mixing THROUGH your master compression?

[DaveBlack]

I just watched "mix it like a record" with charles dye (bon jovi, lauren hill, ricky martin) and he said he starts with the compression on his master track and mixes through that. That way he doesnt use as much compression on the individual tracks and it also gives him a better representation of how the finished mix sounds. My question is, if every song/recording is different how do you know how to set your compressor BEFORE you start mixing?

Has anyone ever tried this?

 

[aheadofmetal]

I do that sometimes. I don't know if it is "proper" technique but i usually slap a multiband compressor and a requency analyzer on the master bus and mix with that. This helps me because I can see which frequency areas are carrying the mix and adjust accordingly for more balance. Plus I dont have to worry about compressing individual tracks.

 

[kenboy]

I usually set attack slow like 10 mil or 30 mil on the SSL comp, and release as fast as possible. With 2:1 ratio, ans 2.5 db to 3 db of make up gain. The is really good for smoothing out, and bringing up the overall meat of the individual instruments. When talking about not having to use as much compression on individual tracks. I believe that is what Mr Dye is referring to. If you are having issues with dynamics, then you will probably need to put a compressor on an individual track with a faster attack setting. I have been using the URS saturation plug after the Compressor. I use the 15ips setting set to only 15% with 100 wet. It really helped tame those wild transient spikes that seem to come from now where. Exp in Logic.

Hope this helps. Please don't take as Gospel only my opinion.

 

[kalony]

yeah, same here...,

there are a lot of ppl who think, that its not good, but i realy like it and do it.
i place mostly the psp vintage warmer or ozone in the master. depends on the material and what i want it to sound like. for metal stuff, i take ozone with the multiband and a liuttle bit loudness maximiser just to bring it to 0db (but without hiting). if i am doing more rock stuff i take the PSP plug mostly.

but i first start mixing without. til the song starts to get rolling. busses compressors and eq`s where they realy are needed. when the song rocks, and i have to do the details, i already know where the song has to go to. than i place that stuff in the master chan.....

another good point is, that i mix 1 song like that, till he sounds good, than i import the session data to the next song. with the master stuff of course. so all the next songs will sound realy common if its needed.

just pay attention, that you dont use the things in the master chan to much as mastering effects. like making realy loud and bright and so on....its just for the feeling....

and dont be shy. if the sound is good in the end, than no1 will blame u for having something in the master chan

kalony

 

[Fox Mulder]

Never worked too well for me. I just use an analyzer in the master buss. That's it. I hate spikes.

 

[darthjujuu]

yea, i think mixing with master bus compression is a guilty confession we all have to make at some point... but c'mon! it's justified! how many of us have mixed a song to perfection, then thought to ourselves "alright, now we just need to add the beef and get it loud..." put some L2 across it and POOF, where'd my kick and snare go?! back to square one.

 

[Metaltastic]

From all I've read about master bus compression (as in, taking off max 5 dB for the sake of some pleasant pumping, NOT smashing for the purpose of loudness maximizing), it's actually better to mix through it almost from the get go, as apparently your mix can fall apart when you take it off (and in turn, probably would become not-so-hot if you suddenly turned it on midway through)

Source: http://www.faderwear.com/guides/extrememasterbus/ Great read!

 

[kalony]

back in the days, i used to have mastercompression in my mixes. for example the vintage warmer, if the mix was supposed to sound a lil dirty. nowadays, i use it on several buses, to have the possibillity to make differences. i use it for example on the drum bus and on the git bus, but not on the vocals and/or bass. the rsults are amazing. the instruments start to fit together imidiately. you just have to like the sound of the tool, and the sound should match with the song or the band.

i start usualy to bring up the verry main channels without. like BD SN, HEADS, BASS and GITS. i just turn those channels on, give em the righht volume and pan, and sometimes some eq if something is too weird. than i bring up the bus compression. like vintage warmer. just to get a feeling how the transients work pure, and how much i can or should compress...

 

[dcb]

mix into slate fg-x. no problems at all. i wanna hear the final product. i even boost some high end and low end on the masster bus with my massive passive so everything sounds even better,
before i start mixing. you work less hard on your mix and get instantly what you want to hear. so mixing and mastering is the same process for me nowadays.

 

[BLUElightCory]

I've been doing the Charles-Dye thing with AC1 for several years and I really like it. Generally I'll get started with some conservative settings and then make small tweaks as we build the songs. It's very useful for getting everything glued together and it also helps keep the drums in check when the project reaches the mastering phase (as the songs have been mixed with overall compression in mind).

 

[006]

Generally I'll get started with some conservative settings and then make small tweaks as we build the songs. It's very useful for getting everything glued together and it also helps keep the drums in check when the project reaches the mastering phase (as the songs have been mixed with overall compression in mind).

+1

 

[Melodeath]

I do the faderwear.com and Charles Dye method. Mis through bus compression and periodically check it to make sure I'm getting about 2 dB GR

 

[ahjteam]

I use a limiter with threshold at -0.5 and a spectrum analyzer after that

 

[AerialThesis]

Let's keep it simple.

1. Pull down the levels to a point where your song doesn't clip

2. Raise the faders till you get a small amount of clipping on the master fader

3. Find what's causing the mix to clip

4. Work on those specific tracks till the mix isn't clipping anymore

Repeat Step 2 to 4 till you get the loudness you need.

 

[chrisjmp]

I usually mix through a URS strip pro with SSL settings and a Mcdsp ML4000, both with conservative settings. When I start a new song or project, I'll import the master fader from another project with the plugins all set up. Then I'll group all the tracks and pull them up or down, so they're just barely tickling the meters on the master plugs. About halfway to 3 quarters through the mix I'll go back and tweak the settings a bit to get stuff sitting the way I want.

 

[DaveBlack]

where'd this thread come from haha. I don't remember makin this.