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12. Mid/side compression (continued)

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Now let’s set the main compressor parameters. We’ve chosen aggressive settings with a quite fast attack but slow enough not to crush the transients. With automatic release and a ratio of 5:1 we’ve set the threshold so that gain reduction is hitting 10dB on the peaks. 6

This amount of gain reduction has had a big impact on our stereo image, and with manual gain make up, it’s time to rebalance the output level. You’ll have to do this by ear, as although the meter is telling you -10dB of gain reduction, that’s only the peaks. Here we’ve added about 5dB on the make up control. 7

Try A/Bing the result to see the difference. The key things for us are the much more snappy, fatter-sounding snare drum and the more solid central image. Also the wide parts of the stereo image remain quite natural. Finally, there’s fundamentally more energy in the blend but it’s not pumping. 8

Now let’s try processing just the side component. Here we’ve switched over to our routing matrix and deactivated the mid channel. Then on the main compressor page we’ve selected the Side tab and chosen the super fast Studio FET emulation, once again deactivating the automatic gain make up. 9

Our aim is to use the compressor to bring up the stereo aspects of the blend and add some shape to the transients. To that end we’ve set the attack reasonably fast and the release at its fastest setting. With the ratio at 8:1 we’ve adjusted the threshold to achieve up to 8dB of gain reduction on the peaks. 10

As before we’ve adjusted the make up gain to balance the mid and side (4.0dB for us). Try A/Bing the result. The side component is now more present and has some pump to it. Meanwhile the unprocessed mid component delivers the clean transients. Once again there’s more energy to the sound.