sEa oF lEaves - fHumblemIx

[FytaKyte]

No, I mean the movement that the compression brings, the microdynamics.

Oh right, I see... That's actually kind of a key discovery I made that informed my taste when I started mixing seriously early on.

I remember using a track from an Australian band from the early '90s called "The Baby Animals" as a reference for a mix of one of my own songs. This one: https://youtu.be/Yor4RVaC2ps

(Engineered by Kevin "Caveman" Shirley & produced by Mike Chapman, BTW)

The more I listened to it, the more I noticed the kind of movement you describe in the drum sound of that song - the way the transients jump forward, and yet the sustain portion of the drums seems to "flex" in time with the rhythms... There's a punch that is simultaneously hard yet "pillowy". The magic of musical compression for effect and excitement, rather than just dynamic control...

I spent a long time trying to achieve something resembling what I heard there - I'm don't think I even got close once, but that general aesthetic is what I'm aiming at mostly when I'm mixing rock-style stuff.