How to compress ambient music (mixing techniques)

[@holosuitemastering]

Grab your FREE ambient compression cheat sheet here: holosuitemastering.com/compression More free resources on producing and releasing experimental music: holosuitemastering.com/resources Request a free master sample of one of your songs: holosuitemastering.com/sample

[@SoundStricker]

This is exactly the information I have needed for weeks, glad I found it!

[@holosuitemastering]

Awesome, so glad I could help! 😁

[@jamesturley1980]

Thank you for this. I am very much a beginner ambient producer, and to have something explained so clearly, in the genre of music I actually try to make, is awesome. So many tutorials talk about the kick or snare or vocals, and I'm like, I don't use any of those! Looking forward to putting into practice what I have learnt from your video.

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks for watching! Let me know if there are any topics you'd like me to cover in the future!

[@ChristopherSisk]

WIN - in other DAWs and VSTs the "makeup gain" may be referred to as "Post Gain" or simply Gain. in FL Studio, the Peak and RMS settings can be found in the built-in Maximus multi-band compressor. the Expand setting must be an Ableton exclusive. i've never seen that before.

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks winner! Ableton have packed a lot into that tiny-looking plugin!

[@themilliways]

This video is the simplest one explains about compression I have ever seen. Thank you for amazing video!

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks so much for the kind words, and for your support! ☺

[@piggosalternateaccount4917]

THANK YOU, i adore making ambient stuff but so much info is very heavily based on beat and vocal mixing, gonna watch the rest of your videos so good!!

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks so much for watching! Let me know if there are any topics you'd like me to cover! ☺

[@piggosalternateaccount4917]

@@holosuitemastering FIGHTING MUD AND PHASING WITH PADS! Absolutely this! So many great pads enterwine and mix at different levels

[@abijah]

Serious question: I don't really know a ton about ambient music, but in this example, might it have been more useful to use subtractive EQ (possibly with a dynamic EQ) to reduce the child screaming, rather than just compression, since it's tonal?

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks so much for watching! It is tonal, but the biggest issue is really one of volume. If I'd tried to do the same using EQ, it would be far fiddlier, because I'd need to target all the frequencies that make up the kid's voice, without compromising all the other things happening in that track. Dynamic EQ might have done the job, but it would have to be relatively broad-band, and thus wouldn't be much different from compression. And I can't remember exactly what I did in the released version of this track, but I bet it was a combination of all these!

[@respectfulremixer]

Excellent,thanks.

[@holosuitemastering]

You're most welcome! Thanks for watching!

[@OldogNuTricks]

I'm glad to find your channel. I released my first album last year which was primarily in a downtempo chill funk melodic EDM direction but I had a lot of other tracks which were more Ambient or Chill. I determined that my second Album would be a more ambient one. But mixing and mastering it has been interesting because the standard strategies and tools for mastering seem to be focused on being optimally loud which is great for EDM but not particularly helpful for Ambient. I want this album to be immersive - not loud and ethereal but not muddy. I will definitely go through many of the videos on your channel. Thanks.

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks for watching! Let me know if there's anything else you'd like me to cover!

[@audiomorphism2723]

Great content. I just discovered your channel. Would love to learn more about mixing layers of pads and drones like you have in this vid. I'm in a constant battle with mud! 🙂

[@audiomorphism2723]

Also, "Win!" lol

[@holosuitemastering]

Another winner! Congrats 🙌 I'll add that to my list of future vids, thanks for asking!

[@slevengrungus]

Great video! I have never had any insight into mixing ambient music. I assumed just thought you would just throw on a compressor with long attack, long release and lots of lookahead if needed. I also imagined the knee control can be really nice for soft pads. depending on the rarity of those sudden jumps, I imagine you might actually be able to just shovel them out with automation, and then you could leave the rest of your field recording uncompressed. Then again, you may just automate the dry/wet knob of the compressor to kick in at those moments instead,

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks for watching! Agree on all those points. Really this is just meant to be an intro to compression - and an encouragement for ambient artists to start messing around with it in a way that will help them to think more critically about the dynamics of their tracks. Ambient and experimental music are also very broad umbrella terms, so it's hard to prescribe any specific methods because it all depends on the source material. I tend to do most of my compression in multiband cos most of the spiky stuff is in the top end, and apart from that stick to volume automation - but I'll tackle that in a later video 😉

[@slevengrungus]

@@holosuitemastering Ah nice, I imagine multiband would work even better for the example you used in this video

[@holosuitemastering]

Definitely! Dynamic EQ also helps a lot too, it's so much more effective when you can target specific frequencies

[@mywishes1724]

Thank you very much for this tutorial!

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks so much for watching! Hope it helps!

[@theopenempty]

WIN :) - Thank you so much for your videos, they are helping me so much. Very informative and you explain the topics very well. I've just started a second channel for my ambient creations and your videos are helping me immensely. It was next to impossible to find some good mixing & mastering advice specific to ambient music for non-professionals before your channel. I have a question unrelated to compression, maybe to be answered in another video. When I use field recordings there is usually a lot of high end hiss. I usually aggressively EQ it out but noticed that when looking at my final mixes there is next to no high end in there. How do you deal or integrate into the track, the high end content like hiss, etc?

[@holosuitemastering]

Congrats winner! 💪 Hiss is a tricky one - like you I usually try and fix it with EQ. Depending on how pervasive the hiss is, you could experiment with gating it, or Izotope RX has a de-hiss function that can work pretty well. Obviously the best option would be to look at different field recording techniques that introduce less hiss - for example a shotgun mic, if you haven't tried one. And the other option is to just embrace it and sculpt it so that it isn't fatiguing to listen to (ie scoop out around 2-6kHz or so). The last option would be to have other parts of the mix provide the high end - I like to boost the top end of synths in my ambient so that they fill up that top end - I usually just keep the top end relatively low in the mix so it doesn't sound harsh. Hope that helps! 🙂

[@Permutative]

I like to do multi-band compression on field recordings since they often cover a large frequency range, that way I get more creative liberty with what specifically I want to suppress or highlight. If I'm feeling really picky about a couple frequencies poking out (like if I need that goddamn bird sound in the recording to disappear!) I might use the spectral compressor that au5 featured in one of his recent videos to snipe them away, but ik this is going beyond the basics, just mentioning it because it's somewhat obscure, I don't think it's on kvr.

[@holosuitemastering]

I mostly use multiband too! And will do a video on that later to supplement this one. Holy moly that spectral compressor is insane, will definitely be messing around with that! Here's the link to the AU5 video in case anyone wants to check that out: kzbin.info/www/bejne/oKDCkqyXo8Z-pZY

[@beatskool101]

I've been trying to create an ambient album(not sure it is ambient anymore), I've wrestled with gain staging, compression & master limiting , & my Limiter telling me "Increase the Volume & it's Too Dynamic" I don't want loud, I do want Dynamics. I've tried to keep the master limiter low, ie it's about 5db at the mo, & even though I've tried to keep compression also low, I get the odd warning about less compression before the master limiter. If you have some time I'd like you to take a listen to my Electronic Permutations PT1, & tell me what you hear & if i'm on the right track.

[@holosuitemastering]

Hey there, thanks so much for watching! Lol I didn't realise that there were limiters out there that gaslight artists into being louder - what are you using? Happy to take a listen and give you some feedback - could you please send me an email at [e-mail] so I have your address to send the feedback to?

[@beatskool101]

@@holosuitemastering Sonible Smart Limit, but there is a new tool out called Kraftur which might help, no sooner have I done a mix I think is ok, I end up going back and altering, Since I made the Video I've done 4 or 5 reprints, some for headphones some for speakers, hopefully each time better but I can never really tell, the latest is the quietest, but I still think I'm over what a real pro would do. I'll send you a link to the 24bit file on goggle drive.

[@holosuitemastering]

Interesting, I use smart limit too but I've seen any warnings like that - but then again I ignore everything outside of the actual gain reduction indicators 😋Great, I'll keep an eye on my inbox!

[@beatskool101]

@@holosuitemastering I thought I'd replied to your comment above, either that or I'm mixing up replies to people(so if I did & things didn't make sense to you. I'll send you an email, when I went to find a file I thought was the best/latest, I discover more things that need altering...then print ten more iterations :( I''ll send something over soon. Your smart meter probably doesn't need to grumble at what your feeding it :) Listening to my latest upload I'm hearing nasty pumping & some things too far back. Speak Soon Cheers.

[@holosuitemastering]

Haha it made sense, all good! That's a lot of iterations, hopefully we only need one more! 😉

[@JimmyLem]

Nice tutorial, thanks! I would definitely just edit and cross fade that kid out or ride or automate the fader.

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks so much for watching! I find fader automation to be a last resort for very highly dynamic material like this, because it requires precise envelopes to avoid sucking/pumping - you have to zoom right in and tinker with the settings until it's just right. I actually had enough audio of that field recording to just chop that part out entirely and start in a quieter bit, but I liked the kid screaming and wanted to keep it in (maybe it's because I'm a parent and it felt like normal to have screaming kids in the background of everything haha).

[@JimmyLem]

@@holosuitemastering Hey man, I could see leaving the kid screaming for sure, artistic choice. It sounded cool with it. I never thought about the effect of a cross on a compressor. Makes sense. My first recordings were on cassettes, then 4-track cassette and then I learned 2” 16 track. So I think my own comfort zone is always “bake it in and move on.” So I tend to do crosses and consolidations and then THAT is the original. It is what it is now, in a manner of speaking.

[@holosuitemastering]

That's a great way to think! Strangely I do a lot of that when I'm mixing other people's music, but often forget to do it for my own 😋

[@autumnlt]

Win! haha - Thank you for the great video, i've subscribed :D. I always wondered if I was right in putting a compressor on a field recording part haha, now i know (y)

[@holosuitemastering]

Yay, another winner! 👏👏👏 Thanks so much for the support!

[@rfinz]

hehehe win 🎉 thanks for the video :)

[@holosuitemastering]

Thanks for watching, winner! 🙌

[@ahom_ahom_ahom]

Sounds interesting. No pun intended...

[@holosuitemastering]

🤪

[@themorphingorb]

Compressor = child suppressor :D

[@holosuitemastering]

😅