The secret to Parallel Compression
I’m going to give you a compression tip that if you haven’t heard about, will be pretty useful for beefing up sounds without losing the dynamics and transients of the original sounds.
This is Parallel compression:
Put a compressor on a return track in Ableton (or any other DAW)
Make sure you use a compressor that can be set to 100% wet and has a ‘look ahead’ feature
put the threshold deep, like -50 db
Ratio about 2:1 – 2.5:1
Attack as fast as possible 1ms or faster
Release set to 250ms-350ms
Now you can mix in your compression on any track you want to beef up using your sends without affecting the original signal. It’s like the best of both worlds, a combination of compressed and uncompressed signal. If you don’t want to use a return track, you can simply copy your track and apply these compression settings on the copy and then mix to taste. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes for you.
Next check out my 101 Music Production Tips for Computer Musicians ebook
Happy Music Making!
Jason
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The Mental Game of Music Production
The Process for Electronic Music Producers
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Happy music making!
Jason