In Action

Standard Compression

Because of the well-balanced adjustment of its parameters, the mpressor is suited perfectly for many applications in everyday studio business. The settings shown in the above figure provide a good starting position for ‘normal’ compression jobs like vocals, choirs, guitars, drums, keyboards and so on.

Moderate ratios from 1:2 to 1:5 and release times around 300 ms make a good basis for further parameter variations. The threshold controller can now be used to adjust the desired amount of gain reduction. Depending on the source material, the EQ section can be used additionally with great benefit.

It definitely pays off to spend some time on getting to know this interesting feature of the mpressor and what it can do for your sound. The Gain Reduction Limiters offer completely new possibilities, too, and therefore should be given a try soon by all means.

Big Drums

In this case, a complete drum mix is processed with the mpressor. The intensity of audible transients is determined by the attack time. If this parameter is very short, only the first milliseconds of the signal will be emphasized, whereas longer settings will come closer to its original structure.

The release controller can now be used to adjust the ‘loudness’ (shorter settings produce louder signals), at which longer settings will also give you an influence on the groove of a track. If high ratios are applied, this effect will become more and more extreme. You could also use the GR Limiter additionally in order to reduce the maximum amount of reduction for very energetic drums.

As a result, the drums become very punchy – with beautiful attacks that can really shine in a mix. An increased amount of ambience is generated on top of it, resulting in a loud and massive sound.

Smashed Drums

If the drums are supposed to sound extremely compressed and loud, this setting can be used to limit almost the entire signal so that there is nearly no dynamics remaining. The Auto Fast function for the attack parameter makes sure that the mpressor works fast but undistorted, and fast release times of about 50 ms are responsible for the loudness.

The ratio controller is set to 1:10 which makes the mpressor act like a kind of fast brickwall limiter. The drums now sound as if they had been recorded with a focus on the room microphones: little transients, lots of ambience and long sustaining toms and cymbals.

If this signal is now routed to a separate fader of a console and then mixed to the unprocessed original, the result will be the typical parallel compression which is very popular for this kind of application.

Reverse Sounds

Because the mpressor also features negative ratios, you can perfectly use it to create weird really way-out effects: Signals sound like if they were played backwards and become louder in their progression. Very loud input signals are reduced by large amounts which creates the reverse effect.

The Auto Fast function for the attack parameter is used to perform the control process fast and free from distortion. The position of the release controller determines the traits the sound will get louder with. The Anti Log mode should also been tried on top of that, as it will even increase the intensity of the reverse effect.

A good balance of the threshold, release and ratio parameters is very important for this application. Settings like these result in the amount of gain reduction exceeding the 20 dB mark quite often, therefore adequate settings of the gain controller have to be made for compensation.

Transient Enhancer

A special task is to emphasize the transients at the beginning of a tone, chord and so on. The Gain Reduction Limiter is of special importance in this scenario. The chosen parameters result in a rather strong compression with quite fast release times and even negative ratios.

Without the limiter the signal would be compressed much too strongly; 10 to 15 dB of gain reduction would occur quite regularly in this case. But now the limiter comes into play by reducing maximum amount of gain reduction to 6 dB. If now the gain controller is also set to 6 dB, the signal will be boosted by 6 dB at its beginning and will then be held at 0 dB in its further course.

If for example an organ is processed this way, it sounds firmer as its transients receive an accentuation. And no matter if a single note or a full chord is played – the output level will always stay the same, so that the result does not sound like typical compression.

Groove Ducking

The external sidechain input can be used to achieve specific groovy effects. Here the sidechain is triggered by a rhythmical signal like a 4 beat bass drum. The audio path can carry any desired sounds which are then reduced in the rhythm of the bass drum and therefore start to groove in sync with that beat.

Especially the release parameter can be used to adapt the timing of the effect to the tempo of the song, whereas the Anti Log mode offers interesting variations. If, for example, a 16 beat HiHat is processed in this way, it will benefit from a nice vivid groove it will now move in.

Bass sounds can now receive a stronger accentuation, as the ducking effect creates more space in the mix and the focus is shifted more onto the 4 beat bass drum. If the mpressor is inserted into the subgroup of a mixing console, you will also be able to trigger an arrangement of various instruments etc. via the external sidechain.

Negative Gating

An interesting variant of the groove ducking technique is negative gating that is based on faster release times and uses the Anti Log mode. Higher ratios are also very typical for this process. If now a bass drum is fed into the external sidechain input as a trigger signal, for example, the compressor will reduce the audio signal by a significant amount, resulting in gain reduction values of 30 and 40 dB.

After the trigger signal has faded away, the gain reduction value is kept constant by the Anti Log function for a moment, after which it rebounds rapidly. This special envelope makes the effect almost sound like a gate – but with the difference that the signal is made quieter instead of being totally muted.

If you want the effect to be as stable as possible, please take care that the trigger signals have even attacks and levels.

Ducking FX

Using the mpressor in combination with effect units like reverb, delay or chorus will result in fascinating results. The important point in this case is that compression is applied after the signal has passed the effects processor. The external sidechain input, however, is fed with the original dry signal that is also fed into the input of the FX unit.

If a drum track is processed with a reverb, for example, the reverberation can be compressed extremely strong so that it will almost vanish in very loud parts at first. It sounds different than only compressing the reverberation without using the external sidechain, because now it depends on the dynamics of the original signal.

An electric piano which is processed with chorus and delay effects can benefit from this technique, too, as the chorus/delay effect will become more and more prominent while the played note decreases in volume. Here it is important that all effect units only send the pure effect signal (100% wet) which is then mixed to the dry signal on a parallel track.

Distorted Compression

By using very fast time constants, the mpressor can also be abused to create special distortion sounds. To do so, set the attack controller to its minimum of 0.01 ms and the release time also to its fastest value of 5.0 ms.

Now the compressor becomes so fast that it compresses and twists almost every single wave form separately. The result sounds similar to a distortion unit, but without the usual drawback that the noise floor of the input signal is amplified.

If the Niveau Filter is used in its low pass position in addition, everything will start to sound in a wonderful LoFi style. Especially bass and drums are ideal instruments for being processed in this way.

Delay Loops

Delay and compressor in a loop – does that make any sense at all? Definitively yes, because this combination is a truly rich source for lots of crazy sounds! In this scenario, the mpressor is placed before a delay which is connected to an input of a mixing console. The feedback parameter of the delay has to be set to 0, because the feedback is generated with the aux send of the specific channel of the console.

If the gain controller of the compressor is now set in a way that the delay sound becomes louder with every repetition, it will finally fall into a feedback loop which is kept steady by the compressor. If the Niveau Filter is used in addition to bend the frequency response, very noisy, pumping and breathing sounds that keep changing continuously will be the result.

Very short delay times between 5 and 30 ms can even generate oscillating sounds that instantly remind of synthesizers. Turning the Niveau Filter controllers during this process results in a shift of the frequency response with each repetition of the delay.

 
Frequency Compression

The external sidechain also makes it possible to apply frequency dependent compression. This means that the compressor selectively reacts stronger or weaker to certain frequencies. 

One of the most typical applications of this technique is de-essing: The input signal is multed to a parallel line before the mpressor and then fed into an equalizer that raises the S sounds and lowers all other frequency areas. This processed signal is then send into the external sidechain input of the compressor which will only react to strong S sounds as a result. 

Depending on the settings of the EQ, it is also possible to use combinations of normal compression and de-essing. This can be achieved by only boosting the frequencies of the S sounds without cutting anything else. Another variant is to only lower the bass area on the external EQ so that these frequencies will not dominate the compression process so strongly anymore, which will result in an increase of overall loudness.

Mix Buss

The mpressor also proves of value when used as a high class mix buss compressor, especially when it comes to the more vehement genres like rock and electronic music. If you use it straight on from the beginning of a mix, you will automatically adapt your mix to the sound this produces.

The proportions between the levels of the separate tracks will be attuned perfectly to the active compressor. This kind of mixing especially makes sense if the complete basic sound is supposed to differ from the ‘standard’ sound of other productions.

If you want a track to sound very groovy and pumping, for example, just mix the drums louder as usually so that they dominate the compression process. All other instruments which are quieter in the mix now groove in conformity with the drums and become very vivid thereby.