We have visited audioberlin – a cool audiotainment company based in Berlin. Check out the interview with CEO and Lead Sound Director Jan Ullmann:

Now we’d like to introduce you to a special kind of parallel compression that is popular with some of the top mixing engineers in the business and is particularly good for creating interesting vocal tracks. This type of parallel compression involves routing the signal through 5 compressors (or more in some cases) and mixing the output signals to create the final sound.

In contrast to simple compression of the vocal track using an insert, this method provides you with many more options for mixing the various compression characteristics to create just the right sound for your vocals and really bring your mix to life. Another advantage is that you can reduce the dynamic range without cutting off too many of the transients.

Step 1: First we want to create five AUX tracks under the vocal track. We’ll use these later for the compression. To do this, select “Track Menu > Insert new tracks > Add several tracks” and enter 5 in the input field.

Step 2: Open the track settings for Track 2 by right-clicking in the name field and check the box for “Track Type: AUX Bus“.

Step 3: Now move to the next track by clicking on the arrow beside the “Track name” field and check the box for “Track Type: AUX Bus” just as you did before.

Once you have done this for all of the new tracks, close the “Track Settings” dialog and switch to the Mixer View (keyboard shortcut “M”)

Step 4: Open the AUX area of the vocal channel by right-clicking on the gray box beside “AUX”.

Step 5: Now we can set the amplification for our 5 AUX busses to 0.0 (Unity Gain) and check the box marked “visible”.

All of these 5 AUX channels will now receive the signal from the vocal channel.

Step 6: Take the vocal channel out of the stereo master by adjusting the output accordingly.

The fader will be used later to control all of the AUX send levels which in turn controls the total compression.

Step 7: To finish the signal routing for the mixer setup, we’ll set up a group that will receive the outputs of the AUX tracks. To do this we’ll right-click on the channel number of the last AUX channel and select “Insert Tracks > New Submix Bus” from the context menu.

We’ll call this group the „VoxMaster“ and enter that in the name field by first double-clicking on it. Now we’ll route the output signals from our AUX channels to this group.

Step 8: Now it’s time to connect the various compressors to the the sends. Samplitude offers a diverse assortment of compressors that each have their own special audio characteristics but you can also use VST plug-ins from third parties if you like. Just make sure that each of the compressors enhances a different aspect of the sound spectrum. We’ll use the following compressors for this workshop:

AUX 1 > Advanced Dynamics

AUX 2 > Multiband Dynamics

AUX 3 > eFX_Compressor

AUX 4 > AM-Track

AUX 5 > AM-Munition

We’ll connect these compressors to the plug-in section of the mixer and rename our AUX channels accordingly.

If you want to experiment a bit you can try adding a distortion effect like “Distortion” or “Vandal” to add some clipping to the signal.

Step 9: Now we can set the plug-ins to apply the specific sound characteristics of each one. Don’t be afraid to use some heavy settings to make sure that the individual characteristics push through in the mix. Pay close attention to whether the gain reduction is making the vocal performance livelier or holding it back and what kinds of sound effects or distortion occur.

Even if a particular compressor setting seems to be disruptive, you might find that it adds a unique aspect to the mix when combined with the effects from the other compressors.

Step 10: Experiment with the various compressor settings and the volume ratios between the compressor channels and the vocal channel which influences all of the post fader sends to the compres- sors and in turn controls the total compression. You can also include more signal processing in the “VoxMaster” group by adding insert and send effects.

One more tip: If you want to include the uncompressed vocal in the mix to keep the sound more natural, you can create another AUX channel without a compressor in the plug-in section. You can then
mix this channel together with the compressor channels.

Have fun with advanced parallel compression!

Your Samplitude Team

Parallel compression is a popular, everyday studio technique. It guarantees a transparent mix by retaining the audio characteristics of uncompressed signals.

Using this method, also known as New York compression, you can avoid overcompression while still having instruments sound powerful and dynamic in the mix. First we’re going to look at:

Parallel compression a drum loop

Step 1: Our drum loop is on track 1. Create an AUX bus below it (Menu > Track > Insert New Track > New AUX Bus) and load “Dynamics” in the plug-in slot.

Step 2: In the AUX section of the drum track we’re going to send the drum loop signal to our compression bus AUX 1 with the send level set at 0.0 (unity gain). Open the context menu by right-clicking then change the send signal to Pre Fader. Now the send signal and the drum loop track fader are independent.

Step 3: Start the drum loop and open the mixer view.

Now you should
see the parallel compression signal in the “AUX 1″ channel, next to the original drum loop.

Set the “AUX 1″ channel to “Solo” if you want to make adjustments that only affect the parallel compression settings.

Step 4: Now we’re going to focus on our New York compression settings. Set the “Dynamic” plug-in mode to “Compressor”.

You can be more extreme when setting the “Threshold” and “Ratio” parameters than you would be with regular compression because parallel compression only serves as a mix effect for the original signal.

Our drum loop’s threshold is set at -40 dB and has a ratio of 6.40:1. We’ll keep the attack quite short at 0.3 ms and the release time in the middle range, at 120 ms.

By itself the compressed channel can easily sound overcompressed.

Step 5: Next we’re going to mix the “Drums” and “AUX 1″ channels together. When you’ve found the right mix levels the drums will sound powerfully compressed, yet transparent and dynamic.

Uncompressed Drumloop:

Compressed Drumloop:

Parallel compression of combined drum tracks

Step 1: When each individual drum sound has its own track you need to create a subgroup track (Menu Track > Insert New Track > New Submix Bus) then route each drum instrument output to the newly created group. We’ll call it “Drum Group”.

Step 2: In the AUX section of the drum group send the signal (just like before) to our compression bus AUX 1 with the send level set at 0.0 (unity gain) and change the send signal to Pre Fader.

This allows you to adjust all drum instruments using one send controller when compressing.

Step 3: As a rule this level of parallel compression will affect everything from the bass drum to the snare proportionally. Try changing the compression level of the kick or snare drum indepen-
dently. Take the kick or the snare out of the drum group and route its output directly to the stereo mix.

If, however, you’re looking to achieve a really natural sounding cymbal don’t compress the overhead channels.

This way you can modify the entire parallel compression sound image quickly and effectively.

Uncompressed Drumtracks:

Compression without Kick:

Step 4: We can include the parametric equalizer in the AUX channel strip if we want to further manipulate the parallel compression. Because we want to make changes to the frequency levels before compression, we should adjust the effect routing accordingly. Press the “FX” button on the “AUX 1″ channel.

In the effect routing window use the arrows to move “Equalizer” above “Dynamics”,

then save the effects sequence. We’ll call it “eq_before_dynamics”

Step 5: Open the EQ window by right-clicking on the corresponding button in the AUX channel.

Step 6: Now we’re going to experiment with the equalizer’s frequency response. A high pass could make the sound image more transparent, and changing the bandpass settings could improve the overall audio characteristics.

Uncompressed Drumtracks:

Compression with bandpass setting:

Alternatively you could use an extreme narrow-band notch filter, and accordingly adjust the attack and release times in the compressor to create a pumping effect.

Uncompressed Drumtracks:

Final compression:

Good luck and have fun with New York compression!

The Samplitude Team

Pure guitar tone at its best – check out our intern Arne playing with Vandal!

The seventh video of the “Kraznet’s Tutorial Collection” series shows you how to vary complex MIDI melodies and patterns by using Retrograde.

Video download (MP4): MIDI Retrograde (Reverse)