Compression
Lesson 29 from: Songwriting in Logic Pro X for Electronic Music ProductionTomas George
Compression
Lesson 29 from: Songwriting in Logic Pro X for Electronic Music ProductionTomas George
Lessons
Writing Drums and Bass Part Introduction
01:11 2Making Drums Beats with Ultrabeat
14:27 3Beats with Ultrabeat and Drummer
08:48 4Writing Bass Parts - Part 1
15:03 5Writing Bass Parts - Part 2
04:53 6Writing Drums and Bass Parts Assignment
00:44 7Writing Chords Introduction
00:56 8Writing Chords
19:38Experimental Chords
09:44 10Writing Chords Assignment
00:56 11Writing Melodies Introduction
00:58 12Writing Melodies - Part 1
19:28 13Writing Melodies - Part 2
05:12 14Writing Melodies - Part 3
10:38 15Arpeggiator
08:02 16Writing Melodies Assignment
00:59 17Arrangement Introduction
00:45 18Arrangement
18:14 19Arrangement Continued
16:16 20Adding Effects and Instruments
18:28 21Arranging into a New Song - Part 1
14:57 22Arranging into a New Song - Part 2
17:31 23Arranging into a New Song - Part 3
08:24 24Arrangement Assignment
00:38 25Mixing Introduction
01:02 26Cleaning up and Basic Mixing
15:52 27EQ
11:46 28Tuning Drums
05:58 29Compression
10:56 30Sidechain Compression
10:30 31Reverb and Delay Sends
07:58 32Automation
06:59 33Mixing Assignment
00:58 34Recording Audio Equipment
10:55 35Recording Audio
04:01 36Vocal Melodies Introduction
01:04 37Vocals Intro
00:26 38Verse A Section
06:56 39Chorus and Harmonies
05:12 40Verse B and Pre-Chorus
05:20 41Verse 2, Chorus and Middle 8
17:37 42Song Title
00:50 43Vocal Melodies Assignment
01:00 44Lyrics Introduction
01:02 45Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 1
15:25 46Creating a Story with Lyrics - Part 2
14:37 47Lyrics Assignment
00:54 48Adaptive Songwriting with Peter Darling
12:13 49Thanks and Bye
00:09Lesson Info
Compression
Hello and welcome to this lecture where we're going to be looking at compression. So compression in a nutshell, what it really does is makes the quiet stuff louder and the louder stuff quieter compression can be very useful just to make your mix sound more polished. And a lot of music nowadays does use a lot of compression, especially electronic music. And what we're going to do in this lecture is have a look at group compression. So what we're actually going to do is get several tracks and send them to the same compressor. So we're going to get the same types of instruments and send them to one compressor. This can save on CPU or computing power because we're only using one plug in. But mainly it's because we can get this group compression to make these instruments blend in together because they're using the same effect, they're using the same compressor. So we're going to group the drums, we're going to group the bass parts, the pads and keyboard and piano parts and also the lead ins...
truments and then the effects. So let's open up the mixer. And first of all, we're actually going to group some of these instruments together, the way we do this is we change the output to a track rather than go into the stereo out. So if we go to another track, the output, we send them all to this one track and then we add the effect on here, in this case, a compressor and then the output of that goes to the stereo out. So the drums here, let's change this output from stereo out to a bus. Let's choose bus four. Then you'll notice we have this new track which says a six double click. I'm gonna call this drums G which is drums group. Then I'm gonna select all these, change the outputs to bus four which says drums G here. Notice they've all changed to bus four and bus four is drums group. Then we've got this base parts. I'm going to change this to boss five. Let's rename this ace at the moment. We only have one base part, but it's a good idea to get used to this process. I'm also going to color this as well. So I'm going to right click and sign channel strip color and choose red just so I know straight away that these red drums goes to this group here. Same with this base one. I'm gonna Recolor this. So right click sign channel strip color and choose this blue color. OK? Let's do the same for the pads. So click them all. Hold down command and then go over to stereo out and change this output to bus this time six. Let's rename this pad G and color this this blue color. So right click assign channel strip color. We'll find this blue color and then the marimba and change the output from stereo out to bus seven, rename this double click. So this is lead G with a right click assign channel strip color. Choose this green color, then we have the effects, select both of these, then go over to output, change this to bus eight which is free and then double click this and call this effect G. This is X group and I'm gonna Recolor this this dark blue. So right click assign channel strip color, this dark blue, which is just so I know quickly all this red is that, that one's that, that one's that et cetera just from the colors. So let's just hear this back just to check it's worked. So here we have the kick and it's also coming through this drums group and when the snare enters, there we go. If we mute it, can't hear the drums, same with the base, same with the pads and some elites and the effects when they do enter. OK. So we've got groups set up now and we're going to add some compression. So we can actually share the same compressor with these different instruments. So let's click on and add a compressor. So let's go down to dynamics, compressor and choose stereo. You can see it's compressing already. If you're new to using a compressor, I do recommend going through some of these presets. So you could have classic drums, drum mix, drum room. Let's try drum mix, it changes the interface. We do have different types of compressors here. You can choose the graph as well. So let's find the part where the drums are actually playing and just loop this, you can instantly hear the difference. Makeup gain makes it louder. Then we have the release of the tap and knee. I personally prefer this graph so I can actually see what's going on. You can see the waves here. It's cutting out a lot of the higher ones. It's compressing up to 10 DB. It's a bit too much. So if you have the knee all the way up, it's not going to compress. If we have it all the way down, it's going to compress maybe too much. Same with the attack. If we have it all the way down, it's not gonna sound right. You can always add a limiter as well just so it doesn't peak. So this is with the compressor and this is without, you can hear it just gels the drums together a bit more. It's a good idea though. Just to experiment, go through these different types and go through different presets so we can just go through drums room. It's a bit punchier. You can see here, the attacks a lot quicker you increase to release, slow down a lot. You can also see the drums peaking here so you can reduce the makeup gain. That's really what we do with the compressor. A lot of it's just using your ear. Don't need to compress just for the sake of it. I do know producers who have just used compressors because they think they need to use compressors, only use compressors if it will improve the track. But I do like it to group instruments or use parallel compression. That way you can kind of blend the instruments together a bit more and make it sound a bit smoother. OK. Let's try the bass group. This is just the one instrument, but it's a good idea just in case we do add a sub later or another bass part. So let's go to compressor again for now, let's use the factory presets. It's a good idea. If you're new to use the presets, get used to them, work out what stuff actually does and then go through and customize it yourself. Just a slight bit of compression to make the loud a bit quieter. Let's do the pads. I like it with a slower release and a higher attack, but here sounds good to me. Let's drag this over, copy this over the lead. Let's hear what this sounds like is to find a part for the effects to me that sounds about right. Obviously, go through and tweak each one by ear. There isn't really a set preset for each plug in. It depends what the track needs. It depends what the instruments need. So that's how we can use compression for mixing our track. And next we're going to be looking at side chaining.
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