Multi band compression - is it worth having on a whole song as you master?

vitocorleone123

If at all possible fix issues at the track level, or at least the bus. If you're fixing the mix, let alone master, something isn't right. In my amateur-but-well-versed opinion.

The most common use of a multiband is a de-esser. That gives a hint - it's primarily a focused track based problem solver, especially vocals.

I have FabFilter c2, q3, l2 and mb on my PC. I've yet to use mb; no vocals. Matthew Weiss has a good series on mixing with compression and also one separately just on multiband.

jonmoore

@Max23 said:

@jonmoore said:

@Max23 said:

@jonmoore said:
@ocelot The Bark scale comes from academia, it's not something that @VirSyn created for Bark Filter. It's definitely one of those phenomena that sounds far more enticing to engineering types than it's utility turns out to be in practice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bark_scale

I'm glad I have it in my toolbox but it's not something I turn to on a regular basis.

The person responsible for making the Bark Scale popular in synthesis was Don Buchla. And what he created was very much aligned with the West Coat synthesis techniques he's known for (adding harmonics to simple sine waves as opposed to East Coast, which is fundamentally about subtracting harmonics from complex waveforms). The Bark Filter Fixed Filter Bank is very much a sculpting tool for carving through the rich harmonic content created elsewhere in a Buchla type modular setup.

https://www.perfectcircuit.com/verbos-electronics-bark-filter.html

The fixed filter bank in iOS's Model 15 works off of the same principles (and Audio Damage created a desktop plugin clone of the Moog Fixed Filter bank way back when, but I don't think it's currently supported).

U need really nasty signals for a filterbank to be useful

Hence it first coming to prominence in Buchla modular systems.

^^ I heard some nice performances and timbres from them, just dont go to crazy with the fm?
the old systems had bad pitch problems, I guess that's why everybody made "buchla bongos" with it ...
main application for a filterbank really is noise shaping, (this is almost non existent in modern synthesis concepts (a little low or highpass just doesn't cut it ), only mr. palm (PPG) has some ideas about this it seems (the code for nave is from palm too and sold to Waldorf ... )
to have the perfect noise part in a sound you need noise, a filterbank, a dynamic multimode filter, and its own vca & envelope ...

I luckily picked up a PPG 2.3 for peanuts at the end of the eighties (and a love affair with digital/analogue hybrids began), but that's another digression altogether!

For those following the filter bank digression. Todd Barton (Buchla guru numero uno!) posted a great series of videos on Muff Wigler on the 296e - the classic Buchla take on a fixed filter bank. This is real forbidden planet sound design madness, don't expect anything melodic! The reason for posting the link is that VirSyn Bark is based on the same set of fixed band-pass filters but the VirSyn design goal was very much towards melodic ends. I don't think fixed filter banks are purely for noise shaping, but it's something they happen to excel at. Incidentally you can use VirSyn Bark to the same ends as the 296e, but because it's a linear phase design, it introduces 12 ms of latency (just something to be aware of, it being a linear phase design is a positive).

https://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=169880

VirSyn Bark is pitched as a variation of multi-band compression by VirSyn so hopefully this post isn't too much of a digression.

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supadom

@DefRobot said:
Cheers guys!
@Max23 it’s about getting that little extra clarity. Sounds fine as is, as I EQ and pan to create space anyway.
It’s just whether it’s worth that final polish.

For me it is about stabilising the mix, pasturising it. Evening out frequencies and not clarity. In fact to me it blures the sound a little smoothing out the peaks. Some definition because you're effectively altering the original sound.

The trick i think is to have a good mix so you don't have to use too much multuband compression at the end.

OscarSouth

Another thing I find is that a lot of the time when a multiband compressor seems necessary, that a standard comp with internal side chain does the job better.

DefRobot

Thanks again all for the top tips.
Definitely not gonna use it on a full mix.
If I do use it, it will be a taming of frequencies on individual tracks.

I think I can find other ways to sort tracks out via EQ and normal compression.

jonmoore

@Max23 said:

btw did you see Alex Cortini show off the buchla 700? lush! starts 12 minutes in

Great video. I'd never encountered a Buchla 700 in the flesh. Love that Don defined it as a portable instrument in 87!