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Compression on electronic drums
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TheloniusMnk



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 2:24 pm    Post subject: Compression on electronic drums Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I know a little about how compression works with real recorded instruments, but what techniques, if any, can be used for electronic/sampled beats? My understanding of compression is that it is used to lessen the dynamic peaks of an instrument, but with sampled beats there are no real peaks. For instance, the snare drum I'm using is a sample, therefore it's exactly the same dynamically on each hit. My gut tells me that there's really no need for any compression. Like I said, I'm used to dealing with actual instruments, so my instinct is to want to use it. Would you go for light compression on the entire "kit?" I'm new to the electronic thing, so any input would appreciated.
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EdisonRex
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 4:55 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Well, samples generally aren't as peaky as the real thing. So compression might just remove whatever dynamics the samples have left. Of course remember that someone probably compressed the sample coming in, and normalised the sample in the processing.

In general I use samples as if they were already processed, since they generally are.

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jksuperstar



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 6:02 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

You're thinking of compression on a hit-to-hit basis. You can also think of it as just for one single hit...ie- covering the sample itself.

For example, the attack of a snare would get compressed, and the tail of the snares ringing could get boosted with make up gain. This gives you a big deep snare hit. All those frequencies that quickly die off after the initial attack will now get boosted, and have some more time to spend with your ears. It can also make thin kick drums really fat. Of course, too much, and everything gets breathy & squashed.

To do this technique, use a very fast attack time for your compressor.

To keep the attack, and still boost up the rest of the snare sample, make the compression attack time longer.

Tune the release time for however you like it. For instance, if you make it longer and also use a long attack time, the first hit of a fast roll will have lots of attack, and the rest of the really close notes will be compressed out. With shorter release times, you can maintain each snare hit's full attack.
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Kassen
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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 7:10 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

"how to compress electronic music" is a question like "what's a book about".

Compared to acoustical music or semi-electronic genres like rock I'd say you can get away with a lot more but that also means a lot more questions.

To answer the question on beats; sampled beats *can* have a lot of dynamics, for example if you're using a lot of velocity modulation, in that case compression may still be useful, for example if a effect like a reverb is used on such a channel before the compressor... In practice a multi-band compressor may also increase the dynamics in some cases. It's very hard to generalise about a effect like compression, which is a important reason to be very suspicious of presets that may be found on digital compressors.

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TheloniusMnk



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PostPosted: Thu Nov 15, 2007 8:25 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

Thanks for the replies so far. I guess I'm new enough to this that I'm not even entirely sure what questions to ask. As I said, my first instinct is to not add compression, since we're not dealing with raw sounds, but I'm wondering what other people's approaches are for compression when it comes to electronic music. Since dynamics are less of a factor, I'm thinking more in terms of how you might use compression in other ways, such as what jksuperstar said about fattening the kick drum.
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Kassen
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PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 8:29 am    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I don't know if you can make that raw/non-raw devision like that.

You could also look at sampled recordings, even single hits from libraries as "raw material" to be shaped into a "refined product" of your own.

Another (possibly) helpful hint; groove -or so it has been said- is about the space between the notes, this is exactly where compression in electronic music can shine as well.

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TheloniusMnk



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PostPosted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 2:14 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote  Mark this post and the followings unread

I see what you're saying, and actually now that I've been messing around with it a bit, I've found that some compression can help. For instance with my snare hits that I mentioned earlier. They sound great and "even" for the most part, but there are some parts where I have snare rolls or lots of quick hits that make the db skyrocket. Some light compression there helps reign those parts in. My other thought was just to forgo the compression and just automate the the faders on those parts during mixdown, but I experimented with that as well and found the compression does a better job.

Anyway, thanks for helping out a noob. Smile
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