Emotionless and straight to the point. Exactly what I expected from a fellow German musician and exactly what I was hoping for. (Not joking, Im a little bit fed up with all these ADHD "producer" tutorials) Thx m8!
I've been going about this all wrong. Seems obvious, now, that you'd want a long attack to leave the transients. Probably the most important video that I've ever watched on compression.
It's not always a good idea to have long attack on drums, in this case it's a nice touch because it's house music you need your track to bounce, but for example in rock music or hiphop or pop it's more often to use a fast attack with an intermedium release so you keep the attack of your drums more balance to be able to sit your vocals on the mix in proper way without having a fast attack your snare and kick drum will interfere with the rest of your sounds, so it's something more about taste.
This is the most German production video I've ever seen. So straightforward about the envelope. A lot of information on the subtleties of balanced compression. Love the poppy punch!
Elliot Noteworthy yeah but I keep waiting for him to reveal that there's actually a bomb in the mix that will detonate if Bruce Willis can't get those transients to shine through!
You'll hear clearly the dif just when the threshold is extreme and fast attack at 5:16 - btw to hear it you need good bass speakers or headphones cause the transient of the kick is being cut.
Crazy how he put to words how I visualized this in my head. Idk if any of you guys have ever watched or been in a concert/symphonic band but the way I picture compression is just like when you see a bass drummer sometimes place their hand back on the drum after striking it with the mallet. They have control of the resonance there but to me the "Attack" is the time from when it's struck to when they place their hand on it and the "Release" is how long they leave it on there..
Compressor starts compressing as soon as signal goes above the threshold. It doesn't wait for anything. Attack is only a smoothing filter which shapes the envelope of gain reduction based on the incoming signal. Depending on how the compressor is built it can also start taking the information even before the threshold's been exceeded. Just my 3 cents.
What a great explanation! I’ve been playing and recording music my whole life and compression is still so confusing to me this really makes sense thank you
I thought this was a great tutorial. Easy to understand and simple, direct communication. Also, I could clearly hear the effects of what he was doing. That kick really pops when you increase the attack. Love the sound of that 2500.
@@TH-camSupportTeams I love how you are correcting one of the most influential and relevant mixing engineers in the world right now. Do some research on his work history and come back to us and while you are at it, let's us see and hear yours.
Most of this video you are discussing attack time, but how you described it is incorrect. The compressor does not wait the attack time to start compressing. All compressors begin attacking immediately once a signal is over a threshold. The attack time is the amount of time it spends getting to the final attenuation level. It's a ramp Steeper ramp with fast attack, shallower ramp with slower attack so more transients get through.
I love how you are correcting one of the most influential and relevant mixing engineers in the world right now. Do some research on his work history and come back to us and while you are at it, let's see and hear yours.
@@dirtygirl5698 I'm sure his credentials far outweigh mine but what he says about attack in this video is wrong. Thou shalt never correct a person with "credentials"?
@@curefan28 Just so you know, those of us who have tons of respect and been following Hannes Bieger for years know that he loves debunking rules in the studio, he is known for that, but of course you wouldn't know that..... This guy knows the rules and then breaks them as he pleases, and It does not mean he is not "Correct" as you have stated, he is just pushing boundaries as pioneers have always done.
@@dirtygirl5698 It's not a rule, it's a fact. Read my explanation again and look up the definition of compressor attack. He is perpetuating a common misconception about compressors. I guess you don't know how they work either.
@@curefan28 Fact? well, crystallography, once was a fact! where it was once thought that crystalline solids could only be composed of repeating blocks (unit cells) that could be used to tile all of space. This was upended with the discovery of Quasicrystals, but I guess you don't know about Quasicrystals
FFS, please do more videos on drum compression! That right there was probably the most informative video on drums I've seen in the two years I have taken producing seriously... How many times throughout these 5 years I have been following you guys can I say I appreciate the things you guys do for the music community!
i wish there was a on off comparison without any dialog. difficult to hear the difference on my setup with talking over it. great video though very helpful!
90 eurodance has some of the most impressive punchy kicks. Ace Of Base, Dr. Alban, Corona... as well as top class mastering on these high profile eurodance artists. Give it a listen again on proper gear you'd be amazed how immaculate the kicks and mastering on these songs is.
Legend video! I take it if its on the drum bus the gain reduction is ever so slightly applied to the signal during the release but this seems to be a nice effect
Cool video, but the attack time is not the time it takes the compressor to start compressing. It's the time it takes the compression to go from a 1:1 ratio to the specified ratio of gain reduction. It compresses virtually right away. There are definitions where the attack is defined as the time the gain reduction reaches a certain fraction of the full ratio, but they always start to reduce gain immediately after the detector registers a level above the threshold.
Been reading the comments of those who said the difference was inaudible. In my listening environment which is not that well setup through dynaudio acoustics 8" and 12" sub routing through UA2192. I could hear more of the beater which added more clarity to the kick or shift of focus from a woof sound to a more punch/smack. My point is about the shift of focus if the beater was already there, there may not even needed any compression as the drum loop sounds like it is already altered with compression.
Vielen Dank Herr Bieger! Im not sure of the comments about not hearing any difference...are you kidding? I am playing this through my references (ATC, HS5 and Aurasphere Focus)...clear as day. Even through the low fi ref...not as much but the higher harmonics are definitely sound more solid. Greets from Sydney...ähnlich von Hamburg :-)
All of them sounds great! Personally I'd use all, just program the compressor to change during the track. But I'm classically trained. Want to do cinematic.
That kick was too compressed to begin with, not really a great example to hear a proper change in transients in my opinion but at least his philosophy made sense. I think this video was more about looking at his crazy gear!
Funny how on these videos I hear little difference even with my studio head phones but when I apply these techniques in the studio on my own stuff it’s makes plenty of difference.
What he doesn't say: when transients get thru then the unit might got into distortion what brings the hole thing upfront too. When i started i messed with software compressors an never got the result cause i didn't understand the importance of distortion/saturation in conjunction :)
i really loved when the compressor was turned up to the max. it would have been the perfect future bass kick, but i know this is more of a house example
I wish he would stop talking as he is changing the sounds. the changes are subtle enough, and without being able to hear the direct change its very difficult to hear what he is talking about
Yeah I totally don't hear a difference when he turns the compressor on or off. Sometimes it sounds louder but that could be done with the channel fader as well so why compression?
Hey do you apply compression to each individual drum hit before treating them all on a bus? Also, is there any chance you can make a short vid explaining the difference between limiting and compression? Out of all the things in music production, they are the two things that I find hard to know how and when to apply it.
Compression is generally used to balance the overall level of a track if there is too much dynamics. A compressor can be used to do cool tricks that it was not originally intended for. A limiter will keep your track from peaking. Mostly used on the master bus.
Comp is basically what the word means. It compresses the unwanted peaks. Lets say an automatic volume control. Example; a kick drum sometimes sounds kinda hard and sometimes kinda soft? you can gradually adjust the volume between them so theres not too much difference in amplitude. But hey..I said "kinda" when describing volume differences. If happens that you have a kick peaking too low and another one way too high...you better record those drums again. Theres no compression or eq that can fix a bad recording. Compression is to control peaks , limiter is to put a limit to those peaks. To really understand compression is better to get out of youtube and get a book dedicated to mixing and recording. And then practice , practice and practice all that you already learned.
5-years late, but thought I'd add it in case someone else want's to know.. Yeah, you go individually if you chose, no real rules. But normally a good 'glue compression' is used to bring them all together on the bus.
i'm sitting here watching this going, yep i do this, yep i do this, yep i do this, yep i do this, yep i do this... you don't need his studio or any high end studio to do this. it's just knowing how to do it and knowing what you're working with.
tl:dr - The "punch" of drums truly describes their transients. To preserve the transients [and therefore the punch] of your drums, use a long attack time on your compressor, about 30ms, as well as a medium/long release setting; this allows the transient to pass through the compressor mostly uncompressed and sets the compressor to clamp down during the body of the drum sample. Bieger notes that his compressor only applies about 1-2db of gain reduction, hinting that if you decide to compress your drums, you should do so subtly.
Really enjoyed this thanks @hannes Bieger . If one is on a tighter budget which outboard compressor would you recommend for drums? or would i be better off using a plugin. I have mostly analogue instruments so keen on using outboard eq and compression before going in. Thank you !
does anyone know what a good compression ratio would be for this? i got attack and release down, but i wanna know how squished it should be when it kicks in.
Hello I will like to ask a truly beginner level question. I double as the sound engineer of a small and growing church.. We currently have just a mixer, acoustic drum, equalizer and an Amplifier. I want our drum output to be significantly enhanced . I am looking at getting a "live hillsong" type of production for our drums what this means essentially is I want to get a "boomy" woofer like bass sound from my drums.. We currently have full range and mid-range speaker. I am trying to decide on the most cost effective path towards this. Will just buying a compressor and a sub woofer speaker (my equalizer has an inbuilt crossover output so I feel an external audio crossover is not needed) help us towards ou goal. Any help will be highly appreciated. Thanks
I love how you are correcting one of the most influential and relevant mixing engineers in the world right now. Do some research on his work history and come back to us and while you are at it, let's us see and hear yours.
Do you think it is possible to make the best ever ( kind of ) depp techno hit, without analog equipment. But with lots of effort and UAD plugins for example, taste? Or you really recommend to buy great analog compressor, or anything else.
Emotionless and straight to the point. Exactly what I expected from a fellow German musician and exactly what I was hoping for.
(Not joking, Im a little bit fed up with all these ADHD "producer" tutorials)
Thx m8!
Machine Like Precision.
He just relaxed. You up-tight Americans would not be used to this 😅
@@crowmagnon yes, that is precisely what I intended to express
I've been going about this all wrong. Seems obvious, now, that you'd want a long attack to leave the transients. Probably the most important video that I've ever watched on compression.
theres no right or wrong, it depends on what you want to achieve.
It's not always a good idea to have long attack on drums, in this case it's a nice touch because it's house music you need your track to bounce, but for example in rock music or hiphop or pop it's more often to use a fast attack with an intermedium release so you keep the attack of your drums more balance to be able to sit your vocals on the mix in proper way without having a fast attack your snare and kick drum will interfere with the rest of your sounds, so it's something more about taste.
same, glad I stumbled on this video
This is the most German production video I've ever seen. So straightforward about the envelope. A lot of information on the subtleties of balanced compression. Love the poppy punch!
I could listen to German sound engineers talk about this kind of stuff all day.
lol their accent make them sound like they know their shit
Elliot Noteware - seriously
Elliot Noteworthy yeah but I keep waiting for him to reveal that there's actually a bomb in the mix that will detonate if Bruce Willis can't get those transients to shine through!
i'm german and to me its pretty annoying listening to him lol
Zis is what most of us do all day here in Germany
That curve bender though.... this guy has everything you’d ever need in that room wow.....
Me not hearing the difference:
Ah yes compression.
You'll hear clearly the dif just when the threshold is extreme and fast attack at 5:16 - btw to hear it you need good bass speakers or headphones cause the transient of the kick is being cut.
Crazy how he put to words how I visualized this in my head. Idk if any of you guys have ever watched or been in a concert/symphonic band but the way I picture compression is just like when you see a bass drummer sometimes place their hand back on the drum after striking it with the mallet. They have control of the resonance there but to me the "Attack" is the time from when it's struck to when they place their hand on it and the "Release" is how long they leave it on there..
sanchezproductions87 excellent explanation and that too as I'm watching a lot of classical music :)
Wow! I'll keept this in mind.
exactly
Hannes, if you're reading this, please do the next one on Kick and Bass eq/comp.
Thanks
asura673 i
Compressor starts compressing as soon as signal goes above the threshold. It doesn't wait for anything. Attack is only a smoothing filter which shapes the envelope of gain reduction based on the incoming signal. Depending on how the compressor is built it can also start taking the information even before the threshold's been exceeded. Just my 3 cents.
Thats more like your 50cent :-) . Nice info. Good to know
Agreed !! At least 27 cents worth 😎
What a great explanation! I’ve been playing and recording music my whole life and compression is still so confusing to me this really makes sense thank you
We wants the money, Lebowski. No funny stuffs.
fucking amateurs
nothing is fucked dude
We believe in nussing, Lebowski. Nussing.
Fucking nihilists...
reading these was the perfect end to a great day. Thank you all
I thought this was a great tutorial. Easy to understand and simple, direct communication. Also, I could clearly hear the effects of what he was doing. That kick really pops when you increase the attack. Love the sound of that 2500.
Best compression tutorial I've seen so far
Welcome to your first day on youtube
@@TH-camSupportTeams I love how you are correcting one of the most influential and relevant mixing engineers in the world right now. Do some research on his work history and come back to us and while you are at it, let's us see and hear yours.
Is it just me or did the kick already sound really compressed before he turned on the compressor?
not just you. A compressed mess to begin with.
!
with this kind of compression he increased the transients. This way it is sounding less flat and less compressed.
what he achieved was so subtle it never even needed to be done.
TH-cam Support imagine the amount of money he spend to get this subtle effect
Most of this video you are discussing attack time, but how you described it is incorrect. The compressor does not wait the attack time to start compressing. All compressors begin attacking immediately once a signal is over a threshold. The attack time is the amount of time it spends getting to the final attenuation level. It's a ramp
Steeper ramp with fast attack, shallower ramp with slower attack so more transients get through.
I love how you are correcting one of the most influential and relevant mixing engineers in the world right now. Do some research on his work history and come back to us and while you are at it, let's see and hear yours.
@@dirtygirl5698 I'm sure his credentials far outweigh mine but what he says about attack in this video is wrong. Thou shalt never correct a person with "credentials"?
@@curefan28 Just so you know, those of us who have tons of respect and been following Hannes Bieger for years know that he loves debunking rules in the studio, he is known for that, but of course you wouldn't know that..... This guy knows the rules and then breaks them as he pleases, and It does not mean he is not "Correct" as you have stated, he is just pushing boundaries as pioneers have always done.
@@dirtygirl5698 It's not a rule, it's a fact. Read my explanation again and look up the definition of compressor attack. He is perpetuating a common misconception about compressors. I guess you don't know how they work either.
@@curefan28 Fact? well, crystallography, once was a fact! where it was once thought that crystalline solids could only be composed of repeating blocks (unit cells) that could be used to tile all of space. This was upended with the discovery of Quasicrystals, but I guess you don't know about Quasicrystals
I always hear good stuffs about this compressor. To me this is the more defined punchier compressor out there. Punchy ,focused and clean.
FFS, please do more videos on drum compression! That right there was probably the most informative video on drums I've seen in the two years I have taken producing seriously...
How many times throughout these 5 years I have been following you guys can I say I appreciate the things you guys do for the music community!
i wish there was a on off comparison without any dialog. difficult to hear the difference on my setup with talking over it. great video though very helpful!
90 eurodance has some of the most impressive punchy kicks. Ace Of Base, Dr. Alban, Corona... as well as top class mastering on these high profile eurodance artists. Give it a listen again on proper gear you'd be amazed how immaculate the kicks and mastering on these songs is.
Legend video! I take it if its on the drum bus the gain reduction is ever so slightly applied to the signal during the release but this seems to be a nice effect
Cool video, but the attack time is not the time it takes the compressor to start compressing. It's the time it takes the compression to go from a 1:1 ratio to the specified ratio of gain reduction. It compresses virtually right away. There are definitions where the attack is defined as the time the gain reduction reaches a certain fraction of the full ratio, but they always start to reduce gain immediately after the detector registers a level above the threshold.
Finally a tutorial that actually explains why we are using the certain settings rather than throwing settings on my plate and saying see ya.
Best video on drum bus compression I have heard. Thank you.
Not really. He kept adjusting the threshold everytime he changed the attack settings. Half baked info
Wow what a coincidence. I just bought knobs from DJTT. Great shop, best !! Real stand out bright light. Thank you, DJTT !!
Been reading the comments of those who said the difference was inaudible. In my listening environment which is not that well setup through dynaudio acoustics 8" and 12" sub routing through UA2192. I could hear more of the beater which added more clarity to the kick or shift of focus from a woof sound to a more punch/smack. My point is about the shift of focus if the beater was already there, there may not even needed any compression as the drum loop sounds like it is already altered with compression.
Vielen Dank Herr Bieger! Im not sure of the comments about not hearing any difference...are you kidding? I am playing this through my references (ATC, HS5 and Aurasphere Focus)...clear as day. Even through the low fi ref...not as much but the higher harmonics are definitely sound more solid. Greets from Sydney...ähnlich von Hamburg :-)
- you would like that little extra German punch on kick :)
Amazing guy!
Yes! More production videos!
I am using Sennheiser HD280 Pro headphones. When he was making the changes on his compressor, I could not hear any difference on his kick drum. :(
+Kwipper Ursus same
You really have to be a super criticial/OCD audiophile to hear it. I heard it through my shitty cellphone speakers lol
+Kwipper Ursus Did you watch it in HD? Typically the sound quality on the lower res videos is too bad to hear these small differences.
I heard the difference, too - on my phone speakers :) With time and experience you learn what to listen for.
+Kwipper Ursus Same on Audio-Technica ATH-M30x.
Dope studio and skills
DJTT raising the bar, yet, again. Great upload! Thank you. _Cheers_
Best vid ive seen
great tutorial, i use a HD25-1II and hear a big difference. thanksss
when he turns the attack really fast, he sounds genuinely hurt by the bad sound. thanks for this, useful video!
Muchas gracias! Saludos from Chile
Thank you Hannes I really enjoyed the video .
Yeay, this is something I discovered myself. Nice to see it confirmed by a professional.
Great video, thanks
All of them sounds great! Personally I'd use all, just program the compressor to change during the track. But I'm classically trained. Want to do cinematic.
That kick was too compressed to begin with, not really a great example to hear a proper change in transients in my opinion but at least his philosophy made sense. I think this video was more about looking at his crazy gear!
bit late to the party but I'm fairly certain youtube's compression itself makes it kinda hard to hear what really was going on.
There was a massive difference, you need the right equipment to hear it and also trained ears.
Funny how on these videos I hear little difference even with my studio head phones but when I apply these techniques in the studio on my own stuff it’s makes plenty of difference.
It's because of what your ears are attuned to, or what's "normal" for your day-to-day use.
Brilliant. The attack is the back.
You need an award 🥇
Does this mean he included the kick in his drum since he spoke on how this compressor effected the shape of the kick?
thank you so much DJTT for this video..
"It seems to work every time Im using it"..... it should for a $7000 compressor LOL
buy the UAD much cheaper
$3000...
what about when ur compressing only your kick and not your whole drum bus?
"Hi my name is Hamburger" xD
Great work, I am just immature.
Hah
Hannes! Please do a video on EQing the 909 and what 500 series EQ you would recommend. I'm assuming you like the 550 :D
What he doesn't say: when transients get thru then the unit might got into distortion what brings the hole thing upfront too. When i started i messed with software compressors an never got the result cause i didn't understand the importance of distortion/saturation in conjunction :)
Yeah the circuit alone does something, i'll often use mine just going through the transformers and opamps. No compression.
HELPED ME A LOT THANK YOU SO MUCH
Strait to the point ! Thank you !
Can you help me, by naming some of the basic analog systems you’re using?
Thank u for that valuable information, I will be following u now, everybody doesn’t explain well, great job 🫡🫡👍🏽
Do i group all the drum parts together when using this compressor?
i really loved when the compressor was turned up to the max. it would have been the perfect future bass kick, but i know this is more of a house example
This video was very helpful.
I wonder what sort of approach is needed in case of breakbeat pattern with rolling kicks like old school electro funk.
Howany release did you put for compression
What should I think about when it comes to release time?
Punchy drumMACHINE!
When a socially-awkward producer encounters an equally-socially-awkward cameraman.
I learned a lot from this. I'd also love to know what the intro song is. SoundHound won't clock it. Any ideas?
I wish he would stop talking as he is changing the sounds. the changes are subtle enough, and without being able to hear the direct change its very difficult to hear what he is talking about
Word!
+Zach Hixson you'll notice the minute differences when you're using high range studio quality headphones.
we all wish something
agreed. on my home monitors, I couldn't hear a difference, but when I brought this into the studio, it was night and day
Yeah I totally don't hear a difference when he turns the compressor on or off. Sometimes it sounds louder but that could be done with the channel fader as well so why compression?
Ist this compression used in the drum Bus? I mean wouldnt it make sense to compress all Drums on their own for more specific compression?
Nice tutorial mate! Really easy to undesrtand thanks! =D
Is it better to buss the kick with the drums or the kick with bass?
Hey do you apply compression to each individual drum hit before treating them all on a bus? Also, is there any chance you can make a short vid explaining the difference between limiting and compression? Out of all the things in music production, they are the two things that I find hard to know how and when to apply it.
Compression is generally used to balance the overall level of a track if there is too much dynamics. A compressor can be used to do cool tricks that it was not originally intended for. A limiter will keep your track from peaking. Mostly used on the master bus.
Comp is basically what the word means. It compresses the unwanted peaks. Lets say an automatic volume control. Example; a kick drum sometimes sounds kinda hard and sometimes kinda soft? you can gradually adjust the volume between them so theres not too much difference in amplitude. But hey..I said "kinda" when describing volume differences. If happens that you have a kick peaking too low and another one way too high...you better record those drums again. Theres no compression or eq that can fix a bad recording. Compression is to control peaks , limiter is to put a limit to those peaks. To really understand compression is better to get out of youtube and get a book dedicated to mixing and recording. And then practice , practice and practice all that you already learned.
5-years late, but thought I'd add it in case someone else want's to know.. Yeah, you go individually if you chose, no real rules. But normally a good 'glue compression' is used to bring them all together on the bus.
Nice outboard gear. Big $.
well said Mr.Hannes
What kind of board is that?
If you can do 130 BPM Kick Drum as an extended loopable Loop or backing track
i'm sitting here watching this going, yep i do this, yep i do this, yep i do this, yep i do this, yep i do this... you don't need his studio or any high end studio to do this. it's just knowing how to do it and knowing what you're working with.
tl:dr - The "punch" of drums truly describes their transients. To preserve the transients [and therefore the punch] of your drums, use a long attack time on your compressor, about 30ms, as well as a medium/long release setting; this allows the transient to pass through the compressor mostly uncompressed and sets the compressor to clamp down during the body of the drum sample.
Bieger notes that his compressor only applies about 1-2db of gain reduction, hinting that if you decide to compress your drums, you should do so subtly.
super infos danke
Really enjoyed this thanks @hannes Bieger . If one is on a tighter budget which outboard compressor would you recommend for drums? or would i be better off using a plugin. I have mostly analogue instruments so keen on using outboard eq and compression before going in. Thank you !
Cameraman being like: shake it, shake it shake it
Super helpful video
changes are subtle but you can hear the difference in the kick in context with the music im sure.
Me: Why do we need the Kompressor
Schwartzeneger’s German Cousin: We need Dee Kompressor to get to the chopper....
does anyone know what a good compression ratio would be for this? i got attack and release down, but i wanna know how squished it should be when it kicks in.
the sickest gear possible and what is the monitor choice? Genelecs :D
Hello
I will like to ask a truly beginner level question.
I double as the sound engineer of a small and growing church.. We currently have just a mixer, acoustic drum, equalizer and an Amplifier.
I want our drum output to be significantly enhanced . I am looking at getting a "live hillsong" type of production for our drums what this means essentially is I want to get a "boomy" woofer like bass sound from my drums..
We currently have full range and mid-range speaker. I am trying to decide on the most cost effective path towards this. Will just buying a compressor and a sub woofer speaker (my equalizer has an inbuilt crossover output so I feel an external audio crossover is not needed) help us towards ou goal.
Any help will be highly appreciated. Thanks
the Attack is 30 , how about the sustain , decay and release?
Good video!
thank u
what is the title of that beat???
does the api have a ratio setting? what was it?
more h.bieger stuff please and maybe some a.henneberg too... thanx
Thank you!!!
Song at beginning?
long attack short release for punchy kick sound
what about release time
nice tut! what's that mixer? looking sick
Classic case of all the gear no idea!
I love how you are correcting one of the most influential and relevant mixing engineers in the world right now. Do some research on his work history and come back to us and while you are at it, let's us see and hear yours.
Some nice gear in there
Anyone knows the ID of the track in the start ?
I liked it better with a little shorter attack. Maybe the 10ms that you swept through really quickly. Maybe even the 3.
Do you think it is possible to make the best ever ( kind of ) depp techno hit, without analog equipment. But with lots of effort and UAD plugins for example, taste? Or you really recommend to buy great analog compressor, or anything else.
Of course you can. you must be new to the hobby
And what’s the best setting of the ratio for a kick drum?
Did you find an answer to this question?
@@dennishagstrom no