so if you had the option to compress either low or high frequencies in the track,
which one would you choose to do?

(is it more important to compress low frequencies or high frequencies, and why?)

thanks!

 

There’s no “one size fits all” answer to your question unfortunately.

 

Also, if this implies a finished 2tr, assuming the individual tracks were compressed and eq'd well then on a finished bounce I usually find myself compressing less on the low end or not at all. But this can be down to the track and genre.
@No Avenger Does that correlate with any of your mastering experiences or not?

 

Hard question. is it for yourself or for others?

If it's for myself I'd compress the high frequencies. I'm a bit treble-sensitive and the high end gets messy way faster than the low end for me.
It's the opposite for others. People mostly play their music on TVs, laptops, phones, portable speakers and headphones/earbuds with either an all-round terrible sound or terrible bass-focused tuning. I mix with KSC-75s with Yaxis and the P.E. headband and if I can really hear the bass in a track I'm mixing then I KNOW I absolutely need to tone it down.

 

I think of compression like EQ or any other sound manipulation. I only use it if I need to. In fact, I don't use compressors much, my main uses for compression is usually multiband compression and sidechaining to duck sounds underneath other sounds. I use clippers and limiters (limiter is a form of compression) more often. Alot of people think you NEED to use compressors on every channel.. And you may Need to.. But you need to know WHY you are adding it. Depends on the sound, the transients, the un-evenness of the amplitude, and on the genre itself.

 

from an overall compression, i would definetly go for the mid frequencies. there you have the highest amount of content in any case, so i would chase to control it.
besides that, i would rather compress low frequencies a little or just eq on high frequencies

 

Also, the best mastering engineer in the world wouldn't answer your initial question. Anyone saying "I would compress this, I would compress that..." without actually hearing the sound.. Is completely wrong. There is absolutely no generalized answer to your question.. It's like asking someone "does my music sound good?", and then NOT letting them hear your music.

 

43 ms attack, 259 ms release, -14.7 dB threshold for low frequencies and 22.4 ms attack, 232 ms release, -22.56 dB threshold for the high frequencies. and leave the mids untouched, so I can get them with the clipper on the master for more density

 

You compress the parts that need transient and level control. Thats what compressors are for, they're not an EQ tool.

 

Try starting with a limiter set to -1 for both the threshold & release. While listening (at a low level), switch the limiter on & off. Listen to what is changing. Anything poking out or becoming annoying? Is the sound balanced? Now decrease the threshold in steps of one (-3 to -4 max).

This should inform you where to target your efforts. EQ, Compression & levels for individual tracks or the mix bus.

 

I prefer to compress the low frequencies. the higher frequencies may travel faster, but the low frequencies travel the farthest due to their longer wavelengths. so I try to catch them first before they are able to get away.

 

In my personal experience. I have ruined many songs and even an album, by using compression as a toy. Because I know that like me, several of us have fallen into that mistake, the mistake of not listening. We see a plugin that we find attractive and we put it on the track, on the bus, or on the master, or because we saw a video on the internet that this plugin is going to make our song sound professional. Today I hate those songs, they lost their meaning, they sound crushed, boring, they have no dynamics, they lost all the magic they once had for me.
In conclusion and as several here have already said. The tools must be used only when they are needed, there is no formula.
One of the things that I do now is, once I finish a project, I save it, and continue with another, at the same time I open it again, and I find over compression, too much eq or little, etc, and I am retouching.

Going exclusively to your question.
For example:
You have a drum loop, where a hit hat is sounding too bright, well, what I personally do is use a dynamic equalizer to treat that specific frequency, my favorite is the one from fabfilter 3, you look at the spectrum, you find the problem and you reduce it, but you also have to be careful not to overdo the compression, because it will take away harmonics, that's why, as I said before, sometimes it's listening, resting, listening again, etc.

 

Last edited by a moderator: Apr 28, 2022

If you have a mix and an instrument is too quiet and you want it to fit in the mix, you use a compressor to make the instrument louder. This is done by listening and not by theoretical frequency analysis, you should train your ears better.

 

Man, you astound me with your questions sometimes.

 

So what is the the gist of why (surely it's not 'on what it depends')?
Especially I'm interested in how it depends on genre (what genres 'demand' compression?)

 

I use something like they used to cut vinyl back then to listen to any modern mix: a high f leveler and a compressor after that.
Because I consider most modern mixes as way to harsh. So I would rather compress high end, but that wouldn't be necessary if it was a decent mix.

 

There are some genres that use compression tech techniques more Than others. For instance, I genre like DnB or even dubstep, commonly have snares that are snappy transient in the first few miliseconds (higher attack) with an artificially long tail that washes like reverb almost (lower threshold and longer release) But what I meant is, as stated, no sound demands compression unless it's needed. Compression is used to make quiet parts and louder parts of sound closer in volume. But just like EQ, you don't need it if it's not needed.

 

I feel like compression is a tool not a goal. I try not to use compressors.