From the course: Drum Mixing: Techniques

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Intro to parallel compression

Intro to parallel compression

From the course: Drum Mixing: Techniques

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Intro to parallel compression

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- So for parallel compression, I have a number of tricks. When I set up a mix, whether it's on the desk or in the box, I have at least three things going on right off the bat. I have a parallel compressor just for the kick drum, I have another one just for the snare drum, and then I have a stereo parallel compressor for the whole drum kit. Whether I use all those three things on a given mix is up to what's needed. Now here, I don't think I really need the kick and snare. We're going to try it. I'll show you what I do, but it may not be viable for this song. Now what parallel compression is is sending some or all of these tracks off on a bus to a compressor and back in on a parallel channel. So what you're doing is adding a compressed sound to an uncompressed sound. So you have the attack and the characteristic of the original sound, and you can add in some kind of more aggressive sound or something that's got more sustain, or more distortion, or any of the characteristics that this…

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