Methuselah’s Grandpa
Well-known Member
The “loudness wars” sucked and a lot of great music that I love was caught in the cross-fire. Dynamic range is good, right? If compression takes away dynamic range & I have plenty of breathing room with all these channels, then how necessary is it? How much should I use?
Most of the songs I’ve mixed into surround sound, I’ve done so without using single-band, multi-band, or tube compressors. I am learning more about them and see some advantages as well as disadvantages and I would really be interested in hearing some thoughts on the subject.
I’ve found it kind of tough to find information about using compression on surround mixes, most of the info I’ve seen deals with different types of production, …webcasts/radio, tv/film, & stereo music. With stereo, to me it seems compressors are much more of a necessity; …you’re cramming so much material into just 2 channels.
With surround-sound music, you have much more breathing room; 2 or 3 stereo pairs instead of just one, …so what I’ve typically done is I make my mixes peak on the front pair around -0.3db to -0.5db max, & the surrounds peak around -2.5db to -5.5db. The total RMS though for the fronts are around -18db to -21db and the surrounds around -23db to -26db generally. [I probably should be using LUFS right?]. ….So even though they have high peaks, they’re not as “loud” as many official surround mixes and certainly not as loud as a lot of stereo mixes.
I have been learning more about these compressors and yesterday I applied a single-band, as well a tube compressor on my final 7.1 mix, …after the mixdown.
Without rambling on too much more than I have already , …I liked the result. Normally, I have to turn up my receiver a few db when I listen to my mixes & this sort of solved that. I have examined some official surround mixes and just by looking at their wave-forms, I can usually get a sense of the compression they used, …and it (so far) looks to vary greatly between artists/albums, etc.
I would really appreciate any thoughts, advice, links, or whatever to help me get a better grasp on using compression on surround-sound music mixes.
Most of the songs I’ve mixed into surround sound, I’ve done so without using single-band, multi-band, or tube compressors. I am learning more about them and see some advantages as well as disadvantages and I would really be interested in hearing some thoughts on the subject.
I’ve found it kind of tough to find information about using compression on surround mixes, most of the info I’ve seen deals with different types of production, …webcasts/radio, tv/film, & stereo music. With stereo, to me it seems compressors are much more of a necessity; …you’re cramming so much material into just 2 channels.
With surround-sound music, you have much more breathing room; 2 or 3 stereo pairs instead of just one, …so what I’ve typically done is I make my mixes peak on the front pair around -0.3db to -0.5db max, & the surrounds peak around -2.5db to -5.5db. The total RMS though for the fronts are around -18db to -21db and the surrounds around -23db to -26db generally. [I probably should be using LUFS right?]. ….So even though they have high peaks, they’re not as “loud” as many official surround mixes and certainly not as loud as a lot of stereo mixes.
I have been learning more about these compressors and yesterday I applied a single-band, as well a tube compressor on my final 7.1 mix, …after the mixdown.
Without rambling on too much more than I have already , …I liked the result. Normally, I have to turn up my receiver a few db when I listen to my mixes & this sort of solved that. I have examined some official surround mixes and just by looking at their wave-forms, I can usually get a sense of the compression they used, …and it (so far) looks to vary greatly between artists/albums, etc.
I would really appreciate any thoughts, advice, links, or whatever to help me get a better grasp on using compression on surround-sound music mixes.
Last edited: