No worries.

Parallel compression will achieve the same effect as upward compression, so they go hand in hand (and basically means the same thing). The mix will blend in the crushed "lower dynamic section" and fill up the shadows, just like additional over-exposed photos will do in HDR photography.

New York compression is parallel compression, but a low shelf boost and high shelf boost (basically a "smiley face" EQ) on the parallel compressed channel.

 

Last edited: Nov 1, 2018

Reminds me of something like this

Don't think any of those plugins exist anymore though

 

That is an excellent plugin man. This was released around 2010, and the whole Nichols bundle is avail in the sister site.
Cheers

 

I remember these.
In a way, FLUX took the torch (Solera and Pure) when Roger Nichols died.
https://www.flux.audio/project/solera/

 

Last edited: Nov 1, 2018

Completely ignoring everything, if you just want to make vocals more consistent in volume, try the recently released Voice Leveler by accusonus

 

Yeah was gonna suggest Alchemist from Flux (https://www.flux.audio/project/alchemist-v3/) which does what Solera does but on multiple frequencies bands. Good one @Baxter . The compress and expand and dcompress and dexpand options are shared by those two and declined in the "pure" products line.
Compassion might also be an interesting option for its flexible compress dcompress, expand options but also its filtering options (in the side chain and more) which are pretty unique and might help you with the additional help of a few options from the advance panel.

 

Well that is multiband dynamics, and those are great tool in many ways. I wasn't actually looking for multiband, but it might help for auditioning some samples while a full mix is playing.

 

I wish I could reply to every post here...
I'll say this: I am getting educated on this stuff by testing.
I have been checking a bunch of plugins and seeing how it reacts to sources with radically different levels.
I am learning not only how dynamics processing works, but also about different ways of doing things, both in function design and interface designs.
The setup I had was good enough, but i am really glad I asked ...

 

Parallel compression can achieve some of the same results as upwards compression in the end but they are different in the way they achieve those results.

@DoubleTake I would definitely recommend you try toneboosters bus compressor! the demo is fully functional (but you can't save with the project)
It lets you use upwards compression like mv2, but you have more control over when it and how much upwards compression it does! Just toggle the up button.

 

Yes, except i now realize that optimally there could be upper and lower thresholds. Anything -3db to 0db doesn't need any boost at all, and then a curve to scale boost more down to a certain cutoff (below which i shouldn't even be trying to use such a low-level source anyway )

 

i believe you are referring to a soft knee (the curve). some compressors offer control over how soft the knee is.

also, learning by doing is the best way to learn, keep it up.

 

It's not multiband though. Multi-dynamic might be a better word.