Compression, typically is an effect that can normalize your audio up to the levels where it stands out to sound uniform and neat. It evenly arranges the audio material and controls the levels that is very important, when there are large amount of tracks involved in modern day recordings. Thanks to all the computer power and the digital technology. Many audio professionals use compressors in all of their works and its very rarely we hear from someone who never have used compression in their music production. Well, most certainly when the mix goes to a mastering stage, it is quite obvious to use compression to polish the track and it has become a necessity to use compression in today’s world, be it analog or digital realm.

Well, there are times when compression is over used too, which is quite a human nature to overdo things . So lets not get there.

So how are compressors used in a recording studio or even in your regular home studio ?. There are 3 places where you can use compression. They are noting but the the recording chain, tracking chain and the mix-down chain. Let’s see each one of them below..

Recording Chain

In this step, the compressor is on a direct out or an insert of the mixer, which takes the mic signal, after getting boosted by the preamp. The main focus here is to normalize/optimize the audio while recording. But there is a strong opposition among folks recording on the computer sequencers(which is what it is today), in NOT to record with compression, but to record at complete 24 bits.

Tracking Chain (Which is were I use in my recordings)

In this step, Once your audio track is recorded on computer or on a multi-track, you can now add compression to each track individually to make them all sound even and normalized. The compressor here is added as an inert on the mixer.Say in the computer sequencer’s, the compression is added as an inerst plugin.

A classic compressor such as the UA LA-2A is a great choice for vocal tracks. It helps maintain the vocals polished on top of the underlying music tracks. But not many can afford such costly hardware compressors, specially the home studio music producers. The job can still be achieved well through all the modern software compressors that do a terrific job these days. So no worries.

Close up of the Universal Audio LA2A Classic Leveling Amplifier

Mixdown Chain

In this step, a few compression techniques may be used. Compressors can be applied on the busses or even on sends/returns, to accentuate certain parts of the mix.

Another advanced mix technique is called Parallel Compression, where the uncompressed source tracks are mixed with the compressed singnal coming back on a return or bus. It is a very good technique to adapt to and you can achieve some shining results. Try it out !!!

Some tend to put compressor on the master bus. You can avoid that, as you can deal with adding compression in the master stage, whether you send to a mastering house or do it yourself. When you do it yourself, try to make a nice solid mix and then take the bounced audio for the master project, rather than mastering on the mix project itself.

So that’s some breifing on compression folks. Please do check out my other post on “Should the Vocals be Compressed while Recording”

Also, check out all the Dynamic Processors

I hope this post helps you to create great music from your home studio. Please do pass on your comments and feedback and pls also subscribe to this home studio blog site, to get automatic updates about Music Production Tutorials videos on Editing, Mixing, Mastering techniques using industry products like Pro Toools 9/10, Reason 5/6, Native Instruments, Komplete 8 Ultimate, Kontakt and many other Virtual Instruments/Plugins

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In an analogue world, adding compression during recording is a good idea coz it helps to even out the signal levels and also maintains a very good signal-to-noise ratio. Vocals are basically audio tracks and compressing while recording vocals has to be done with real care, as it’s not easy to reverse the effects of overcompression.

So compressing in the digital domain while recording will have no audible benefits over doing this same processing in the mix down. With that said, its probably best left to handle compression during the mixing stage than tweaking at the tracking stage itself.

So the best suggestion would be to not do any compression on vocals while recording and its always advisable to add compression only during the mix down.

Well, at least cases, a little compression could be added during recording, only if the recording vocalist(s) finds it comfortable to produce good results.

I hope this post helps you to create great music from your home studio. Please do pass on your comments and feedback and pls also subscribe to this home studio blog site, to get automatic updates about Music Production Tutorials videos on Editing, Mixing, Mastering techniques using industry products like Pro Toools 8, Reason 4, Reason 5 & Record 1.5

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• Kong Drum Designer
  Analog synthesis, physical modeling, sampling, REX loops, support sound generators, effects, flexible routing, multiple hit types and more. The Kong Drum Designer is not your regular drum module. It’s the drum module focused on letting you get exactly that drum sound you’re after. Kong has 16 pads and 16 drums. Build your drum sounds based on any of the nine different drum modules. Flavor the sound with 11 support generators and effects. Program automation, create alternating groups and let Reason’s powerful sequencer control the beat. Reason 5 ships with a sound bank with a generous supply of kits for Kong across a wide variety of styles.
• Live Sampling
  Remember the time when samples were something you sampled and not loaded from your hard drive? When a sampler was a machine that could record samples, not just play them back. As samplers became software instead of machines, they came to rely on external sample editing software for recording and editing the samples and the art of spur-of-the-moment creative sampling was pretty much lost. Now we are bringing it back to Reason 5 with its live sampling input. All sample players in Reason are now samplers. Just hook up a sound source to the rack’s sampling input and you are ready to start sampling. Use a mic, a turntable, an instrument or the entire Reason mix. Sampling in Reason is simple and straightforward. Hit the sample button and Reason starts sampling. Reason will detect the sample start automatically. You can sample when Reason is running too if you like – no need to stop the music. If needed, bring up the built-in sample editor to set start and end points, loop points and more. This is possible for all loaded samples by the way – not only the ones you have sampled.
  As always, Reason lets you focus on music making – and sampling in this case. All samples are neatly stored in our song file and accessible in the new samples pane in the tool window. Here you can easily see what samples are loaded into what machine and delete and export samples as you wish.
  Live sampling together with pitch detection of root key and automatic zone mapping makes it dead easy to sample an instrument and map the samples across the keyboard. This way you’ll create your own multi-sampled instruments for NN-XT and NN-19 in an instant.
• Neptune
  Getting a vocal performance right means so much more than hitting the right notes at the right time. Sometimes you get that almost perfect performance with perfect feel and presence, but the singer might have missed a few notes. That’s when Neptune can save the day. Neptune is an advanced pitch adjuster, audio transposer and voice synth for Record 1.5. As a pitch adjuster, Neptune will fine tune the pitch of an audio track to help getting your vocal performances just right. Neptune will fix the flat notes with an unbelievable audio quality . You can select a root key and a scale that you want the adjuster to use, or create a scale that fits your song. And, yes. By cranking the pitch adjustment settings to the max, you can get that effect sound too. Neptune is also a natural sounding audio transposer. This is a great help if you ever needed to change the key of a song that’s already been recorded. Perhaps the most creative-sparking function in Neptune is the voice synth. Play your MIDI keyboard and Neptune will create new harmonies from your vocal tracks in real time, or use it without the original voice to completely change the melody of the song. Endless creative options!
• Blocks
  Many musicians tend to think of music in terms like intro, verse, chorus, breakdown, buildup and so on. With the new Blocks mode in Reason 5 and Record 1.5, your sequencer does too. Blocks lets you sequence your songs using a more pattern-based approach, with the segments of your song as individual building blocks to be laid out in your arrangement.
  Start by creating the discrete parts of your song in blocks mode. When you are ready to start building your song, just switch back to song mode and draw in what blocks should play in the dedicated pattern lane. Use one block for the verse and one for the chorus — or build your song around a single 8-bar loop.
  Blocks provide a very fast way of creating a musical structure for your song. But the options don’t end there. With the basic arrangement laid out, you can see the contents of the blocks and create variations and mute individual parts, or add further musical elements in song mode.
  A typical use for Blocks is to create your backing track in blocks and then use the song mode sequencer to record vocals or instrumental performances. For music based around a single looped section, one repeated block with automation and mutes of individual tracks added in song mode makes arranging a breeze.
  You never have to commit to using either mode – you are free to move back and forth between Blocks and Song mode, and any changes you make in your Blocks will instantly be manifested in all instances of that Block. Need some tambourine on that chorus? Add it, and there will be tambourine whenever the chorus block is playing.
• Dr. Octo Rex
  The upgraded Dr. Octo Rex loop player loads eight REX loops into one player and lets you switch between them on the fly. This makes arranging a breeze – load the drum loops into one player, the guitars into another and use the sequencer to select what loop to play in a pattern-like fashion.
  With eight loops to switch between, the new loop player also comes ready for the experimental minded. Set the player to retrig the loops on the beat, on the bar or on the 16th note. Or program the loops manually like in the original rex player.
  For each of the eight loops, the new rex player also comes with an expanded set of per-slice settings. Set pan, pitch, filter frequency and level, reverse slices, use multiple outputs, create alternating groups of slices and much more.
• Automatic Self-Contain of Samples (incl from ReFills)
  Make your songs self-contained by embedding samples and even ReFill sounds in your file. Reason 5’s self-contained song format makes collaborating with your friends a breeze. Even breezier than before actually.
• Record Notes on Multiple Tracks
  Reason 5 and Record 1.5 lets you use multiple MIDI keyboards, pads, and controllers for playing and recording your instruments. Lock a 16-pad controller to a Kong, and use a keyboard to play your synths. Or use two keyboards on stage for controlling different Reason instruments.
• Scale Clips by Resizing
  By pressing the alt or option key, Record 1.5 lets you timestretch individual clips. Now you can stretch loops to match your song’s tempo, or expand samples to eight times the length for completely new sounds.
• Mute Tool
  The new Mute tool lets you click to mute and unmute clips. Use it to mute sections, or create variations in your Blocks.
• Set and move loop functions
  Select a clip and press L to immediately set the loop points to the selection. Use the new Remote parameters for real-time control of the loop points from your MIDI controller.
• Tap Tempo
  New in the transport panel is the Tap Tempo button.
• Improved key commands for laptop use
  Reason 5 and Record 1.5 works even better on your laptop – or any keyboard missing a numeric pad. The new key commands lets you control play, loop, record and more from your keyboard.
• Hierarchical menus in Combinator programmer
  A sound designer favorite, the Combinator’s programmer window is now even easier to use with hierarchical menus for fast patching.
• Additional CV inputs on Combinator
  The Combinator in Reason 5 is expanded with new CV inputs on the back. The four new CV inputs can be used to control any parameter on the contained devices, providing even more options and possibilities for sound designers.
• Updated Help system (incl Help on Mac)
  Reason 5 and Record 1.5 comes with a new and better built-in help system, on both Mac and Windows.
• Normalize and reverse audio clips
  In Record 1.5 you can normalize and reverse your recorded audio clips.
• Bounce clip to sample
  When using Reason & Record, you can now bounce audio recordings to samples, so you can use them in Reason devices such as Kong, Redrum, NN-XT and NN-19.
• Reason 5 updates
  In Reason 5 there are tons of changes to bring Reason up to speed with Record. These changes include advanced multi core support, improved cable management in the rack, faster sample loading, on-screen piano keyboard, sequencer usability improvements and much much more.

I hope this post helps you to create great music from your home studio. Please do pass on your comments and feedback and pls also subscribe to this home studio blog site, to get automatic updates about Music Production Tutorials videos on Editing, Mixing, Mastering techniques using industry products like Pro Toools 8,  Reason 4, Reason 5 & Record 1.5

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Pro Tools for Music Production, Second Edition: Recording, Editing and Mixing
Publisher: Focal Press | Pages: 400 | 2004-08-14 | ISBN 0240519434 | PDF | 12 MB

Pro Tools for Music Production is a fantastic music production guide for both new and professional users. The book is illustrated in great detail with colours and has excellent tips/hints that would save a lot of time in the Music creation process. It would serve as a great source of information for all your Music Production needs.

The book deals with detailed chapters on recording, editing and mixing. There are also  some tutorials and practical examples from actual recordings.

Download from one of the links below :-
Depositfile : http://depositfiles.com/files/lmkoi3trr
Hotfile : http://hotfile.com/dl/64173558/7886b6b/0240519434.rar.html
Filefactory : http://www.filefactory.com/file/2aff59/n/0240519434_rar
Rapidshare :http://rapidshare.com/files/142421901/0240519434.rar

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1. Send your vocal tracks to two mono aux sends.

2. The first Aux send has an EQ with a high pass set around 6-8khz, and a compressor set with a low threshold and fast attack and release. Mix that back in with the vocal to add a bit of air.High frequencies are attenuated as they travel through the air much faster than lower frequencies, so anything you want to sound “in your face” needs extra high end.

3. The second Aux send is for a plate reverb with as many early reflections as possible. The idea here is to get the vocal to sound as wide as possible. You want to avoid a vocal that images to a single point. The vocal needs to be wide to sound close and clear. The thumb rule is, the wider it is, it sounds closer to the listener and skinny sounds are farther away.

4. Later, you can always adapt your vocals to add any special effects. Normally I use 3 reverbs (small, medium and long) and a plate verb for the vocals.

Have fun recording/mixing your vocals.

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