The WHY Behind Compression - US James Wiltshire goes beyond the numbers - 23/01/23

James Wiltshire (Freemasons, F9 Audio) is back with another tutorial video covering the WHY behind compression, where so many videos just cover the HOW. With a myriad of videos on compression, it's important to know the history of an effect, and why we need to set a compressor to do a certain job - and that's just what we have here. More from James...

Compressors are one of the most versatile and down-right useful pieces of music gear out there, and they're also one of the most misunderstood. In this series of videos, I'm going to share with you some of the secrets of compressors and explain the magic of compression and limiting – I guarantee some of these you didn't know!

We'll not discuss only the how? - but the WHY? ... Why compressors can impact your sounds and mixes so much, WHY you should compress parts of your audio - And WHY certain legendary designs seem to be converted into plugins every single week!. Ever wondered when you should use a Shadow Hills Mastering compressor?, Was Deadmau5 right about the SSL compressor and EDM Kicks? What's the difference between a UAD 1176, an LA-2A and Fabfilter C-2 and when do you use each of these? What is Parallel compression? .. What does the compressor's Threshold, Ratio, Attack & Release [actually] do? We'll get to all of these questions in this series and more ...

This 1st video covers the beginning of the history of compression, and by the end, you'll understand why the valve era of the Fairchilds was so vitally important - You'll know your 1176s from your LA2A, you'll know your FET from your OPTOs and FF from your Feedback circuits. And you'll understand all the fundamentals of compression by revisiting your teenage bedroom, it's stereo and annoying your parents.

More videos from James: https://www.youtube.com/@F9Audio

 

Everyone should know this stuff, if you don't.

James is a good guy, and definitely knows his stuff (apart from sometimes some slight errors which bug me a bit - there was another one in this video, which was why I mentioned it though I forget what it was now, I watched it a couple of days ago) and he presents really well, imo.

 

'Compression strikes fear into the heart of nearly every single producer I know'. Er,

And the reason being it takes time to fully understand the subject? Why should this be necessary? I can know shit about history and theory of compression but be able to handle it.

'And for me the best way is ... to look at the history' The best answer to Why is one single word, sound.

The history can be interesting and useful, maybe even worth knowing (and I think it is) but it's in no way necessary to handle compression.

 

Why compress? It gets the sound I want when I do.

Moving on...

 

What strikes fear in my heart is "the teenager with a loud stereo and his parents complaing about it" analogy.

 

"Nearly every video seems to be talking about how you compress something, this is the technique you should use, these are the settings, this is it (...) When actually the question we all should be asking is WHY do we compress something?"

Bullshit. Maybe on ig or other short format platform that's true, but on youtube people tend to explain the how and why.

Maybe he'll drop off some mindblowing piece of knowledge by the end of the series, but for now to me it just feels like another studio guy pretending he's reinventing the wheel, which sucks because the video is pretty good.

Okay grandpa .

 

The historical info was interesting and educational for someone like me.
Started out decades ago with a mono synth and cheap reel-to-reel and no money for acoustic instruments, mics, or outboard gear.
Never really needed or could afford them back then.
Nowadays, with every piece of equipment virtually available, I'm knuckling down to learn as much as I can.
Also, I'm old and finally have enough money to buy some decent mic's and gear.
And sure, there's lots of sh*t Youtube videos, but lots of info to be gleaned.
Separating wheat from chaff is an artform in these days of indiscrimination.

 

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2023

There is nothing "special" about WHY.
Because WHY is BEFORE "how".

EQ ? why
Music ? why
...

At the end : WHY there is an universe instead of NOTHING ?
And we go back to the useless Kant "philosophy", in witch "there is no definitive answer to a question" ... and run in circle till you die


Another USELESS video, among trillions

 

Why am I even here reading this?

 

Actually there is. For example all people asking for feedback already answered in their own way to the "how" question. In their own way used an eq, comp, synth, daw, to make a piece of music.

And because they didn't started with the "why" first,
"why" I am doing this song, "why" am I eq-ing -- and the only valid answer is BECAUSE THAT'S HOW AI LIKE IT TO SOUND,
they don't own their decisions.

They don't own their music, they need others to ask the "why", and come up with a feedback "put that guitar down 3 dB".

We need more people focusing on asking the "why" because right now most people are like robots: they are doing music with no real reason

 

Well for coloring, some guys use compressors as EQs and EQs as compressors.

 

Why compression? That's an easy one...because my tire was low.

 

The history of a compressor says nothing about anything - except the history.
In my opinion, there are only 3 YT channels that deal well and sufficiently with the "why":

• Andrew Zeleno
• Dan Worral
• Matthew Weiss

The first one really gets on my nerves. The second one is beyond any doubt and the third has some incredibly good courses.
Mixing with compression is definitely worth the money.

 

Last edited: Jan 24, 2023

Why 'why'?

 

I always compress before going in to a Big Muff, it is so much smoother and gives some epic sustain

 

Last edited by a moderator: Jan 24, 2023

Some ppl use overdrive before fuzz to get that compression effect.
Because saturation is also a dynamic reduction

Same with electric bass : saturation can work better than compressor as dynamic reduction AND attack definition

 

I've been wondering for a while now, have to ask, doesn't smoking impact your aim?

 

A big muff with some fuzz, drive it hard and you are good to go.

Double entendres aside, the Big muff Pi is an awesome device

 

Less than makeup and skirt