Be sure to always level match it with its unprocessed signal and A/B it regularly to make sure you are doing more good than harm. Once that’s done, then turn towards adjusting the individual bands starting with the one that “needs the most help”. Don’t worry about the band settings just yet, just aimed to get a good overall compressed sound. When using a multiband compressor I suggest using it like a regular compressor to begin with and adjust all the controls together if it allows you to. So basically the idea is not to unnecessarily complicate issues for yourself unless you need to. There are other occasions it might be useful such as drums stems or other stems of “premixed” instruments for example.
It was a bit of work, but the end result was a better balanced, more articulate bass sound that sat nicely with the other instruments. I then used an upper band to bring out the articulation and add more definition to the notes. I decided to take advantage of the multiband and used a middle band to reduce it enough to allow more room for other instruments, without taking too much presence or weight away. So I trimmed about 1db or so with the Fairchild and and about another 2dB with the multiband compressor, well at the low end anyway. Well in actual fact I did both, as I still liked the harmonics I was getting from the Fairchild.
I tried straight up compression on it, just to bring back some uniformity to its level, but I felt it was being a bit too brutal. I’m not even sure how that was possible, yet there it is. By using a multiband you can compress the lower frequencies as per normal, but the higher frequencies you can really tailor to help bring out its attack.Ĭonversely, a recent problem I had was a synth bass sounding about 3dB louder at the start of its 8-bar phrase, than it did at the end. The reason why I consider multibands is to generally solve a problem that can’t be solved with straight forward compression.įor example, maybe a basic compressor might do the job, but you discover it lacks some intelligibility or snappier transients. Optical compressors or compressors with low ratios, low thresholds and soft knees for some more transparent level controls, hard knee, higher ratio,VCAs and FETs for more aggressive control and shaping. For the most part I believe basic compression does the job.