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10. Unsquashing overcompressed sounds with manual level-shaping

1 We can add some dynamics back into an overly compressed audio kick drum using Xfer Records’ excellent LFOTool (demo available from xferrecords.com). This is much quicker than editing the audio itself, making this an ideal technique to use when working with audio stems. To follow, set your DAW’s BPM to 128, then import Backing.wav and Kick.wav from the Tutorial Files folder onto new tracks. 4 Our volume envelope now has a better shape for the job, but the kick still sounds a bit crunchy. To fix this, we’ll apply some fine adjustment to the envelope. Pull the central point down and left until the kick has a shorter, sharper sound. We can make the volume envelope curve a little ‘rounder’, giving the kick more body without it sounding too bloated. 2 Load LFOTool onto the Kick channel, then turn on Note Retrig (in Env mode) in the MIDI section. We can now use a MIDI note to trigger LFOTool’s built-in LFO envelope: add a blank MIDI track into the project, place a C3 note on every beat of the bar, then route the MIDI channel’s output back into LFOTool. Consult your DAW’s manual to find out how to route MIDI in your chosen DAW. 5 Adding another point to the volume envelope allows us to increase the perception of attack without making the entire kick overly punchy. We’ve got quite a tight volume envelope on the kick – turning LFOTool on and off a few times will show the difference our processing has made. Observe how the distorted midrange is being reined in. 3 Let’s start shaping the volume envelope of each kick with LFOTool. Pull down the Shape menu (top righthand side) and select the eminently tweakable Flat 50 preset. We’ll click on the volume envelope’s left-hand point and pull it to the top left of the graph before adding another point and moving it to the bottom-right. Drag the curve until the shape suits your source material. 6 To finish, we’ll use LFOTool’s excellent filter module to shape the sound even more. Set the LFO Routing’s Cut control to -100 so our envelope modulates the filter, then load up the Add Bass filter type. Set the Cutoff and Drive to around 20% then turn the filter on and off – you’ll hear extra weight being added to the kick.