compression in ableton

[mo's taverne]

I'm just demoing the new PRO-C Compressor by Fabfilter, and it sounds very good. From smooth pumping to subtle glueing of a mix. I really like what i hear at the moment. Not sooo pricey and good UI.

---> http://fabfilter.com/products/pro-c.php

[Storlon]

off tobic but still, a little quote from Robert Henke from ableton

You mainly need three things for mastering:

- experience
- epxerience
- experience

Unfortunately we live in times where companies ( and to a certain extend including Ableton ) make you believe all you need is tool X or Y and you are done.

Sure, a Weiss EQ1 DS and a bunch of Weiss compressors and maybe also some (overpriced) Waves stuff can sound amazing, but only if used by someone with enough experience.

But even the best mastering will not help alot if the mix is not good. And even a good mix will not make an uninspired track better.

I hope I do not come across too arrogant, but i would say 99% - 100% of all demos i get mastering is *not* the point.

If a record label likes the music, they will pay a mastering studio. If a good track ends up on MySpace it will get it's hits, even if it is 10dB less loud than the latest R&B. If mastering in a technical sense would be so crucial no one could listen anymore to a lot of super cool music from the 1970s or earlier. Most old disco funk stuff is horrible given nowadays standards and taste regarding compression and sound design.... but good music, good mix and it catches you anyway.


Okay, back to orignal post:

zurikiser,
what do you want to achive with the mastering?

You worte you want "a simple, user friendly mastering plug in" which is a bit a contradiction in itself, so i wonder what you want to achive:

Do you think you need it because someone told you, you would need?
Do you want to be your track as "loud" as others?
Do your tracks sound bad in a club?
Do you think it helps selling?
Are you unhappy with how your music sounds and if so, what exactly do you think could be better and / or solved via mastering?

Mastering is 30% technology and 70% art, so it is important to know what
you want to achive, before giving any technical adivce...


If you read the article of Bob Katz, keep in mind his perspective: People come to him who had the most experienced sound enginners, the best possible musicians and good studios. If you have to master a record that allready sounds super good, mastering is an incredible pleasure and you can focus on details in sound, space, and overall appearance of an album. And then it makes sense to carefully avoid any downgrade thru bad A/D conversion, any additional noise/ distortions in quiet parts or fade outs due to wrong dithering and so on.

In the context of music created using Live it is important to learn as much as possible about what you can do with the software itself before thinking of buying more gear. More gear, even more software means more time needed to learn it. And you will not learn anything about music, you just spend time understanding a new tool. And here we are back with the topic of experience:

if you want to make a track louder you can use compressors. if you want to have the snare a bit more in your face you can boost some specific frequencies in the mid range. If you want it more crunchy you can experiement with the Dynamic Tube device. With the racks feature of Live6 you can build complex racks that add compression only in the mid range, that allow to slightly distort only the bass, that makes the high hats sound more stereo and millions of things, I do not think of.

If you spend a week trying this, if you read some books / articles about multiband comression and about how things like the PSP ivntage warmer or the TC electronic finalizer are constructed internally you'll come up with *your* sound and your collection of mastering / sound design tools. And afterwards you will know much better what you can achive within Live and what not and you learned much more then you would ever from buying any mastering software. Afterwards you will be able to make better sound with *any* software or hardware. If you really seem to reach an end point there and know what you want, then you can start thinking of buying more plug ins or of going to a mastering studio.

Also keep in mind: Mastering studios really like to get music with *no* treatment of the master. They can compress, EQ, maximize much better then you can do.
If your home mastering added a specific note you want to keep, bring both, the mastered and the unmastered version to the studio. So the enginner gets an idea of what you want from him.

Hope this lengthy post helped a bit.
Robert



"People spend weeks EQing some 808 bassdrum to get their "unique" sound. I kick an empty record case and record that and i have the most individual bassdrum."

[milc]

Waves bundle.

[jason hill]

Waves bundle.

yes...go with waves...

[New Guy]

Storlon, thanks for that Robert Henke comment, honestly i just love that guy.

[andei]

that Robert Henke post was really good, where did he post that?

i'd love to read more of his comments.

[MdM]

i use the TC Native bundle since 5 years and i' m still happy with this.
With Protools i use waves..

[mo's taverne]

that Robert Henke post was really good, where did he post that?

i'd love to read more of his comments.

http://www.ableton.com/pages/forum is the name of the lovely place where real humor meets great music/tech. geekdom.

nah, take a look at yourself but be aware of being eaten alive for noobish rtfm questions