Why Use Compression?

[@pbenson56fran]

I feel I can not learn enough about this subject. But I want to learn from a good teacher. Thank you very much.

[@CreativeSauce]

Always good to see you here Paula :)

[@pbenson56fran]

@@CreativeSauce I will be back.

[@Kludgedean]

Whoa! This is the first time I've heard it explained like this (almost reverse of what you did), and on top of that a visualization! Incredible!

[@CreativeSauce]

Glad its helpful Dean :)

[@Kludgedean]

"Late bloomer" to the whole music production. Used to make my own stuff when I was a teen in the 90s and early 00s on the Amiga. No such VSTi kind of things then. Even at school I was failed on music theory!. Any theory explained like you did here is exactly what I soak up, you could write me an A4 wall of text explaining, and I'd still look blankly and not be able to ingest the information. Looks like I need to watch your back catalog! (I was already subscribed). Thanks so much!

[@seventhcasemusic9645]

Shout-out to Future Mike for keeping it real! Haha love that interlude. Great lesson Mike!

[@rcan1958coxnet]

What a great way to demonstrate using compression to make things louder, duck, sustain and add harmonics. I've never really compared the waveforms visually before. Doing both listening and seeing these effects really it drives it home.

[@mikescofield]

Finally! I now understand why compressing sound makes it louder. Thanks, Mike!

[@MikeBaldock-oy1pt]

Hey Mike, another fab video, brilliantly explained. Loved the 'future Mike' appearance. :-)

[@southernaccentfoods]

Fantastic explanation of compression!

[@pierrecarter3090]

Great! I cannot add more than what folks wrote on this one! Thanks so much.

[@alban6101]

Hey ! You feel very much inspired here as a method to make people understand usage, technical ones, and, creative ones, ... I mean... great method of understanding things here ! Thanks.

[@jlmmcguirkmusic6050]

Excellent tutorial Mike. You have a great way of explaining things and communicating ideas. Thanks for posting.

[@darrenoak7187]

This is an excellent explanation and demonstration, thanks mike.

[@CreativeSauce]

Cheers Darren!

[@ArkentMusic]

Mike, you're the best. Thanks for your approach. You're so detailed with your advice (for those of us with little experience) and always feel like a helpful friend.

[@timswed5149]

Very nice. Love the examples! Nice to see different applications of using a compressor shown. I even learned that i can freeze audio tracks, i thought that was just for midi! Thank you!

[@TheMixClub]

Mike This is a great video. I think one of your best. Im Would like to put a link to this in my live streams if thats fine with you. I would never come close to explaining it like this. This video will help so many folks. You videos are always a great watch.. Be Safe.

[@CreativeSauce]

Hey man, thank you so much. Of course, it would be very kind of you to share. Thank you :)

[@wiseoldfool]

Great tutorial, I learnt heaps!

[@michaeltablet8577]

Very helpful! Thank you so very much!!

[@sterling_muse]

Another great video, Mike. Thank you so much!

[@toddwmac]

Outstanding...love your question answer format. Now can you do that with all the other music production topics? :)

[@CreativeSauce]

That's a good question. I'll work on that!

[@claudebourguignon7505]

Wonderfull, as usual great explanations easy to understand. Wish you will make the same for EQ. Thank you.

[@paulmoadibe9321]

very well explained thank you !

[@orderd29]

A truly great explanation of something I've struggled to get my head around until fairly recently. I also got very confused by modes, even though I had studied various sources, then one video just connected with me and made perfect sense.

[@youreale]

I cannot thank you enough for this gem Mike!

[@CreativeSauce]

My pleasure, thank you :)

[@DeltaWhiskeyBravo13579]

Excellent tutorial on compression. It's interesting how many of those uses I'm doing now that I'd not even thought of 6 months ago. I do sidechain ducking, serial fast then slow combo, and some adding it just to color the sound.

[@spokansas]

Thankfully Future Mike was there!

[@oinkooink]

Random thought...could be an idea for any videos you do with bass guitar to make sure the bass guitar translates on tablets and other bass shy devices. It's not that hard to make bass present in the low mid range where it can be heard well on laptops and tablets etc. It's pretty common for people to watch away from both their studio or decent headphones. Laptop and tablet use is pretty huge. A few simple adjustments could make your stuff work better on these very common listening situations. Of course if you're trying to show ducking at very low Hz it's problematic. But I'm sure it could be worked around. I just don't reckon everyone can always don phones or fire up their monitors over a 10min video. Very few recording channels make sure their videos translate. So, you know, just a thought.

[@ATolerableQuietude]

Thanks, this is a very clear explanation of how compressors work. I have a question though. As a Cakewalk user, I tend to use the built-in Sonitus compressor pretty much all the time. It's quick and intuitive and doesn't seem to use a lot of system resources. So I wonder, what would be the reasons for using a fancier third party VST compressor? Is it mostly just for the added coloration that they can bring, or are there other reasons?

[@nickellis9251]

Hi Mike and thanks for yet another great video. When you open your "Normalise" effect, do you use a shortcut, or do you use "Process - Apply Effect - Normalise"?

[@geovannip.c.8377]

Very good explanation 👍. Could you make a video on how to sidechain the reverb 🤔 natively and with external vsts? 🙏

[@DesSherwoodGuitarTuition]

Thanks Mike! Good info;-)

[@TheNitsua59]

I appreciate your lesson so much. I always learn something and slowly but surely I'm getting better. I'm having to use a new laptop and it's been infected with Windows 11. I can't get Cakewalk to save or record on it. It loads and you can change screens and such. I'm a bit of a computer luddite. If anyone out there has found a cure for a similar problem please let me know. Thanks and God bless.

[@herrunsinn774]

Hey Mike, I've seen many a video on compression and compressors, but this one is absolutely the best I've seen on the basic concepts. I have a question for you that's really basic, yet I've never seen anyone talk about this. To begin, it appears using a compression generally involves adjust volume levels of separate tracks (bass vs. kick-drum, for example). My question is this: Can compression be used on a single track, such as a chord melody track of a solo guitar being recorded though a single microphone? To clarify, let's say I have recorded a chord melody track on my nylon-string guitar, but was overly enthusiastic with my thumb on playing the bass notes. Is there any way (using compression) to isolate those bass notes and lower their volume level using compression? My solution (other than actually playing the bass notes at exactly the level I want 😉) is to use Melodyne to isolate those notes one at a time, using the amplitude tool to lower the volume of those notes as they occur. Is there any way to use compression to automate this instead of using Melodyne?

[@CreativeSauce]

Hu Herr, thanks for watching. That's a good question! The answer is yes. There are 2 tools that could he useful. The first isza multiband compressor. With this, we can compress certain frequency ranges differently. In your case, you could compress just the low frequencies. You could also try a dynamic EQ. It actually does a very similar thing, but you dan ge more 'surgical' with it.

[@GizzyDillespee]

If those are literally the loudest notes, you can use a regular compressor, and fiddle with the threshold until it only grabs those notes. Use multiband if those offending notes are all lower in frequency, you can use a multiband compressor to isolate them. Frankly, I'd just highlight that section of audio, them lower the volume of that area, and repair or crossfade the boundaries.

[@herrunsinn774]

@@GizzyDillespee Thanks Adam. Those are great tips. 👍I've put off learning compression techniques too long. Mikes video and your comments will help me get started.

[@herrunsinn774]

@@CreativeSauce Thanks Mike! It looks like I now need to get past my "fear of compression" and give it a try. 😉 Is this an interesting enough topic for its own video?... Something like "Compression for a single channel"

[@herrunsinn774]

Hi Mike. Here's a short update. I found your video titled "Studio One Multiband Dynamics" on your "Studio One Revealed" channel. That was EXACTLY what I was looking for. With your remarkable teaching skill, I was able to precisely home in on the base note frequencies and tame them a bit (when they were too loud) so they don't overpower melody notes played at the same time. As the Brits seem to fond of saying ... BRILLIANT! (I hope your Covid loss-of voice has now gone away.) Thanks again!

[@DiegoThoms]

Hi Mike. I wonder if there is a kind of compressor that works on a specific band, compressing it and not the rest.

[@harryishere]

Sir I have a QUESTION ⁉️ WHY BANDLAB COMPANY NOT UPDATING CAKEWALK⁉️ 🥺can you talk to them please 🙏

[@seventhcasemusic9645]

What is the last release you have? Should be 2022.11.

[@astrologervinod2227]

❤ Compression is for kids ❤

[@daveanthony33]

What's the keyboard shortcut in CW to normalize a track? I know I can go to Process/Apply Effect/Normalize, but it looked like you used a key combination to make it appear.

[@aniruddhasitar]

I have a question while recording in cakewalk it record in stereo , means one channel is plain line, how to record in mono, i am using focusrite 2i2 for recording and shure SM81 LC condenser microphone

[@fredimachadonet]

In the track's input, by default it's set to the stereo input, you just have to select the L (1) or R (2) input.

[@coppermeloman9143]

... 👍👍 !!

[@GaryMcKinnonUFO]

distrokid getting some bad press recently

[@CreativeSauce]

Hi, in the interest of us not sharing inaccurate information, I'd invite to expand upon your claim here, as the news section of Google indicates no bad press.

[@GaryMcKinnonUFO]

@@CreativeSauce Hi, not as in media, but on forums etc regarding non or late payments.

[@CreativeSauce]

​@@GaryMcKinnonUFO. Yeah, I'm really struggling to find anything on that. For me, they can't be 'late' as I manually withdraw each month. Unless the payments are late from the platforms- in which case it's not really in DistroKid 's control, and could happen with any/all distributors.

[@GaryMcKinnonUFO]

@@CreativeSauce Ah ok i see.

[@GaryMcKinnonUFO]

@@CreativeSauce Yes, did some digging and it turns out the most recent complaint was a year ago, and it was due to miscounting of stream numbers in general, and that has been fixed since. Thanks for nudging me :)

[@music_creator_capable]

Hello ^^

[@ParthMusic]

First :D

[@CreativeSauce]

:)

[@Kludgedean]

🍪

[@epicduckdoctor]

Great video Mike, that really helped a lot

[@CreativeSauce]

Thank you!