Tips: Understanding the impact of New York (parallel) compression
Parallel compression is also known as New York compression, and is a very popular technique for getting drums louder whilst retaining most of the energy of the original envelope.
Basically, what you do is mix two versions of the drum track together – one track being treated with quite severe compression, and the other being uncompressed. The compressed track brings up the ‘oomph’ whilst the original ensures that the dynamic interest of the beat is maintained.
Of course, this technique is not exclusively for drums – it can be very effective on vocals too, or any other instrument that needs to be tightly controlled.
Here is an example of parallel compression that I have used:
Put a compressor on a return track in Ableton (or any other DAW)
Make sure you use a compressor that can be set to 100% wet and has a ‘look ahead’ feature
put the threshold deep, like -50 db
Ratio about 2:1 – 2.5:1
Attack as fast as possible 1ms or faster
Release set to 250ms-350ms
Now you can mix in your compression on any track you want to beef up using your sends without affecting the original signal. It’s like the best of both worlds, a combination of compressed and uncompressed signal. This way you get the transients of your uncompressed sounds (the peak you see on a snare or kick drum for example).
The transients give your sound bite and helps things stick out better in your mix. The compression gives your sounds more body and more punch and brings out hidden frequencies for a fuller sound. If you don’t want to use a return track, you can simply copy your track and apply these compression settings on the copy and then mix to taste. Give it a shot and let me know how it goes for you.
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