Mastering compressor that doesn't take away the air

[lfm]

I would try parallell compression on master bus. Masterbus usually is tiny gentle compression anyway, and if compressor has a hi shelf, just bypass it with parallell instead.

So a send to a bus with compressor before master bus. Pre fader send makes it possible to have fader free to add unaffected content.

Good if compressor has a filter for activating part, so you can remove it reacts to certain frequencies. You can even have a lp filter before compressor itself keeping hi end not affecting compression. Sizzle from cymbals and such too bypass the compressor.

[hey212]

By far the best thing I've found for gentle compression without harming a single shred of the frequency spectrum of the source material is the Amek Mastering Compressor. Best thing Brainworx have ever coded up IMO.

[DMG68]

Absolutely nothing wrong with putting an eq after the compressor.

[Ah_Dziz]

Im not familiar with the material but for songs that don't have drums in them (simple guitar with vocals or ambient) I usually use volume automation where people would use a mastering compression. That and a bit of EQ with gain automation will usually fit the track in with the others.

[The Main Event]

He asked for advice and not ”what compressor to use”. Sigh!

He literally asked for what compressor doesnt have this side effect, and he got some (free) alternatives and how to use them.

[martiu]

hi, Fircomp very good, install now

[roman.i]

Sidechain the compressor so it react less on the airy stuff.

[roman.i]

He asked for advice and not ”what compressor to use”. Sigh!

Actually he did, but yea, it is not a compressor problem…

[digitalboytn]

You might want to check out Breathe Fresh by Don't Fart Plugins...

It was specifically designed for those tight control room environments

[wintoid]

You might want to check out Breathe Fresh by Don't Fart Plugins...

It was specifically designed for those tight control room environments

I'm waiting for Breathe Fresh HZ

[digitalboytn]

You might want to check out Breathe Fresh by Don't Fart Plugins...

It was specifically designed for those tight control room environments

I'm waiting for Breathe Fresh HZ

That will feature Han's super rare filter bank with the custom pong control :

[bmanic]

If you want a really transparent compressor but unfortunately quite difficult to tweak (with quite a few parameters and very easily tweaked to sound "bad") then I can highly recommend the APU Loudness Compressor. That one can be made to be extremely slow and gentle, hardly changing the overall tonality at all when setup correctly. But yeah, it's not for the faint of heart. Another truly awesome compressor can be found in the Thimeo Stereo Tools suite of processors. The single band compressor in that is a real monster of a thing.. but again, if you expose the "expert" controls you are hit with 40+ things to tweak.

[Michey]

If you want a really transparent compressor but unfortunately quite difficult to tweak (with quite a few parameters and very easily tweaked to sound "bad") then I can highly recommend the APU Loudness Compressor. That one can be made to be extremely slow and gentle, hardly changing the overall tonality at all when setup correctly. But yeah, it's not for the faint of heart. Another truly awesome compressor can be found in the Thimeo Stereo Tools suite of processors. The single band compressor in that is a real monster of a thing.. but again, if you expose the "expert" controls you are hit with 40+ things to tweak.

The current crop of Tools (just a MINUTE sample : Wavegrove Varis; Thimo StereoTool [with its preposterous Intellimit, "Stock" Wideband and Clip facilities], Puff, Juan... etc.) had me thinking/pondering the current state of the market. and about HW. and mixing. and mastering.

just with the aformentioned tools one can do dynamic wonders and reach numbers that can put the adage "I clipped 1.5dB !" to shame (to put it VERY mildly), having it seem like it was said by your grandpa enthusing over some long-gone practice that was prevalent 50 odd years ago.

I don't know where do we go from here...

[DCrown]

TDR Kotelnikov GE offers frequency dependent ratio similar to dynamic eq,
so you can avoid compressing high frequencies

[Ploki]

When i want clean i go with
Weiss/Kotelnikov > clipper > pro-l2 transparent

No more than 1-3dB on each.

you can try using proQ3 flat tilt to counterbalance the weight of compression instead of shelving. 0.5-1dB around the middle. After comp before clip/limit