i need some SP-404SX compression advice

[Jcole503]

Great stuff! Very helpful info!

[unsignd]

-snip-

[armedfaith]

I had to hop in because I was reading the other replies thinking “wait, have these guys tried recording a full track on the sp bass and all basically:

1. Make sure your sample volume is turned very low (like around 50-60)
2. Increase the sound of your kick but not over the stop. (Don’t lose the base puddle)
3. You need to get those hi hats very low, the compressor will amp them like crazy.
4.your bass needs to be resampled mono, also adjust it to fit under the kick.
5. Ok now you are ready to apply the compressor effect to allo the tracks using the (remain) command in the pattern sequencer ( don’t know what I’m talking about, please watch a video on using the sequencer.
6.DO NOT turn the compressor to MAX I know the YouTube video says to do that but he’s dumb and doesn’t know squat. You have to turn your volume up on monitors and finesse a sweet spot of compressor volume after you turn down the attack to (1) and the threshold to around 11 o clock. Peace and love may you create the sound your heart Desire

[Jaytreaze]

@armedfaith, some good shit there
What I tend to do now is have mfx12 only on my chops and bass (whilst using sequencer) and level every element accordingly but leave drums etc with no compression. I set the sus. and att. to my preference BUT I treat the 'level' knob as almost a control of the chops and bass' volume as well as how much compression is applied. Then, I adjust the main volume knob of the 404sx and the level knob of mfx12 to find that sweet spot, I think you got into that a bit?

I still need to experiment further, its early days for me still but when I first started I would barely EQ my sounds and barely level them and just slap on remain on everything, a bit of a hot mess. Now I keep my drums in mono and chops in stereo and EQ shit accordingly. However, I've never tried having my bass in mono so I'll for sure experiment with that.

P.S. I feel like the compressor makes my kick pop more than thump and my snare just loses aspects I'd like it to keep, hence why I leave the compressor away from them haha, BUT I'm still experimenting and learning. If you got any tips of keeping the kicks depth and drums still crispy in general with mfx12 that'll be great. The kick also gets that pop with the compressor on even when the kick is levelled above the chops, so I'm not too sure how to work around this.

P.P.S. I'm still early learning about the full technicalities and terms of the compressor so my bad if some terminology is off

[RedFerric]

Ahhh, the 404sx compressor, one of the great mysteries of life along with what is the meaning of existing and what is the purpose of marmite.

Here is my 2cents.

First of all I almost never compress the full track, I just hate how badly it destroys my drum transients, so what works better for me is to :

Always isolate the lows of a sample and mid highs in two separate samples, it gives me much greater control over the low end .

I will set kicks, bass and maybe the sample at 50% volume and work from there. 404 compressor has an insanely low threshold and ratio from what I can tell and it will squash the fck out of everything if they are too loud. So we need to adjust the volumes of the samples that are being fed in the compressor as to play around the compressor set threshold.

I don't like adding compression in my snares or hihats, snares get extremely painful transients and hats sound ultra loud.

If I want to beef up my final mixdown I might apply radio tuning (mfx17) with knobs 1, 2 turned to zero and knob three at around 40%. It does some good stuff to the mix and acts as a tiny glue compressor. I don't know exactly what they have programmed that thing to do but it works very well.

Also you could try the limiter (compressor with the limit on) and setting the same pre discussed levels can actually lead to better results than using the compressor.

To sum it up, separating the sample to low - midhigh frequencies , lowering the levels and not applying compression to everything is a good start. Good luck

[zindan]

5. Ok now you are ready to apply the compressor effect to allo the tracks using the (remain) command in the pattern sequencer ( don’t know what I’m talking about, please watch a video on using the sequencer.

why on earth would you do this rather than adding it on the final master

[zindan]

What I tend to do now is have mfx12 only on my chops and bass (whilst using sequencer) and level every element accordingly but leave drums etc with no compression.

i would never in a million years recommend anyone do this, but music has no rules. go crazy!

(@redferric also)