterparts. 

The use of an equalizer post compression is a good idea. It can help accentuate details in the attack of the compressed transients.  Another common technique is to send a bit of the bass guitar to the compressor along with the drums. I

Taking things a step further. 

So what does this give us? A bigger, badder bouncier drum sound that seems to now dominate the mix. Yup! Its pretty cool. But, it just seems a little over cooked, right? Too much kick! I want to hear the compression on the hats and Oh's a bit more. This is where a separate aux mix comes in very handy. Just like you would for a headphone mix setting up a "side chain" mix will allow for a lot more freedom.  I generally find that I seem to boost the hats and OH's quite a bit while being careful on the snare and pulling back on the kick quite a bit. Although it always depends on what your after. I find myself liking the effect it has on the open hats and how it impacts the crash transients and sustains. For hard rock mixes, go wild but be careful! This effect can be overcooked and can sound unnatural so your going to need to be selective with your settings.  

 More about parallel compression later.  

1 comments:

Leonardo Araujo said...

Hi! I'm a brazilian student and I'm doing my thesis about mixing styles. I like to know if you can help me. Do you have documents or links about it?

leonardo_02452@hotmail.com is my email.
Thanks.

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