Bass compressor: Attack and Release times
- Thread starter blackcom
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~BURNY~
Member
- Apr 20, 2005
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I was about to play the dickhead of the day, saying something like "use your ears". There's no magical reciepe cause every recording is differerent (that's a good news,is it?). It will depend on a lot of things such as playing, recording technique, tempo, comp technology, suited result. But:
I almost always do this:
High pass (this will help the comp to work properly)
Then I put a first compressor with a big ratio (8:1 or more), fast attack which will be chosen according to the playing technique (pick, finger or... eww... slap). Fast attack usually means (for me atleast) something between 0 and 10 ms (well 0 ms almost never doesn't work very good for me, too violent). The release will be set the fastest possible before audible distortion occurs. The threshold will be set to kill the peaks, not compressing the sustaining notes.
It's similar to a limiter, just softer and this should be considered as an helper for the next stage:
A put a second compressor, that will compress continuously (lower threshold),
longer attack (depending on blahblah, see above), a longer release (not too long to avoid pumping), a gentle ratio (2:1 or less or more depending on...Blahblah)).
I try to not annihilate all the dynamic room, the mastering limiting will do eventually if really needed.
Sometime, I put an additional multiband comp between the two mentioned above to keep the low/low mids under control.
This seems to work for me, but that's very subjective.
I almost always do this:
High pass (this will help the comp to work properly)
Then I put a first compressor with a big ratio (8:1 or more), fast attack which will be chosen according to the playing technique (pick, finger or... eww... slap). Fast attack usually means (for me atleast) something between 0 and 10 ms (well 0 ms almost never doesn't work very good for me, too violent). The release will be set the fastest possible before audible distortion occurs. The threshold will be set to kill the peaks, not compressing the sustaining notes.
It's similar to a limiter, just softer and this should be considered as an helper for the next stage:
A put a second compressor, that will compress continuously (lower threshold),
longer attack (depending on blahblah, see above), a longer release (not too long to avoid pumping), a gentle ratio (2:1 or less or more depending on...Blahblah)).
I try to not annihilate all the dynamic room, the mastering limiting will do eventually if really needed.
Sometime, I put an additional multiband comp between the two mentioned above to keep the low/low mids under control.
This seems to work for me, but that's very subjective.
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