A-Bombs

This section of music is a raw mix, with no compression and only some basic eqs.

The drums are soloed. It sounds pretty weak.

Here we have compressed, separately, the snare, kick drum, and hihats. The kick and snare were compresses hard and with a somewhat slow attack rate to bring out more thwack, and the release is fast to bring up the tail so that it doesn't make these elements sound like quick "pops".

I wanted to make the drums feel even stronger and more tied together so I bussed all the parts, hihat, kick, and snare, to a group channel and compressed them together. I also used an expander, which is the opposite of what a compressor does, to act on this submix. I set the threshhold of the expander to act on the snare and kick and tweaked the timing of the release to make the amplitude of the drums pump up and down between kick and snare hits in a way that gives the hihats more of a rhythmic interplay and energy as they rise and fall against the beat.

Heres the bass put against the compressed drums. We all want big bass, but if I put it any louder, it will just be too much when it meets the kick and sound messy. Hmmm what to do...?

Ahh the joy of sidechaining. Here I have sent a copy of the kick drum to act as a the key input on a compressor that is acting on the bass. As the kick hits, the bass is dropped down in level. This will let me bring up the bass as it will fill in the space between kick hits, but will open up for the kick. Setting the release time right also creates more rhythmic interest.

Here is a lame sounding synth that covers everything up. It is annoying.

Here I have sent the snare to act on the synth as the key input on a sidechain compressor. When the snare hits, the synth drops down and slowly rises up again. Now with the kick and snare can really jump through, and there is solidness between the beats.

Here is the song again, as heard at the beginning, with all compression off.

And here is it compressed again. Notice how when compressed like this, it is very easy to listen really loud and get a powerful sound. Wheras the raw version is too quiet, but when turned up loud, just ends up sounding uncomfortable...to get the "meat" of the song between beats loud, the transients are too much, and to adjust so the transients are at an ideal level, the rest of the music doesn't seem so strong. This is why compression and sidechain compession are essential.