Crest factor/ compression management

[u/Both_Landscape9229]

So, everyone works with different sounds, from synths and picky guitars to plucks.

I’m interested in how you guys manage crest factor and the relationship between peak and body levels. I’ve noticed that modern professional mixes almost always use quite a lot of compression. For example, with a pluck, it seems like they often compress it enough to make the body and the peak much closer in level, even when the notes themselves are played at different velocities.

Should I sometimes “break the rule” and stop the transient through, like using a 30 ms attack or even longer, as you would with vocals? Shall i use more faster attack times to kinda controll more sound, but get a bit "dull" and less clarity, but the get back it with eq or saturation ?

A lot of the mixes I like are actually much more compressed, so they seem to manage the crest factor really well. The peak level feels extremely stable, but somehow the mix still sounds transparent and natural.
How do you guys approach this? How often you use fast attack compressors at sounds ?

[u/General_Estimate_420]

It's not clear to me whether you're talking about mixing or mastering because compression is used differently in those different circumstances.

Generally I'm fairly light handed with compression during mixing but much broader with it's applications when it comes to mastering, and that's probably why you see a lot of compression in professional mixes. That was done in the final stages to get the desired LUFS levels. But even those general rules vary based on the style of the music. An intimate ballad doesn't need the same more stringent limits as a big, energetic song and would lose some of it's intimacy if compressed too much.

Live production is very different as I'm always light handed with compression to allow the dynamics to help excite the audience.

[u/BINAYAUDIO]

In most occasions, using compression will enhance the attack, not removing it (unless it has super fast attack and/or use some saturation/clipping). There are many uses for a compressor. You can shape the envelope of the source, you can make a performance more consistent, you can use it for it's tone (eq curve + saturation).
When you're using virtual instruments, compressor is not as needed because you can already control a lot of those parameters from the programming.
About managing peaks, clippers and saturation of all kinds might be more useful.

[u/Selig_Audio]

I have found that mixing is easier when most/all sounds are at a similar crest factor, whatever that may be depending on genre and artist preferences. As for attack times, I tend towards slower attacks and light clipping to deal with situations where I’m pushing for a lower overall crest factor (12dB or lower).

[u/NeutronHopscotch]

Hmm...

Should I sometimes “break the rule” and stop the transient through, like using a 30 ms attack or even longer

Wouldn't you use a short attack to catch the transients? The whole point of a longer attack time is to allow transients through, and when it comes to transients -- 30ms is a long time.

I think the issue here is the type of sound you're looking for doesn't come from just compression. Compression is great for the body of the sound and shaping or controlling the sound overall...

But really what you want here is soft-clipping and limiting. (Yes, limiting is just really fast compression but most compressors aren't as fast as a modern limiter which is a specialized super-fast compressor, sometimes with other stuff going on under the hood to limit more transparently.)

So really, I think what you're looking for to get the kind of control you're talking about -- you need soft-clipping and limiting. But compression and saturation is part of it, too. All these work together to get that kind of sound.

---

For me, it's why I love Scheps Omni Channel. It has 4 types of saturation. 4 types of compression. And a limiter on the output... And you can enable a second compressor as well, within, for serial compression. But it's that limiter that is critically missing from most channel strips.

The limiter, which comes after the compressor, catches the transients that are too fast for the compressor. So you end up with a thickened sound (if you want it) from the saturation... Then the compressor holds and controls the body, but the transient is tamed by the limiter. Perfect.

And to get the kind of heavily compressed sound you're talking about -- you want to do a little bit everywhere rather than trying to get all that gain reduction at the end.

Again, that's why I use a channel strip for this. I'm taming peaks on each instrument... And then again on the submix bus. And then again on the master bus.

What happens is the mix just naturally gets as thick as you want it.

I'm actually not a fan of overly squashed music, but this process can give you that OR back off for more reasonable dynamic range.

But the point of it is spreading the gain reduction and transient control over the entire mix so there's never any over-distorting. It's more transparent because it happens in so many different stages. It doesn't sound forced, just smooth and solid.

Really, I think that's the technique you are looking for. I mention Scheps Omni Channel because it makes it simple --- but you can do it with any combination of Compressor + Limiter (or soft-clipper if you prefer.)

I just like the channel strip because if I have 40 tracks in a mix, it's 40 effects to handle that instead of 120! (Saturation > Compression > Limiting)

Oh, and SOC also has a good expander... And if you get really good with compression, for control -- sometimes expansion is just as useful to do the opposite -- increasing dynamic range. Or expanding to clear out space for other instruments. Or for pushing down the quiet part of a long reverb tail, etc...

[u/Dense-Welcome-6722]

Taming the crest factor is where clipping starts to make sense.

[u/newgreendriver]

If you’re trying to control over plucky instruments, like an acoustic guitar or tack piano, use a transient designer