Studio Advise and DAW Guide

 

 

 

 

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I've used:

 

Compressors:

 

Classic VCA

(Similar to the DBX 160 compressor) on:

 

Acoustic Guitar-

Moderate Reduction Ratio 5:1

Quick Attack  10 ms

Medium Fast Release 48 ms

 

Vintage VCA

(Similar to the Focusrite Red compressor) on:

 

Kick-

Heavy Reduction Ratio 8:1

Slow Attack 50 ms

Long Release 270 ms

 

Snare-

Heavy Reduction 5:1

Short Attack 2.5 ms 

Fast release 24 ms

 

Bass-

Heavy Reduction Ratio 19:1

Slow Attack 16 ms

Long Release 290 ms

 

STUDIO VCA

( Logic Pro original compressor) on:

 

Ride-

Moderate Reduction Ratio 9:1

Medium Fast Attack 10 ms

Medium Fast Release 48 ms

 

Vintage FET

(Similar to the 1176 Rev A "Bluestripe") on:

 

Hi Hats-

Light Reduction Ratio 2:1

Quick Attack 10 ms

Slow Release 57 ms

 

 

Sidechain Compression

 

To achieve the docking effect for the bassline and get the kick drum out from underneath it I am very tempted to use what's called Sidechain Compression. I will assign the reference (kick) as a trigger for the compressor so at any time the kick will start playing the compression will take place and the bass signal will be affected. This way I'll get:

clearer kick drum

make the bassline working with the groove,

save headroom by getting a clearer kick.

 

Mastering 

 

Compression:

 

My aim was to retain a keen sense of dynamics and even out audio signal subtly. Masters which are not heavily squashed encode better so I've avoided extreme settings and fast Attack time:

 

Ratio - 3:1 (Light reduction)

Attack- 50 ms (Slow)

Release- 48 ms ( Medium-Fast)

Soft Knee 0.9 below the Threshold (-10dB)

 

I've got -5dB of Gain reduction because I didn't need much, most of the instruments are keyboard sounds and Guitar was processed in the mixing stage.

Using the Bypass I've noticed that the compression was adding the desired character to the song. 

 

Limiting

 

To maximize the final level I've applied the limiting after the dynamic processing which was more for dynamic shaping.

The threshold of -1dB for most encoders to avoid inter-sample overloads. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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To make the best use of the headroom space  (-6dB) I've decided to use the compressor as a limiter for the song. The balance was good so there was no need to compress hard, making it louder was not  a less exciting task.

 

Monitoring / Control of Noise

 

I used an SPL meter so as not to exceed 85dB (the second level of operation - for a short period-10 minute).

The measurement was made 1m. from the speakers.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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As compression is taking place, the waveforms become bigger, which means the output level is going to be louder.

 

I've used two (mono)

WARM AUDIO WA76 LIMITING AMPLIFIERS,

rooting was done from the main output of the HD card to Input of the Limiters, than back from their outputs into the HD card to be used as an insert on the Master Track. The audio signal was then fed into the new Stereo Audio Track and then recorded while processing.

 

Because the compressors are mono, to set up the same amount of Make-Up  Gain

we've used the signal generator to have a clear indication of how to set two compressors the same way to get the same output level.

 

20:1 Ratio (brick wall)

Slow Attack (to keep the naturalness)

Med-Long Release for the longer sustained notes (bass).