Yes, that would make sense – and, it suggests that you’re trying to compress something that’s already quite compressed – sustained guitar chords, for example ? I’m following you back now, let’s speak by email !

Ian

Many thanks for your interest. Would it make more sense if i said “whenever I lowered the threshold enough for some of the signal to start getting compressed, the gain reduction meter never went completely back to zero but remained steadily just under zero”? I’m afraid I must have confused my terminology Also tried DMing on twitter but it says I can’t DM who isn’t following me.

Well first of all, these can only ever be guidelines and suggestions – it depends entirely on what you’re trying to compress. And I agree, bass needs to be consistent, so heavy compression will work well, if the player hasn’t already dealt with it himself using pedals and the amp.

And yes, with heavy music consistency is important – that’s exactly why you’d use a compressor. Breaking the “golden rule” still isn’t advisable, though. Although over-compression can sometimes sound great, too – I wrote about it here:

http://productionadvice.co.uk/over-compression/

But I’m also confused. You say “whenever I raised the threshold enough for some of the signal to start getting compressed, the gain reduction meter never went completely back to zero but hovered steadily above it”.

Raising the threshold should reduce the amount of compression, not decrease it. and the gain reduction meter should never go above zero – that would mean it’s making the signal louder. Are you sure you don’t have an expander active, too ?

DM me your email address on Twitter and I’ll get back to you – you can send me a screenshot and maybe an audio example.

Ian

I tried your golden rule and found it impossible to apply. Whenever I raised the threshold enough for some of the signal to start getting compressed, the gain reduction meter never went completely back to zero but hovered steadily above it. I’m not sure whether this means I’m doing something wrong or if it means that the guitar player is an incredibly even player. In fact I’m seriously considering not compressing the guitars at all. I also discovered I prefer the bass guitar heavily compressed. I think most of what you said in this article probably applies for more laid back music styles. When you’re mostly playing fast 16th notes with a heavily distorted sound in a dense guitar-driven arrangement I feel it is more important to have an even, heavy backbone.

You might also enjoy this post I wrote about compression:

http://productionadvice.co.uk/compression-punchbag/

http://www.mixingwithyourmind.com/index.php

Thanks for commenting – in fact, I think a post on parallel processing in general would be a good idea sometime soon.

Ian