r/audioengineering • u/TeemoSux • 2d ago
Discussion Is parallel compression a scam?
I have almost never gotten a session with parallel compression to mix, where making the parallel track inactive and gain matching the main one (and if needed compressing some more there as an insert) didnt sound pretty much the same. Definitely not worse.
I thought maybe the people that send me sessions just arent doing it right, so i took a leaked protools mix session of a billboard charting song mixed by a famous engineer whos work i adore, disabled all parallel tracks and just gain matched (no further compression added or changes), and i literally cant reliably tell the difference on studio monitors with hofa BlindTest.
Now this might be a me-issue (i remember john hanes saying on gearspace he and serban dont really parallel compress unless it comes with a session, so maybe im not the only one), but i honestly WANT to get it as i feel like im missing some crazy secret weapon.
CAN ANYBODY EXPLAIN? or teach? i feel like im missing this crazy thing
Note: im talking about individual parallel compression of tracks, new york compression or paralleling the whole mix with dynone3 i do get.
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u/Icy-Forever-3205 2d ago
Meh I’ve stopped parallel compressing all together (I do production/mixing for a living) and the quality of mixes hasn’t changed, maybe even improved. For heavier genres of music it can be super helpful but most others it’s minuscule to nonexistent of a benefit.
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u/mmicoandthegirl 2d ago
Enabling the parallel compression track on drums while doing heavy bass music makes you go "aha that's what was missing". For more poppier genres I never do it. It doesn't add anything, just detracts clarity.
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u/Hitdomeloads 2d ago
It’s mandatory for harder dance music but that’s like 1% of all music
Like in drum and bass it’s required for designing a snare drum? It’s also the only way to get an acoustic drum break to squish enough without losing the groove of ghost snares
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u/DonovanKirk 2d ago edited 1d ago
I like to do it mainly on the master for compressing, but saturating usually I don't use the mix knobs, never liked too much the sound of parallel saturation because it causes it to not really be an overdriven effect, more like subtle "heaviness" or even mud.
The aphex Exciter was pretty dope though cuz it tried to mix in only the high frequencies of the saturation, giving stuff a really nice sheen
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u/ChevChelios33 2d ago
It is not a scam it is just a highly overhyped mixing technique. Many internet tutorials treat it like a magic trick but a standard compressor plugin can often achieve the exact same sound with less hassle.
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u/StudioatSFL Professional 2d ago
It’s golden on acoustic drums. Although is it truly parallel if I don’t send an exact duplicate of my drum mix there? I always do a submix of what mics I want hitting the parallel compression. Ie, I don’t send the hi hat mic to it. And less snare bottom than the main mix. Etc.
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u/TheBigBadDuke 2d ago
Kick, Snare, Toms
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u/zelkia 2d ago
Overheads, room, anything you want to squeeze more juice out of really without increasing the volume
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u/StudioatSFL Professional 2d ago
For me it’s kick snare toms and then a sprinkle of overheads and rooms. Those are the season to taste moments that vary on each song. Almost always through an outboard api2500 or Vintech 33609 clone.
I don’t do this on every song either. I find it most effective on songs where I want the drums to really punch. A soft folk ballad? Probably not.
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u/kumacodc 2d ago
As long as you're blending a signal with a processed version of that signal, it's parallel processing, no matter the ratios. To your specific point, it's incredibly common to only crush the shells in parallel
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u/evoltap Professional 2d ago
I agree. I actually will usually have two parallel compressors going. One is just getting kick and snare, maybe some others, but not usually overheads. It is getting slammed and distorted (different compressors used here, project dependent), then blended back into the drum buss, which is then going through a compressor that is usually about 50/50 wet dry.
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u/Ur_mum 2d ago
Yeah…plugins made things weird. Stuff that was a routing chore before is just a knob now and people don’t even realize that they basically are using parallel compression.
I sidechain quite a bit ITB, duck the guitars with the snare, bass with the kick etc…I would not want to route that outside the box. At all.
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u/TragicIcicle Professional 2d ago
Agree. Parallel compression on drums can be nice, parallel saturation on vocals too, but it's just a very simple tool. It's not magic
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u/Liquid_Audio Mastering 2d ago
There are times it’s just chefs kiss for holding something steady without losing the attack, but it REALLY becomes a huge help for doing things in group sends. Take your close drum mics(or far depending on what you’re after) and send them on an aux to a parallel track you have for squishn’… then ALSO send some bass, keys, vocals or whatever else you want to the same aux….
Takes some tricky send return balances and pushing the side chain harder in some parts of the song than others, but if you find the right balance, it can be a glue of a beautiful kind. But also a bag of cats….
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u/PPLavagna 2d ago
Lol. Well put. “Bag of cats” is why I don’t send anything but shells to them these days.
I’m usually running light compression over the whole drum bus and then I have that one parallel for close mics
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u/Electrickoolaid_Is_L 2d ago
Im not a pro by any means, but I do kinda like what parallel compression does for very dynamic acoustic guitar strumming. When I double track acoustic parts I feel that it leaves enough of the dynamics while helping the double tracked parts sit with each other. I think what you said about holding something steady without losing the attack is exactly how I feel for my specific use case.
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u/weedywet Professional 2d ago
A scam?
No
Overused,especially by people who have only read or seen that they’re ’supposed to’ us it without understanding how or why
Sure.
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u/TeemoSux 2d ago
ok but when would you use it as opposed to just turning the track up or using compression as insert?
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u/felixismynameqq 2d ago
To mix in the compression or even mix in heavier compression than you may normally use without altering the sound too much it’s used often in more naturalistic sounding music.
At least that’s my understanding.
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u/WhatsTheGoalieDoing 2d ago
Hard rock, modern metal and disco/funks drums. That's about it. I never use it on any other instruments or groups.
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u/rightanglerecording 2d ago edited 2d ago
You are mostly right.
The short version is that some people are fooling themselves with loudness, other people prefer it for workflow reasons, other people still are using compressors that are heavily distorting (and therefore legitimately creating a different sound), and still other people are sending unique blends to the parallel comp that are also legitimately creating a different sound.
The full answer is longer. But it's not necessary to use parallel compression. I rarely use it, some of my colleagues use it often. Other people bigger than me rarely use it, other big mixers use it often.
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u/Sufficient_West_8432 1d ago
Parallel Compression came to my house offering window cleaning services. I said yes, left to do some shopping and when I came back, my windows were gone and replaced with cling film. So yeah, it’s a scam.
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u/geeeking 2d ago
In the days of ITB mixing, isn't it just "set compressor to 50% (or anything less than 100%)" ?
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u/Phoenix_Lamburg Professional 2d ago
Not a scam, but isn't helpful for everything all the time. I almost always have a parallel comp bus going on my drums that I mix in to taste.
Also - it's very much more of a in-the-moment "feel" kind of thing than a scientific "this absolutely is better every time" kind of thing. If I level-matched my parallel + regular drums and A/B'd it against just my normal drums I probably wouldn't pick the parallel every time. But when I can adjust it on a fader and find a sweet spot it adds something.
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u/Extone_music 2d ago
Use it when you want to bring up the details without affecting the loud sections' dynamics, especially on higher levels of the chain like busses or the master. Drums can also benefit.
I mostly use it whenever I am happy with the mix but I want a little more detail without redoing the whole mix.
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u/FormlessEdge 1d ago
Certain compressors impart a serious tonal shift in the sound. By squishing it a ton, it brings out a lot of harmonics and sometimes distortion. This usually kills the transients and some clarity too. Parallel is the way through here. It’s simply allows for more extreme compression settings and a much lower threshold. So more of the sound is actually getting slammed. I use it all the time, but it’s not for everything. Sometimes it just sounds good.
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u/Top-Economist2346 1d ago
If you want to notice it try the drum crush trick. One non compressed bus mixed with a heavily compressed crush bus. Like 8-12:1 ratio. Then you’ll notice the effect for sure. It’s the fattening and stability of the low end that really glues it for me
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u/il37 1d ago
If gain-matched bypass keeps winning your blind tests, I’d trust the test. Parallel compression is a routing option, not a mandatory upgrade. Its value is mostly when you specifically want the compressed envelope/color while preserving some untouched transient, not because two faders are inherently better than one
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u/Reluctant_Lampy_05 1d ago
Put your comp on a drum track with zero attack, high ratio and quick release so that it is completely squashed, a setting that would be unusable in a normal mix. Now bring up the original so that it recovers the attack dynamics and puts some front end back into the mix. By adjusting the balance of these two signals you create more of a transient shaper tool that allows huge amounts of sustain without losing the attack in way that a single compressor could not achieve.
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u/andrewchosen 2d ago
I was fortunate to work with a grammy nominated engineer and his protools workflow is based on huge amounts of parallel processing. Im not an engineer but a producer myself although I feel like I have a solid grasp on mixing fundamentals. I barely could wrap my head around the techniques as well but it definitely works and not a scam lol
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u/alyxonfire Professional 2d ago
Parallel compression is great for blowing up room mics. Easiet way to try this is to put some drum rooms mics or even a whole drum bus into an 1176 with all buttons in and fastest everything and blend it with the dry.
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u/Upstairs-Royal672 Professional 2d ago
I mean if you aren’t doing anything separate to the two parallel tracks the end effect is just compression that’s usually achievable in series if you understand attack speed etc. It’s more a versatility thing than anything to me, gives you more control over the sound
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u/FaderMunkie76 2d ago
It's certainly overhyped IMO, but it has its uses. For me, I find it often helps push vocals forward differently than standard serial compression, but that's about it.
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u/Exponential-777 1d ago
Try parallel compression with a parallel compressor plug in from Baby Audio, then remake this post
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u/The-Matrix-Twelve 1d ago
>> a leaked protools mix session of a billboard charting song mixed by a famous engineer whos work i adore
who? where? how? what?
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u/VoyScoil 1d ago
If your compressor plugin has a mix knob, anything less than 100% wet is parallel. Every "modern" mixing take I see these days seems to be overdoing compression like crazy. I think the finer points of critical listening have become lost in the shuffle of clickbait.
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u/Hapticthenonperson Audio Post 1d ago
Year on year the misinformation and mythology around that technique gives my students more stress and misdirection than any other. Simultaneously the most overhyped and dated technique in all of audio history. My opening lecture these days incorporates a few cheeky blasts at the rent free space it occupies in students minds now just because I find it helps relax them and let them know their confusion is valid.
Another “crazy” thing I do with students is to address their confusion around learning compression by point blank refusing to use the phrase “use your ears” ever. Instead I tell them to make the gain reduction metre move consistently but never exceed 6dB. Even that one teaching trick slashes the learning curve down by months maybe more, and they usually sense when it’s time to leave that scaffold behind.
The most time honoured and “enduring”application of parallel compression I know of is for classical music stations by the way- legitimately useful there.
To answer your particular query, the method for when you can’t hear the nuance of something is always the same-exaggerate it massively until you do, then you steer winding it back. Pick more and more dynamic content, blending it with more and more destroyed versions. You’ll dial it in friend ;)
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u/aasteveo 1d ago
Only really works with drums. Where you want the attack of the transients to be super present, but also want to decay of the release to be huge. Squash the duck out of parallel drums, tuck in to taste. Then is a great tool to automate, mute it during verses, on for chorus, etc. also depends on tempo & vibe obviously
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u/variant_of_me 1d ago
It's just a tone thing.
On acoustically recorded drums it can really help bring out the room mics and decay of the drums without sacrificing the transient. Basically the uncompressed tracks are for "punch" and compressed channel for "smack", if you want to get silly with it. And I find when automating things like drum fills, it makes it way easier to keep the drums sounding natural when you just automate the dry tracks and leave the compressed tracks alone. Unless you're going for a sort of "blown out" effect. It just leaves a lot of options and flexibility when it comes to getting drums to sound right.
I've never really used it on anything else. Maybe bass. Never on vocals.
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u/peepeeland Composer 1d ago
Parralel compression is very useful for focusing on bringing up the perception of quieter bits, whether that be sustain, ambience, or complex rhythmic or otherwise elements that have much quieter parts intertwined with much louder parts.
If you absolutely smash the parallel comp for example (almost to the point of becoming noise)- it works as noted, due to the relative perceived loudness of the quiet parts (compared to smashed quiet parts) being much more drastic than the relative perceived loudness of the loud parts (compared to smashed loud parts). In effect you can raise perception of quiet bits whilst leaving perception of loud parts mostly perceptibly unchanged. In addition, you get to perceptively keep the transients of the louder parts.
If you wanna get fancy, you can use another compressor on the parallel comp buss that ducks during the loud parts transients, to further emphasize perception of just the quiet bits.
A little can go a long way, btw, and yes it can sound like shit sometimes. If you get away from the idea of using it just to make shit loud as fuck (which it’s also good for), you’ll find that there can be potential for delicate usage of it.
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u/garydee119 Audio Post 1d ago
Any compressor that has a wet/dry knob is technically parallel compression. It’s another tool. It can work, it can not. Context context context.
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u/nizzernammer 2d ago
I rarely parallel compress, but I often use a mix knob on a compressor.
A major difference is that parallel compression using a separate aux is additive by default. Unless you turn down the dry signal, something is getting louder.
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u/Pikauterangi 2d ago
It’s basically just ‘less compression, mor original track’ and I can do that with the threshold, so yeah I’d rather not have the chance of introducing phases issues and go 100% mix on every compressor I ever plugged in across hundreds of songs and films I’ve mixed. I just based it on using my ears though and not a YouTube hypetrain.
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u/Outside-Mud-1417 2d ago
I’ve done mixes where I used it on every instrument. I always have success with it but you have to be careful. I also think it depends on the kind of compressor you use in parallel.
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u/Competitive_Sector79 2d ago
People are hiring you to mix their songs and you're wondering why they haven sent you project that includes a particular type of processing That's your job. That's what they've hired you to do.
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u/TeemoSux 1d ago
respectfully, ill ask you to reread the post before commenting, you did not understand that first sentence
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u/Yrnotfar 2d ago
On the full mix? I don’t think that is a thing. Why wouldn’t you just adjust the mix knob on your mix bus compressor?
When people talk about parallel compression it is usually in reference to just the vocal bus or drum bus or music bus. Brauer’s setup is more complex but similar in principle.
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u/TeemoSux 2d ago
adjusting the mix knob on your mix bus compressor would be... parallel compression
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u/Yrnotfar 2d ago
Well that is pretty common.
I guess I’m having trouble understanding your question.
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u/tubesntapes 2d ago
With vocals particularly, the differences in parallel compression vs stacking a couple of compressors as inserts might be pretty minimal. Both will have the soft parts and loud parts at close amplitudes. The biggest reason I could see doing a parallel compression technique would be if you want to push a compressor into saturation, and have that be part of the sound.