Comments on: How to use compression to add punch, warmth and power to your mix

By: Taylor

Taylor — Wed, 02 Sep 2009 05:24:47 +0000

Great write-up, Ian. Interesting, clear, logical and useful. Thanks. I look forward to reading more.

By: J.Salazar Allelos music

J.Salazar Allelos music — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:12:24 +0000

2:1 ratio seems like a nice place to rest most compression additions. seems like every time i turned around, my professors were harping on compression ratios…or some other ‘Berklee method”…I like the 2009 method, there are few rules to production, i think. templates are great, genre specific guidelines are great, doing what the hell you want to achieve a nice mix…now thats what im talking about. i would argue too many tools have taken away from music by way of deleting the raw.

By: James Pew

James Pew — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 14:14:56 +0000

Great post Ian.

I find that when working with “peaky” acoustic instruments (upright bass, acoustic guitar, drums, fiddle, etc) using a low ratio like 2:1 with a higher threshold (15 or more db) can help to smooth the peaks while allowing the instrument to still sound natural.

But of course this all depends on how the instrument is recorded and how obnoxious the peaks are.

I used this compression approach to practically every instrument in a production called “Reverie” of New Folk artist Andrea Gauster…you can hear it at http://brokenwindowrecords.com/artists/andrea-gauster/