Today, we are going to focus on parallel compression! Parallel compression is quite wonderful and is definitely something you will want to use in your mixes!
Recently, we did a video talking about loudness in mixes, and realized there is a lot of misconception about what a loud mix might be. One of those things is the belief that everything happens on the master bus. Even the use of multi-band compressors and other things like that inside the mix is only part of the story.
Back in the days of only analog recording, there were so many things along the way that got you those big fat tones. First, if you had a big budget, you would be in an expensive studio using a tube microphone, which was adding all kinds of lovely harmonics, saturation, distortion, and more. Then it was going through a mic pre that added a little extra grit, and then it was being compressed. That is what allowed you to end up with this amazing, big, fat analog sound.
Now, with digital, everything is “perfect”. And with that perfect signal, you get all of these exaggerated transients, and you lose that energy that was brought by everything going through tubes and transformers, and lots of compression.
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This is where parallel compression comes in! There are all kinds of plugins that can help to replicate that analog sound, but one of the easiest ways to do it is through parallel compression. By using parallel, you can start adding more transients, and really add excitement. There are so many things you can do with parallel compression, and it will help you mix feel so much bigger!
Watch the video below to see how I used parallel compression in my mix!
