Pseudo Broadband Compression

Broadband compression is where you allow only a certain range of frequencies to trigger your compressor. So, if you track is extremely bass heavy (like the one in the example) it allows you to not have the bass heavy kick drum trigger the compressor and make the rest of your track duck and pump when that kick hits. This is perfect for when you are mastering hip-hop or EDM. Take a look at the video.

You can check out the full song here...


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Multiband Sidechain Compression

Mulitband sidechain compression is where you use one audio signal to compress a certain range of frequencies of another. Why do this? Two situations where this can help you the most are trying to make a kick drum and bass guitar sit together and also getting vocals and guitars to sit well in the mix. The basic idea is to make the competing frequencies "duck" out of the way of each other so one doesn't mask the other. For example, we can make it so every time the lead singer is singing, the sidechain compression on the mid range of the guitars that shares similar frequencies get triggered to make way for the vocal. This way you can have guitars and vocals that are both in your face but aren't battling for space. Take a look at the video below to see how we achieve this.

You could even take this one more step further, by using the EQ8 and an audio effects rack you could split the signal into mid/side and have it only compress the mono data. But that's another video :)

Hope you enjoyed the video and learned something, if you did hit that subscribe button!

Plug-in Review: Thrillseeker VBL

Overview 

Released in mid 2013 by Variety of Sound, the Thrillseeker VBL emulates the old vintage broadcast limiters of the 50s. It's designed to give you that harmonic tube distortion we all love from vintage analog tube compressors while working in the box. The Thrillseeker VBL has fixed attack and release times that are slow compared to modern brick wall limiters. Regardless of the slower fixed attack and release times, I have put it to good use on many things from acoustic drums, electric guitars, bass guitars, vocals, synths and just about anything. Oh, and the coolest part, it's free.

Cool Features 

When you start to drive this compressor it will start to add some "analog" harmonic distortion, which is not harsh at all and can really fill out sounds very nicely.

Between your "Amp" and "Brilliance" controls you can dial in some great sounding "analog" distortion to fill out just about anything.

When heavily compressing your audio you will start to hear a "pumping" effect, you can turn up the "Emphasis" control to help tame it.

Turning up the "Bias" control can create more focus on high frequencies.

Rating: 5/5
Price: FREE
Format: 32-bit VST only

I would recommend Thrillseeker VBL to anyone working with audio, you will find something it does great no matter if you are producing, mixing, or mastering.

You can download Thrillseeker VBL HERE

Compression Basics

Knowing how to use a compressor is one of the most valuable pieces of knowledge you can have as a producer or engineer. Compression is a huge part of the sound of modern music and has been a huge part of music production and engineering for years. In this video I got over the four basic parameters you find on most compressors, whether its an analog unit or a plug-in, which are the threshold, ratio, attack and release. Check out the video below to hear my explanation of each one.

How To De-ess in Ableton Live

So there probably is a few ways of doing this but this way I find sounds great and will not effects anything thing else, just your problem sibilants (T's and S's to be specific). It won't carve out any unwanted frequencies and make your vocal sound dull either. The basic idea of this technique is to use the problem to get rid of the problem. We'll isolate the sibilants and use them to duck them out of the source track. It might sound confusing, maybe only because I suck at explaining things, but once your see it done step by step it makes total sense.

Check to video out below

How To Make A Howard Benson Style Delay

I was watching Pensado's Place not too long ago and it was an episode with Howard Benson. During the interview he mentions a unique way he using delays. So, me being me, I had to try it out. What Howard does is create 2 delay sends, one panned right and the other panned left. He sets them both to the same timing (1/4 note for example) but then takes another delay (fully wet) and sticks it right in front of one of the delays and delays it further by 10-30 milliseconds. The result is a huge stereo delay, that isn't a ping-pong.

Check out the video below to hear this in action and to learn how to do this along with a little expansion to get a huge great sounding delay.

How To Create a Bob Brown Style Delay

Hey guys here is my first tutorial on my new YouTube channel.

In this tutorial I discus how to create a Bob Brown style delay. I'm sure this isn't the official name and I am unsure where it originated but Bob did it best and he own well known for doing this. This technique originated in the analog world but I will show you how to do it in Live.

So what the hell is a "Bob Brown style delay" anyways? Well, this is when you take a send track with a delay and instead of using the feedback on the delay effect, you take and loop the output back into the input (which is what feedback is, basically). So why do this? The main and most apparent advantage of doing this is that you can add effects to your feedback loop, so with every repetition your signal gets more and more processed.

Check out the video below to see it in action and to learn how you can do this in Ableton Live.