12-10-2013, 06:57 PM
Agreed that you should lay off the compression and leave everything open until the first pass on a solid mix is done. You can always add and adjust, but getting things tight, loud and balanced with the compressor almost guarantees once it is added you'll be in great shape with some simple adjustments.
I generally mix for hours before even thinking about a compressor or limiter--even on the individual tracks. Until everything is in the mix, it is often hard to tell the direction you might want to go and how things will cut through. A crappy sounding kick drum may end up being perfect once all the other elements are in place. Crunching it too much, too early, means you might have missed that possibility.
Then with master limiting/compression, the final "bring everything together judiciously," step for volume can be applied, and if everything else was done correctly, few adjustments will need to be made; primarily a few volume tweaks, and maybe some slight eq adjustments (usually high and low end from my experience), depending on the music style.
I generally mix for hours before even thinking about a compressor or limiter--even on the individual tracks. Until everything is in the mix, it is often hard to tell the direction you might want to go and how things will cut through. A crappy sounding kick drum may end up being perfect once all the other elements are in place. Crunching it too much, too early, means you might have missed that possibility.
Then with master limiting/compression, the final "bring everything together judiciously," step for volume can be applied, and if everything else was done correctly, few adjustments will need to be made; primarily a few volume tweaks, and maybe some slight eq adjustments (usually high and low end from my experience), depending on the music style.