# How do you use compression & limiting in your orchestral mixes?



## Dan Stearn (Feb 15, 2013)

Hey guys,

I've always been cautious about the use of compressors, and especially limiters in orchestral mixes, but I know quite a few of you use them to good effect, so I think it's about time I started to have an experiment. 

I imagine subtly is the key here, but other than that, does anyone have any general guidelines on how they use dynamics processing? Do you process individual tracks, sections, the master or maybe all three? Any guideline settings I should work around?

For now I'm going to just stick to the factory stuff in Logic, but what are some of your favourite plugins that I might want to look into in the future?

Dan


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## Dan Stearn (Feb 15, 2013)

It's a good question- I guess I'm open to the possibilities. I think it could help "glue" everything together, and provide some extra warmth and fullness to my mixes. But really, I'm open to any and all suggestions at the moment to help get a better understanding of these tools in an orchestral context.

I'm not after Zimmer style epic productions, and I do want to retain a "natural" sound, akin to a standard symphony orchestra, just with a bt of that extra Hollywood post-pro "polish", if you get where I'm coming from.


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## Rctec (Feb 15, 2013)

I don't compress my orchestra...
Hz


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## Rob (Feb 15, 2013)

Rctec @ 15th February 2013 said:


> I don't compress my orchestra...
> Hz


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## Dan Stearn (Feb 15, 2013)

Thanks Sascha, great advice there, I'll get to work and start experimenting!

Hans, I didn't realise there's no compression on your orchestra... that's interesting to me as obviously some of your stuff sounds huge, but I suppose that more be more to do with the arrangement, orchestration and the non orchestral parts then.

Dan


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## trumpoz (Feb 15, 2013)

Dan - Hans posted a while ago some thoughts on some of the things that he does to get that huge sound. If you search for 'Hans Zimmer Sound' then the thread should pop up.


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## Dan Stearn (Feb 15, 2013)

Yeh I think I came across that thread a while ago. Definitely worth a revisit as there's a lot of other great stuff in there, although like I said, I'm not really after that big sound anyway, there's plenty of other folks who do it better than me! I'm just interested to hear how some of you other guys use it, as I've never really found it necessary before, but thought I might as well give it a try to see if I'm missing something! 

I'm experimenting with some subtle parallel compression now- have used it before on drum kits, so I understand how it works, just hadn't thought of applying it to the orchestra before. I think Sascha makes a good point though that often fader rides are your best bet!


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## wst3 (Feb 15, 2013)

I do use compressors, more so than limiters, on almost every mix, pop, acoustic, orchestral, chamber, whatever. It may be really light, or it could be heavy handed.

I have not yet found an application for a compressor on individual channels in an orchestral mix, but that is probably just because I haven't looked hard enough!

If it were a live orchestra I think I'd depend on microphone selection and placement, but since I don't have that with sample libraries I use compression.

To be clear, I'm not using it to manage dynamic range, I'm using it as an effect. And a very little bit can go a very long way.

If you are looking for a starting point try this:
1) set the ratio to as low as possible, 2:1 maybe?
2) set attack and release times (if available) to the shortest/fastest - note that even at 2:1 this is going to react to almost every transient.
3) now set the input and output, or threshold and makeup gain (depending on the compressor) so that you get between 2 - 3 dB of gain reduction.

These are just starting points!

If your compressor allows you to change attack and release constants:
- leave the attack time alone and step through the release time, you'll hear the compression effect start to disappear as the compressor stays engaged for longer times. You may also, depending on the compressor, start to hear the transients come up again. I usually divide the release time by 4 or 6 and just step between those values.

Once you find the point where the compression seems to be always on back off just a little, and then start experimenting with the attack time. As you make it slower you'll start to hear transients become more obvious again.

You can repeat these steps until you find settings that start to 'glue' things together, or whatever your favorite description might be.

Now start increasing the input level, or lowering the threshold, and listen to the changes. Mostly you are causing the onset of compression to start earlier...

As you do this you may need to adjust the makeup gain or output level to, well, make up for the changes.

The easiest way to do this it to use a familiar, and hopefully well recorded piece with lots of dynamics and transients as your source.

Another neat trick, called parallel compression, is to sum the processed signal with an unprocessed copy, you can then balance the two signals to further tweak the effect of the compressor.


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## Dan Stearn (Feb 17, 2013)

Great, thanks Bill- good stuff!


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## nickhmusic (Feb 18, 2013)

I use a limiter on the master output of my orchestral mixes, if I need volume for soundcloud/music libraries/clients ref mixes, I can send a bit more level into the Limiter - but it is barely doing a thing, only Limiting for volume, not effect.

I use compression on certain tracks, but rarely on the main mix, and find that more than compression or limiting, the use of arrangement and instrumentation (light and shade - something I'm currently finding challenging on a new track) is more important.

I've also finally stopped listening to terms like glue and warmth etc. etc and am almost certain it is a load of old balls. Pop/Rock music, hell yeah - but not relevant in orchestral or film music really IMHO.

o-[][]-o


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