# Using compressor to make quiet parts louder



## Yogevs (Aug 9, 2020)

Looking for a good tutorial (text or YouTube) with different examples and techniques without how to make quiet parts louder but still sound natural.


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## Bluemount Score (Aug 9, 2020)

I liked this one:


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## trumpoz (Aug 9, 2020)

Just want to throw something out there. 

Is a compressor the right tool for the job? Without knowing the context it is hard to say yes or no. Could volume automation do it in place of a compressor?


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## Living Fossil (Aug 9, 2020)




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## Yogevs (Aug 9, 2020)

trumpoz said:


> Just want to throw something out there.
> 
> Is a compressor the right tool for the job? Without knowing the context it is hard to say yes or no. Could volume automation do it in place of a compressor?



I don't think it's just a volume problem in this case as some of the more quieter dynamics in the lower registers really disappears while the stronger dynamics really sticks out. In a really harsh way.


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## Rory (Aug 9, 2020)

Yogevs said:


> I don't think it's just a volume problem in this case as some of the more quieter dynamics in the lower registers really disappears while the stronger dynamics really sticks out. In a really harsh way.



Based on your description, I’d focus on levels and equalisation before thinking about using a compressor. That said, there’s no harm in playing with a compressor just to see what impact it will have. It’s easy enough to undo.


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## labornvain (Aug 9, 2020)

I recommend trying waves mv2 compressor for this function. Especially for someone who is not an expert at working compressors. It only has three controls slider on the left, in the middle, and another on the right.

The slider on the left is what makes this compressor so unique and particularly valuable for the task at hand, making quiet Parts louder. Basically, it works by making any signal louder that's below a certain threshold. So when you turn up the slider on the left, it makes all the quiet Parts louder.

What's beautiful about this compressor, especially for orchestral music, is that it is extremely transparent. Put it on a string part and slowly pull up the left fader and it'll make your part seem to come to life.

It's also really inexpensive. The last I checked it was $39. I highly recommend just downloading the demo I'm giving it a try.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Aug 9, 2020)

I don't know about tutorials, but what you're describing is compression.

Regular compression works by reducing the level of signals above the threshold setting, so you can raise the overall level. That brings up the lower-level sound without raising the top.

The way to make it sound natural is to set relatively slow attack and release times and a moderate ratio, like 3:1 - meaning every 3dB above the threshold comes out 1dB louder. Or 2:1 might be better. You'd probably want to find an optical compressor emulation, because they change the amount of compression depending on the input and can sound more natural than others, although not necessarily.

There are other techniques, such as parallel compression, but I've never used that on a whole mix.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Aug 9, 2020)

And the instant solution is not to run out and buy a compressor plug-in. That might be a good thing to do, but it's not the answer to your question.


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## Piano Pete (Aug 9, 2020)

Yogevs said:


> I don't think it's just a volume problem in this case as some of the more quieter dynamics in the lower registers really disappears while the stronger dynamics really sticks out. In a really harsh way.



I think everyone's hitting the nail on the head here. While you may need a compressor, it sounds like your balance and eq need to be addressed before you reach for a compressor. Levels first, then eq.

My questions would be: What are you listening on, and if they are speakers, what is your reference level?

Unless you have reasonable speakers in a decently treated room, you are probably going to lose a lot of low frequency information when you listen at a low level. Speakers generally produce less low end energy at lower amplitudes due to the size of the woofers and how speakers work, and human hearing will favor upper mids at low amplitude (see fletcher munson curve). 

These two things, exasperated by a quiet piece of music, lead me to believe that you are not achieving the balance you think you are. If you purely turn up the monitor levels and there are drastic shifts in the balance, it was not correct. Either your monitor level is too low, or your piece's overall level is too low to be making objective balance decisions.

With that said, you are going to lose low frequency information at lower amplitude levels: this is just how sound works. It takes more amplitude for a low sound to appear equally as loud as a higher frequency sound. Our ears are designed to lock onto higher frequencies to spacialize, not lows. This is also not an analog performance in a concert hall where low frequency sounds actually have the space and distance to oscillate.

With this in mind, I would also begin to think about the overall dynamic range of your piece of music, and this is when looking at the overall LUFs of the piece can be very beneficial. What is the integrated loudness? What is your dynamic range? If I had to take a guess, your piece is probably lower than the majority of commercially "quiet" pieces of music and has a wide dynamic range. The newer LUFs standards are a good starting point.

People are going to be listening to your music on a wide variety of devices and various platforms. You need to make sure that your composition is "loud" enough so that way you actually have enough amplitude for the devices to playback. People will turn your music up and down. You have no control over that; however, you do not want a piece being so quiet that they have to crank their system up. This is when the standardized LUFs levels can be exceptionally enlightening--especially if you are newer to production.

Take for example a classical recording. In these scenarios, the majority of recordings are meant to be captured as is--dynamic range and all. This is what is infuriating to the majority of people when they listen to classical music in the car, as they have to turn up the volume in quiet moments to then slam it down when that molto sffz hits halfway through the recap. Classical music has a wide dynamic range--wider range than the majority of film/game scores. Great for the concert hall, horrible for recordings.

If you take a quiet piece of film music or game music, you will probably notice that its dynamic range is nowhere near the same as an archival classical recording. Why? You dont want people really fiddling with the volume knob. If you set the playback volume, you want your quiets to still sound quiet, and you want your louds to sound loud in comparison to each other--regardless whether they have the volume cranked or low; however, unlike a classical recording, you do not want people chasing the volume of your piece while watching a movie or playing a game. This is not to say that these pieces of music are flat-lining, furthest from it; however, you may be surprised at the amount of dynamic range needed to have a piece of music have discernible highs and lows without having to chase either with volume.

Now, there are moments in media recordings when the range is equal to that of a classical recording--to the point where if you wanted to hear everything clearly you would need to chase it with the volume knob, but in these scenarios, there is usually a reason for this. Either you want the music to fade in and out of focus without bringing too much attention to itself, or you want a loud moment to really be large in comparison to the rest of the piece, but even in these situations, these recordings are balanced compositionally and in the mix with this taken into account. 

TLDR: Check your mix levels (LUFs) and monitor levels. Address your balance (Levels and eq). If your mix is sounding harsh when you crank the volume up, your tonal balance between lows, mids, and highs is not correct--even at lower amplitudes and monitor levels. 

A multiband compressor may help address your lows and highs to even out the response. Again, lower sounds may need some extra help to be present at low amplitudes; however, this will not not fix bad balance! Once you achieve good balance, then something like the upwards MB compression Living Fossil recommended can help give your mix some extra umph, but not before.


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## Nick Batzdorf (Aug 9, 2020)

No question there can be other issues, but compression is an important part of production either way.

I'd say it's the hardest thing to get a handle on, because it's pretty subtle until it's not.


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## rrichard63 (Aug 9, 2020)

What @Yogevs is describing is called de-expansion as well as upward compression. Here's a tutorial explanation of the terminology:






The 4 Modes of Compression and Expansion - Samplecraze


This video tutorial explains how downward and upward compression and downward and upward expansion work and how and when to use them.




samplecraze.com





You don't need to pay for the tutorial video to get the main point, which is in the text.

Waves MV2, mentioned above, is one very easy-to-use tool for this (it's also a compressor). I only know of one plugin that just does de-expansion and nothing else: Flux Pure Dexpander V3. It is very transparent and has lots of knobs to twirl. There are several elaborate plugins that do everything (upward and downward compression plus upward and downward expansion). They include Blue Cat Dynamics 4 and its multiband counterpart MB-5 Dynamix; DMG Compassion; Fab Filter Pro-MB; Flux Solera V3 and its multiband counterpart Alchemist V3; and Voxengo Soniformer.


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## Yogevs (Aug 11, 2020)

This has been a super interesting thread to read. Thanks everyone who bothered replying - I definitely have some fun time full of experimentation ahead of me!


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## Yogevs (Aug 15, 2020)

Quick update - to whoever is interested.
Instead of using a compressor (for this specific case) I ended up solving it by lowering everything else down, EQ-ing the two quieter instruments, and then bringing everything else back up - to a point.
A ended up with a quieter peice as a whole, but that was also fixed (as a whole) in the mastering phase.
I feel like this was a better approach of fixing it and that the final result is better than if I would have went with a compressor.
Thanks again everyone !


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## Henu (Aug 15, 2020)

Yogevs said:


> I feel like this was a better approach of fixing it and that the final result is better than if I would have went with a compressor.



Absolutely. Spot-on!


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