Is Compression Really Needed in Trance Music?

In this video, I delve into the topic of compression and its necessity in trance music production. Compression is a widely used tool in audio engineering, but is it essential for creating high-quality trance tracks?
Join me as I explore the role of compression, demonstrate practical examples, and provide tips on how to effectively use compression to enhance your trance music productions.
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Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
1:15 - What is Compression?
3:30 - Compression in Trance Music
6:00 - Practical Examples of Compression
9:45 - When to Use Compression
12:10 - Common Mistakes with Compression
14:25 - Final Tips and Best Practices
15:50 - Conclusion and Next Tutorial
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[@kismet333music]

Compression is one of those tools I feel is just on the edge of all the "basic" things you need to produce music. Like you said, its a little bit more advanced, but it also does not have to be complicated. Definitely an essential tool to get the best quality records 💯

[@adamellistutorials]

Absolutely, it's a key tool once you get the hang of it. Thanks for watching!

[@fb1983]

Nice, learning something new each time. Thanks Adam!

[@adamellistutorials]

Thank you. Glad to read it.

[@GaiaXTrance]

Thanks for the great explanation Adam 👌

[@adamellistutorials]

You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@richardronchetti6457]

Such a clear explanation on such an important topic. Thanks Adam!

[@adamellistutorials]

You're welcome, Richard! Glad it helped.

[@ignite137]

"It's interesting. A couple of years ago in our sound engineering class, we had trance producer Geert Huinink, who worked with Tiësto during his golden trance years. He played his own tracks for us, and they sounded very lively and pure. Geert mentioned he never used compression for his tracks. That was the first time I heard of not using compression on tracks..As Adam mentioned it's not always necessary

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks for sharing that! Geert's approach is definitely unique and effective.

[@djtighe9952]

Great info here and loving the quality of these videos - very professional.

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks! Appreciate the kind words.

[@djfrostbyte13]

Compression is one of the most difficult aspects of production for me to wrap my head around. Adam, you not only made this video entertaining, it was also informative with great audio examples. I think compression is often over used due to many novice producers like myself not fully grasping what exactly it does. Thank you for releasing this video and helping those of us who needed to better understand this topic! By the way, that counter melody is so good! It is simple, but I'm sure it fits that track beautifully!

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks so much! Glad you found it helpful and enjoyed the counter melody.

[@demishellen]

Great explanation, pretty sure I’ve heard this before. Is this the video you recorded while I was in the studio? 🧐

[@Allan-Morrow-AM-Studios]

It’s attenuating straight away because the level going in to it is high in relation to the threshold.

[@adamellistutorials]

Do you use much compression Allan?

[@Allan-Morrow-AM-Studios]

@@adamellistutorialsnot really. Only if it’s needed.

[@wiggertvanameijde4584]

​@@Allan-Morrow-AM-Studios this is so nice! Allan, Demis and Adam sharing and reacting to each other 💪🏻💪🏻 love to see more of you guys in the future? Maybe a chat about the future of production and trance in general?🤔 Anyway, i am happy to see so mutch supportiveness in this genre

[@adamellistutorials]

@@wiggertvanameijde4584I’m down

[@davidleewarner]

Sensible advice Adam!

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks, David!

[@danieldaly8668]

I think a lot of people looked at mixing videos from top engineers, mixing the likes of rock and pop and transferred that over to dance music as a "must do" but it is all case dependent I guess. Great video dude

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks, Daniel! It's definitely all about context.

[@LiamFitz-qt9iv]

Great video and explanation thanks for the upload.

[@adamellistutorials]

You're welcome, Liam! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@UnfortunatelyTheHunger]

I think the reason you've almost never felt the need to use compression, is because almost all samplepacks and presetpacks made with trance in mind already has quite a lot of compression applied. Like that pluck riff playing at 2:50 already sounds super-compressed, and it's probably because that Spire preset has the xcomp knob turned up to not just catch the loud parts, but also bring up the quiet parts. On top of that, the ringing artefacts you get from the crossover filters using multiband compression, is more often than not, probably what gives many sounds its secret sauce, more than the dynamics processing itself. Personally, my take is that compression is best used for sounds that you think don't *sound* compressed in the context of your mix. Like, does this or that element *sound* so uncompressed in the full mix, that it sounds like it was recorded in a different room altogether, or in some form or another stick out like a sore thumb? Then maybe some compression ought to tame it appropriately

[@adamellistutorials]

Great insight buddy. I hate the overly compressed trance tracks you hear.

[@ToddMakofski]

This is one that plagued me for years! Fantastic explanation Adam!

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks, Todd! Glad I could help clarify it.

[@djdylanforbes]

I’m glad you covered this question because it’s something I always wonder...”should I compress this or that.” Sound advice and I love the Renaissance Axx too, I actually bought after watching one of your previous videos which inspired me to simplify my process. Cheers 🍻

[@adamellistutorials]

Glad you found it helpful! Renaissance Axx is a great choice.

[@kirandeeanork]

Great video Adam! I'm with you on the compression subject. In 2020 when I started producing on a serious level, I used compression religiously because I saw it in trance tutorials and to this day I still don't understand the concepts behind it, and like you I can't really hear a difference. So now what I do is when I feel a sound is a little all over the place, I load a compressor, use a preset and I'm done. So I couldn't agree with you more, compression use isn't gospel and you can produce something great even without it.

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks, Kiran! Glad to hear you're finding what works best for you.

[@isotopia7681]

I agree. I’ve only found a few situations you need compression, e.g. on vocals and pianos that haven’t already been compressed (most samples already have) and it can be useful to emphasise reverb tails

[@adamellistutorials]

Absolutely, vocals and pianos are key examples.

[@fireraid]

Adam, apologies! I made a comment without watching the whole video! I think the advice that stood out to me, is that I need to be conservative with compression unless I really need to deal with the dynamics of necessary elements in my projects.

[@adamellistutorials]

No worries! Glad the advice resonated with you.

[@petewigley9985]

It would depend on the transients, the attack of the sound, and the attack setting allows through the punch (the attack) you don't want to have too small attack generally. You want punch and if you compress in the mind of adding punch or removing, that's where it's most useful. 20hz the transient of the wave takes 60ms, so generally you don't want a low attack on kick and bass especially (lower frequencies, longer transient). - Plus for kick and bass use a plugin with bass side chain frequency "in" the compressor so it only triggers from everything above 150hz or 250hz - its important on kick and bass bus or the whole track (ie mastering) - it allows through the lower transients by not being triggered by them - so you can set the attack to say 40ms and allow through transients at 50hz which are longer - say 55ms). UAD SSL G comp or Shadow hills have this, most bus compressors have this now. (it's silly because it's usually a small knob that's not clear but it's important). 5ms on attack is flattening it completely making it louder but flat and dull. Use at least something like 25ms or for the lead you want to compress the high elements more so maybe 15m/s to 25ms. 5ms is too short imo. You can see compressors like transient shapers (long attack more punch with short release) small attack and long release will just keep it flat and not dynamic.. You want it punchy and dynamic but levelled. Its to taste - like making the high end on the lead more punchy or knock, or levelling that if you want it less knocking sounding - ie probably a bit to bring up the body of the lead) IMO the key point is transients of low end frequencies will be about 60ms -50ms ie sub 150hz and I think something like 5ms at 20Khs very top end. It's useful to know when setting an attack and release. Do you want to emphasis the punch or attack of the sound or lower it and make it sound more sustained bring up the body. - Long attack short release = pump n punch Short attack and long release = flattened. (bringing up the back end of the sound) If you think of a snare drum and its wave shape it helps I find - do you want to flatten the front and bring up the back of the snare or do you want to emphasis the initial front end attack. You can apply it to all sounds the same way. (depending on their frequency - 60ms attack for sub - but only 5 -10 ms for a closed high hat to allow through the transient punch).

[@adamellistutorials]

Brilliant reply. Way too complicated for me though. Haha. I made some massive tunes with zero compression, so my take is it’s absolutely not needed.

[@petewigley9985]

@@adamellistutorials I have all your old tunes from many years ago, so I am a fan :) I mostly do mastering though. You don't need to compress if you send it to someone else to master. I would say sidechaining and demasking is really the skill to mixing, and compression for mastering. The song writing skill is a different skill which you're much better at than I am. I'd just thought I'd share an easy way to think of the compression. - the attack setting on the comp is the opposite to a synths ADSR attack but the release is sort of the same (after volume matching the Gain Reduction) Its more about compressing things together than on there own unless the one track/sample/loop has a huge dynamic range you want to flatten. Same with mixing, if the kick and bass both need more bass it's best to sum them together first then add bass to both (otherwise you just create more phasing by adding the same eq to both separately - better to put them together/sum them first then send and eq on a bus together - if your wanting to add or cut the same frequency). Pretty much for all dance music my mastering compressor has roughly the same settings. It's side chain to respond to only everything above 125hz. with an attack of about 40ms and a release of 0.1 ms to 0.3ms. Similar to the setting I would have on an ssl g bus comp. Ie attack of 30ms release of 0.1ms - you only ever need to remove about 1db-3db GR with comps in the DAW. If you were compressing a lead or sound on its own, you'd want much longer release time (plus shorter attack) to flatten it smoothly, but I would only ever really compress tracks/sounds etc together otherwise you actually damage the material/audio compressing single tracks - unless you want to flatten it or it goes from quiet to loud too much) Useful for arps which start plucky with low filter cutoff and lower volume and end up too loud after the cutoff is open. Then compression is applicable on a single track, It's still best to just automate the volume though (by a long way) However - Tb303 with variations of cutoff - high dynamic range - you can add compression :) (too hard to automate) Saturation then compression :) The trick these days is to saturate everything first to round out the transients (so they aren't too sharp and hard) then compress afterwards to add the pump. Ie longish attack to allow through the rounded transient. I use Newfoundland saturate plugin for stem mastering, to remove some peaks, then to a hardware saturation unit with eq - then mastering compressor then back in to Newfoundland's Elevate plugin to limit. There's enough complexity to it without being over fiddly, so it's imo the best (better than L2) PLUS also using 2 limiters on the master bus after each other is better than just using 1 for mastering = less overall distortion :) Plus some Psy trance producers will even use a limiter or saturator/clipper just on the kick to lower the click/transient of the kick. I think Giuseppe adds a compressor to the Kick on it's own only to give it more snap, so the opposite, long attack on a compressor to let through and exaggerate the punch or click/transient. Knowing 20hz transients are 60ms and 20khz is less than 1ms will help you use compression to good affect, otherwise it can sound terrible. Usually let the transients/ attack through then just decide how long you want the gain reduction to last (smoothness, long or pump with the release). You might want to lower the punch transients on snares and hats though for example. Ie with vey quick attack but only if it's blatantly needed. Ie If somethings sounds too sharp. Generally you can tell by just looking at the waveforms to see if it has a super high volume (amplitude) in the attack. There's a great video on KZbin by how you can just tell by looking at the track to see where the peaks are and how you can use an L2 just to chop them off to start with if needed. (before the mastering compressor) So after 25 years of Music production, I see compression more as a sound shaping tool (like transient designers) which will ultimately lead to a loud mix after mastering. That's how I would use it as a producer, and getting volumes between separates sounds perfect/louder rather than compressing individual sounds for "loudness" as everything is relative. It's all about the master channels overall volume/peaks when it's all playing. Ultimately in the end the mastering engineer will make it as overall loud and flat but as dynamic (varying in volume as much as possible) within that limit, and it will be the peaks that distort first. Otherwise we'd go even louder. But there is a point where distortion will eventually kick in too much.

[@petewigley9985]

@@adamellistutorials Do a test of a hi hat loop or snare with a high attack (transient) with saturation then compression with say for hi hat loop 1ms-10ms attack and 0.1- 1ms (probably 0.5ms) release compared to it not having the saturation before it. And what it sounds like with neither. It tunes your ear to the transient and what the saturation is doing. (it's not always easy to hear what it does to the attack of the sound). Essentially it will give better overall loudness like guiseppe if you apply the same principle of saturation and compression with the right attack. Doesn't make it sound flat and dull or oppositely Sharp. but gives you the loudness or GR. I use Saturn or HG black box or Newfoundland in the daw but use Neve console or API console saturation out of the DAW in a Louder than liftoff silverbullet saturator and EQ. You can get it in a plugin now too which is great but it doesn't quite sound the same. Infected Mushroom said over the years they hate compression. They saturate everything, that makes it sound louder and keeps it dynamic but loud. If you don't keep it dynamic and just compress everything flat in the mix - the overall mix will just become a flat wall of sound with no depth or punch once it's mastered. It's a balance of adding a bit of loudness without flatenneng the life out of it too much. Over compression can also sound closed instead of open. Again if the transients are squashed too much.

[@synthetix.music1]

Always great tutorials.

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks! Appreciate your support.

[@Tranceformer]

Thanks Adam enjoyed that

[@adamellistutorials]

You're welcome! Glad you enjoyed it.

[@davidnguyen4550]

Awesome!

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks, David!

[@nickdodd3171]

Great video.

[@adamellistutorials]

Thanks, Nick!

[@tsango1972]

Love it Adam. Lots of other videos on this subject can be so boring but you make it interesting

[@adamellistutorials]

I appreciate that :) You won the last comp btw. But I don’t see any calendar entry for your session. Did you know you won?

[@tsango1972]

@@adamellistutorials oh no way. No I had no idea! 😫

[@adamellistutorials]

@@tsango1972go watch the video haha

[@adamellistutorials]

You never booked your free lesson 😮

[@adamellistutorials]

@@tsango1972 You never booked your free lesson 😮

[@olevistnes1820]

a comment! thanks for the vid!

[@adamellistutorials]

You're welcome! Thanks for watching.

[@craigstuart9389]

Something I always struggle to hear the difference with

[@adamellistutorials]

It can be tricky! Keep practicing and it will come.

[@TheJohnsofDoes]

I aint listened to modern Trance, so i have no idea about the production standards and execution now, but a lot of the sound of the early Euphoric Commercial Trance e.g Ferry Corsten, Most Balearic Comm Trance Ayla,Three N One, Full on Comm Trance N-Trance, Ian Van Dahl, Scooter, etc went through the TC Finaliser. actually, I don't think there is anything of that period that didn't go through the TC Finaliser. it was one of if not the first readily available multiband comps and everyone milked the shit out of it. it's fair to say that it pretty much is the sound of early commercial dance music.

[@adamellistutorials]

Have a listen to Photographer - Airport and tell me what you think!

[@TheJohnsofDoes]

Willdo👍

[@adamellistutorials]

@@TheJohnsofDoeswhat you think of that sound?

[@TheJohnsofDoes]

@@adamellistutorials not for me, mate. this is the sort of "Vengeance-ified"sound of Trance that really threw me off the genre. Vengeance brought a real Homogeny to the sound of all Dance Music around this period since everybody and their nan was using Vengeance Sound, Nexus, and Vengeance presets for the Virus and VSTI's. glad it's fizzled out now though, lol

[@mitchiemasha]

I see you're using spire... is the xcomp turned on on the preset?

[@adamellistutorials]

I’d imagine so 😊

[@emphatic001]

How about Sausage Fattener?

[@adamellistutorials]

What about it?

[@emphatic001]

@@adamellistutorials In you opinion, is it a good alternative to adding 3 db compression to make a sound sound bigger?

[@adamellistutorials]

@@emphatic001Do a test. Export a sound and note the level of the channel. Then, add SF, level it to the same output as the none SF export, and compare.

[@ghost12397]

I just use glue compressor on bass bus.

[@adamellistutorials]

You can, but there is zero need.

[@ghost12397]

@@adamellistutorials thanks mate to many other vids out there complicating everything in stead of keeping things simple like your self.

[@davebbeats]

Trance music is absolutely over produced nowadays. It’s sucking the life out of the emotion and feel.

[@adamellistutorials]

Agreed. I prefer the older sound.

[@djvoid1]

The main problem with compression is the name really. 'Compression' is a misleading term. You're shaping the dynamics

[@TheJohnsofDoes]

By reducing the crest factor i.e dynamic range. Nothin misleading about that. There's also situations where you can do the opposite, but for the majority of cases it's reducing the crest factor. "Shaping dynamics" is a subjective term. What you call shaped and what i call shaped might be completely different ideas of shape, so by no means can you say with any certainty that in all circumstances compression shapes dynamics

[@djvoid1]

@@TheJohnsofDoes however, you can also increase the crest factor using compression, if you were to leave part of the sound uncompressed, say with a medium attack, long release. Compression as a name seems to imply that the dynamic range is always reduced, no matter what settings or input

[@TheJohnsofDoes]

@@djvoid1 i acknowledged that, mate when i said "there's also situations where you can do the opposite, but in the majority of cases, it's reducing crest factor"

[@lichen657]

Answers a simple question of whether compression is needed? The simple answer is NO!

[@adamellistutorials]

Exactly, it's all about what the track needs.

[@eugenewang4650]

only time compression is near mandatory is recorded live sounds. vocals especially. To make them more 'digitalised' and perfect just like beat quantisation. In EDM you do not want subtle varieties in tempo and dynamics as that sounds unprofessional and unrefined. Compression is also used in the mastering process but as producers thats not your job thats Mark Sherry's job. I also relied on compression on my leads instead of tweaking the presets or just choosing a different sound to 'fix' my bad mixing and sound selection and had a demo rejected because of it. I stopped using compression on everything except the vocal channel and my engineering quality improved substantially. Samples and presets from reputable sources come pre-compressed and are designed to just drag and drop with nothing more than low cut eq.

[@adamellistutorials]

Excellent points, Eugene. Thanks for sharing your experience.