Old 02-15-2014, 01:28 AM   #1
Naji
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Default Parallel compression in Reaper

Yesterday I watched someone applying parallel compression in a daw. He duplicated an audio drum track. The original was dry without any fx, the 2nd was with a compressor fx.
Finally he added the compressed track to the dry track by moving the volume fader to the desired amount.

In Reaper one can do that in a simpler way - a CPU friendlier way.
You only need one track and apply compressor fx. By moving the dry/wet knob of the fx plug-in you are able to add the desired amount of parallel compression. If the knob is moved to the very right(=100%wet) the audio signal is completely compressed.

Is this procedure correct ? Or is the better way to duplicate a track in order to add parallel compression ?
By the way compression is not the only fx one could apply, one could also first apply an eq in order to affect only a certain range of frequencies.
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Old 02-15-2014, 02:15 AM   #2
metal_priest
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mmmh, yes it's the same if you want to apply a parallel compression to a clean track without any other processing on it.

I always do that with a second track, actually, speaking about drums where the parallel compression is most used, or reverb, i use to make 2 busses, one for the clean and one for the compressed.

It's different because on the clean bus i can put a compressor too, to glue the drumkit, some eq or whatelse, while in the parallel compression bus i use to put only the compressor heavily compressed, to punch out the attack and give more punch to the "clean" bus.
That works for reverb too, a reverb bus where i send all my tracks and move the fader to balance the reverb amount is so much easily to do then always opening the fx window and move the dry/wet fader.
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Old 02-15-2014, 02:35 AM   #3
Naji
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You apply a compressor as a send/return fx this way and not as an insert fx, I see. I am not sure, but I think doing it your way you have a higher CPU usage ?! and you have to create 4 tracks (2 Audio and 2 Busses) only for adding fx to drums.I am just thinking of the best way to reduce CPU usage...

Last edited by Naji; 02-15-2014 at 02:45 AM.
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Old 02-15-2014, 03:40 AM   #4
metal_priest
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no no, that's the way i do:

let's say 8 drum tracks with audio file, and their fx to make the cool sound for each one (usually, eq for fixing resonances, comp and eq to cut just the final drum mix).
then, i create two empty tracks that i call "bus drums" and "bus parallel".
Then i send the 8 tracks to both the busses.
So now i have 2 busses with the drum mix.
Till now, no difference cpu usage, just a couple of sends.

Then i want to process the whole drum mix into the song mix as a single instrument (which drum is in reality) so i m going to eq and compress it to cut the song mix..cpu usage? yes the plugin i use on this track..but hey...i need them even without the second bus right?

On the second bus, where i have the clean drums, without the new eq and comp i put on the other bus, i applied only the comp, squeezing it as much as i can without ruin the sound to have all the punch the drum can have.
cpu usage? the same of applying a comp to the other bus :P
Then i adjust this level to give to my "real drum" the cool punch.

What's the difference between having a dedicated bus for the punch compression and putting it on the drum bus directly?
In this way i dont squeeze my "final drum mix" with his own eq but i squeeze the "clean drum mix".
A compressor after or before an eq gives a different result by a compressor without any eq
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Old 02-15-2014, 04:31 AM   #5
Naji
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Ok, you apply a compressor as a send / return fx and you do it twice.
You have one send / return bus for normal / smooth compression and one bus for heavy / parallel compression. Now I see.

That´s the way I do it with reverb fx. Most engineers say it´s better to use reverb as send / return fx.
If you have a snare Audio track. Create a bus track with reverb fx. Send snare Audio to this bus and appply reverb
and adjust the amount of fx. But you could also have the reverb directly as an insert fx in the Audio track and adjust
the amount of fx with wet/dry knob !
Send / return maybe is better as for cpu usage, because you can send different tracks to the send / return fx bus !
When I want to add reverb to a guitar, to a snare and to Percussion, I only have to send them all to an reverb fx bus;
I could also insert the reverb in every single track, but that would cause more CPU usage !

Last edited by Naji; 02-15-2014 at 04:45 AM.
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Old 02-15-2014, 12:09 PM   #6
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Back to the OP. There's only one instance of the Comp either way, and I don't believe that the "extra" track adds enough CPU usage to bother thinking about. Track faders are slightly more convenient to automate, and some folks would just rather have that visual/tactile experience. It's a matter of taste, I think.

Note also, that what metal_priest describes could probably also be accomplished on one multichannel track using the pin connectors. Again, this "hides" the basic controls required to actually mix the parallel paths in the FX windows.

I use both methods depending on just about everything else that's going on.
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