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Obvious examples of compression in recorded music?

#21
Maurice L said:
I was listening to Doobie Brothers' Last Train Comin', wondering how they got that sound. Compression?


I know compression is used all the time, but are there obvious examples of compression being used on bass? (Such as for example compression on guitar for the intro of Under the Bridge by the Red Hot Chili Peppers)
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From way, way back…substantially compressed bass, all British, because they had to, to keep the tape from saturating or to keep the needle from jumping out of the grooves…




 
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#24
bigjames said:
Compression is something I am trying to learn more about, but admittedly it is still somewhat mysterious to me. Is compression when playing live a common thing? Would you apply it in your signal chain (e.g. bass to compression pedal to amp / FOH) or would it be applied by the engineer for FOH? Or both?
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I think the issue is that there are many, many types and uses of compression, and they get conflated. There's the old definition that goes something like "loud stuff gets quieter and quieter stuff gets louder", but since the uses are so varied, this definition causes a lot of confusion, and a lot of flat signals robbed of all dynamics by unfamiliar users.

Think about a tube amp set to a particular level. With your instrument volume rolled almost all the way down, you'll hear a quiet, clean signal. Roll the volume up to halfway and you'll hear the same clean signal, only louder. Roll it up 3/4 of the way and it might be louder, but slightly distorted. Roll it up all the way and it might be only slightly louder than 3/4, but even more distorted, so you perceive it as much louder. This is compression happening at the preamp stage of your amp, and it is a form of tone shaping.

Imagine you're in a studio. You just recorded your clean bassline to a console, and everyone in your band finished their parts up as well. Picture the entire finished song as a waveform: louder parts have larger spikes, while quieter parts have smaller spikes. Your engineer prints this waveform to tape, and every time those larger spikes hit the edges of the tape, they're cut off dramatically. Those instances where the waveforms clip will express themselves as a kind of distortion. That's also compression.

Most players use compression pedals on their boards to shape the transient of their playing. When your fingers or your pick hit the strings, they immediately make a loud "click" sound, known as the transient, followed by a quieter sustain, or ringing out of the string. The compressor allows you to adjust the volume at which the compressor kicks in (threshold), the amount that it lowers the transient (ratio), and if you have an attack knob, the speed at which it clamps down on the transient. This gives you a lot of flexibility to shape your tone.

Additionally, some players use a compressor as a limiter. This is more a means of control, so that if your signal gets too loud, the limiter will clamp down hard, at a very high ratio, so that your peaks don't blow out the speakers or the audience's ears. This is also how most FOH engineers will use compression, since they're less interested in shaping your tone and more interested in protecting the gear/maintaining a reasonable volume.

The best thing to do is get a cheap compressor pedal or free VST and push it to the extremes: low threshold, high ratio, fast attack. As you pick your bass, gradually increase the attack and listen for that click - you'll hear it change dramatically as the attack time slows down. That's compression happening in real time.
 
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#26
I thought of 2 examples…
upload_2022-10-4_14-41-35.jpeg
 
#30
Mixing guys, and a lot of musicians, put compression over instruments, effects, input stems, and almost always, mix busses out to the master. To varying degrees of success. And for different audiences.

Thank God we are not talking about Auto Tune as much anymore! :)
 
#34
mike buzzetti said:
UHHHH NO , very different system and process. but they can sound similar
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No, not a different system or process. Different applications. Not all compressors limit but all limiters compress.

"The difference between a compressor and a limiter is only in the compression ratio used." - per just one professional's opinion as seen here

Many compression pedals can get into limiter territory, but there aren't many limiter-only pedals because most players want some dynamics for live playing. I've used Waves C4 as a multiband limiter even though it's called a compressor.
 
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#36
pbass2 said:
Like in dance music, when you have that pumping bass that's sidechained to the kick. Such a killer and very effective effect. Compression wasn't originally intended to be used in such an extreme way.
Of course you can also use sidechaining on bass (or anything) very subtly in a more organic style to get things to speak out and interact a certain way in the mix, without sounding obviously effected. It's not always just about leveling or reducing dynamics.
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How would attack and release be set to get this pumping effect?
 
#37
J Posega said:
No, not a different system or process. Different applications. Not all compressors limit but all limiters compress.

"The difference between a compressor and a limiter is only in the compression ratio used." - per just one professional's opinion as seen here

Many compression pedals can get into limiter territory, but there aren't many limiter-only pedals because most players want some dynamics for live playing. I've used Waves C4 as a multiband limiter even though it's called a compressor.
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Fair enough , I use an L2 and also C1-2 , like I said they are designed differently and have different controls for different applications , the basic functions internally are the same however.
 
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