Expanding your sound with parallel compression

「Compressors」are an integral part of mixing.

It controls the peaks in sound, and aims to keep the volume from having too much difference.
When the track has less difference in volumes, it tidies up the dynamics, and leads to an overall increase in quality.

Many tracks will work well with a compressor.

The main problem encountered here is「how much compressor to apply」.

On most instruments, the loudest part is the attack.
Of course, this part will be the main subject of the compression.

However, when the attack is compressed too much, the sound won’t come through clean,、
and makes the sound「darker」or「not come forward」.

We can solve this problem with 「parallel compression」.
It is also called New York compression.

By mixing the compressed sound (Wet) and the original sound (Dry),
you can control the balance of sound.

Lets take a look!

Parallel compression – Tutorial video

How to apply parallel compression

Here, we will take a look at the easiest way to do this.

First, duplicate the track you want to apply it to.

Next, we will apply a compressor to one of the tracks as the “Wet” track.
Setting the compressor a little strong is a key point here.

• Attack : Set it fast, and make sure to hit the peaks
• Release : Set this fast as well, to over exaggerate the effect
• Ratio : Set the ratio high
• Threshold : Set it low so the compression hits harder

This is all the preparations.
Last, just balance the levels between the track without compression (Dry).

• Raise the Wet track to create a fat loud sound
• Raise the Dry to keep the sound more natural

You can keep the original attack, while still cleaning up with some compression, so try out this technique!