Don't get me wrong. Compression is a great tool. I don't think the mastering engineer meant it literally. I think he was trying to make the point that if you eq properly, you don't have to use as much compression. I am mixing "Much to Much" right now and because of all the track bleed, I am relying mostly on very light compression to get the tracks to work together. EQ alone is not giving me the sound I am looking for. I did not mean to offend anyone. I was referring to myself and the things i am trying to learn to find my sound, my mixing formula.
Sivert_h, I was exactly where you are about 20 yeas ago. I was fortunate enough to go to a school that had a Neve, an API and a SSL room. In the corner of the SSL room was an old 24 track machine with a 2 or 3 inch speaker on the front of it. One of my instructors made me run my mix though it to get evaluated. My mix did not sound so good. He said that everything sounds good on the Big Mains. It needed to sound good on the small speaker. That really was an eye opening experience. Had no money after I finished school so I mixed on 4inch speakers in a corner and got very good results for many years. Compressed everything because it was easy and made everything jump out of the speakers. HP, cut here, boost there and compress to make it jump out of the speakers. After some time I started to notice that my mixes sound small on big systems. Sound stage did not extend beyond the speakers left to right and did not extend into the sound stage behind the speakers. I brought a home 5 years with a sound proof media room and made it into a dedicated mixing room. Took me 3 year just to get the room flat enough to trust what I was hearing and still do not have it perfect. That is why I thanked you for you critique of the Jazz Trio.
To the point. My monitor are 67.5 inches apart which is the standard for professional room tuners. Angled and distance set using a laser. Imaging and Phantom center are amazingly pinpoint. A lot of what I hear sounds really small in my room, including CLA's mix of My Chemical Romance's "Black Parade". The tonal balance is killer but the mix sounds small in my room. On the intro where it get really busy, I can hear the compressor suck the life out of the mix. Then, some recording sound like the room disappears and the musician are holographs. Like Loreena Mckinnett mixed at Real World Studios and mastered by Bob Ludwig or Lyle Lovett's "Church" mixed by Massenburg. EQ properly first to clean everything up and them let your compressor take it to the next level. Compressors pre eq cleaning, tend to make mixes sound small. Not just HP filtering and cuts, but the ghost data (frequency spikes) that make mixes sound fuzzy and unsharp when mixing in the box (ITB). Great if you want max RMS in your face mixes for itunes. Not so great when you are listening on a high end audiophile system. I am trying to learn how to make my mixes sound good on anything. From the alarm clock speaker on your night stand to a set of B&W 800D's powered by 1000 watt monoblocks. My goal is to hear a mastering engineer say that everything he tried made my mixes sound worst, so he transferred them untouched because they were that good.
Sivert_h, I was exactly where you are about 20 yeas ago. I was fortunate enough to go to a school that had a Neve, an API and a SSL room. In the corner of the SSL room was an old 24 track machine with a 2 or 3 inch speaker on the front of it. One of my instructors made me run my mix though it to get evaluated. My mix did not sound so good. He said that everything sounds good on the Big Mains. It needed to sound good on the small speaker. That really was an eye opening experience. Had no money after I finished school so I mixed on 4inch speakers in a corner and got very good results for many years. Compressed everything because it was easy and made everything jump out of the speakers. HP, cut here, boost there and compress to make it jump out of the speakers. After some time I started to notice that my mixes sound small on big systems. Sound stage did not extend beyond the speakers left to right and did not extend into the sound stage behind the speakers. I brought a home 5 years with a sound proof media room and made it into a dedicated mixing room. Took me 3 year just to get the room flat enough to trust what I was hearing and still do not have it perfect. That is why I thanked you for you critique of the Jazz Trio.
To the point. My monitor are 67.5 inches apart which is the standard for professional room tuners. Angled and distance set using a laser. Imaging and Phantom center are amazingly pinpoint. A lot of what I hear sounds really small in my room, including CLA's mix of My Chemical Romance's "Black Parade". The tonal balance is killer but the mix sounds small in my room. On the intro where it get really busy, I can hear the compressor suck the life out of the mix. Then, some recording sound like the room disappears and the musician are holographs. Like Loreena Mckinnett mixed at Real World Studios and mastered by Bob Ludwig or Lyle Lovett's "Church" mixed by Massenburg. EQ properly first to clean everything up and them let your compressor take it to the next level. Compressors pre eq cleaning, tend to make mixes sound small. Not just HP filtering and cuts, but the ghost data (frequency spikes) that make mixes sound fuzzy and unsharp when mixing in the box (ITB). Great if you want max RMS in your face mixes for itunes. Not so great when you are listening on a high end audiophile system. I am trying to learn how to make my mixes sound good on anything. From the alarm clock speaker on your night stand to a set of B&W 800D's powered by 1000 watt monoblocks. My goal is to hear a mastering engineer say that everything he tried made my mixes sound worst, so he transferred them untouched because they were that good.