my question is...

putting a compressor on the master bus, noone can really know how it will affect the sound its more like of a luck game of how it will sound as the song has so many different notes/instruments

i was just trying to understand this whats the real reason of a compressor on the master track

thanks

 

you already asked about a/b comparison in another post. if someone builds a mix top down, they may very well add a compressor and a limiter quite early in their project. they mix into it, so it is not a game of chance at all. it is cookie cutter.

 

do you mix into the compressor? i can't understand these things much but i will look into them

 

Its about gluing the elements of a mix. If the mix is dense enough then you can jump it.

 

Putting a comp on the master track is quite a tricky thing when it's your first times. I heavily advice to have a compressor sound-trained ear before playing the bus comp game.
But when it' all set - good choice of comp and good settings - roughly not a shitty one and not too much compression - it will change your game.

It will make your kick breathe, your bass groove, and your percussions dance.

 

I can't recommend this for beginners. Every additional sound will change all other sounds too. This can be veery tricky.

 

Mainly to glue the track together! but you can do more harm! if you dont know what you are doing!
Using your ears over the years can help

 

Even in reference to bus compression and glue effect, some of the ratios I often see discussed being used are very aggressive for my experience. I think something like 1.25:1 can still make the sources sound like they are coming from the same space and not have someone do the stuff you mean. But I can't stress the importance of a safety limiter on the master enough. So I'm always going to put a compressor in front of it to reduce the chances of clipping things I don't want to clip. A/B and deal with it later, but I do not like the possibility of unpredictable loud spikes into my monitors. After accepting this, it is just lesser of two evils to me. If the mix is built with submixes/groups it can be rather transparent, or not that big of a jump even with the master strip processors on/off.

 

Last edited: Jul 30, 2022

Your question indicate WHY mastering is another domain than mixing.
YES both domains are "making all the tracks sounding great together".

BUT in mixing you can act on every track separately.
In mastering (ANYTHING touching the stereo master bus/rendering ONLY), you ALREADY have those tracks mixed.

It is a more subtle approach. And for a good reason : all the "BIG" work is done at MIXING stage.
Mastering is final polish.

Compressor or limiter at this stage is for "gluing" some dynamic spikes.

 

Best analogy ever of this.

We all know we'll turn the volume up on something and hit that wall. Might as well pick a wall that'll make a nice bang, instead of just hitting what ever digital wall just happends to be there.

I like big fluffy pink ones.

 

As already mentioned, it is to control the dynamics, so that all the instruments have more punch in common (speaking of the compressor on the bus), as PifPafPif said, when it is on the master, it is usually used in a more discreet, subtle way . On the individual tracks is where compression should be used the most (if compression is needed at all). It is also often used to add color. But don't try to understand this from one day to the next either. Because it's not only understanding how it works, but also how to listen to it, the more you use it, the more it sticks in your head about what it will sound like if you use the compressor in one way or another. This means that with practice you know when and how to use the compressor.