When it came time to mix tracks for a rock band called Lost Possum, the snare didn't have that huge chunky sound that the Audiovent album did. While I'm certainly not trying to copy that sound I heard on a Audiovent recording, it was clear that my snare sounded a little anorexic. So I thought about using eq, but that never seems to work the way I intend and decided I would look around at all the plugins I never really use. (There has to be a reason that they make so many plugins!) So, I started goofing around. Hmmm. Waves Rbass? Let's see what this does.

I fired up the Waves Rbass on the snare and, of course, the default setting was weird, but after moving the frequency up to the high 100 / low 200 Hz region (depending on the song) I was able to get EXACTLY what I was looking for. On it's own, the snare top is way too chunky, but I had captured plenty of the natural crack of the snare drum in the overheads to keep the snare still sizzling. I had to reduce the intensity of the plugin several times throughout the mix, but I'm very, very happy with the results.

The Rbass has a way of really bring out the low end of the bleed in the snare too. I found that there was something pleasingly added to the kick and toms after adding the Rbass, if used in moderation. (On a few songs, I gated the snare and knocked off 10dB of bleed). While the toms on this record are from a drum kit and drummer that have consistently delivered me the best tom sounds I've ever gotten over the course of a few albums, there is something about the Rbass set up around 200Hz that makes those toms sound great on other systems. For the first time on my computer stereo, my toms have this larger than life quality what I've always wanted. It appears that 200Hz isn't a “bad frequency” at all! I think I call it BALLS!

Lessons #1 – Always listen to great sounding recordings on your studio monitors when you are messing around in your control room.

Lesson #2 – Fire up those plugins you disregarded in the past. Try weird techniques to get what you need.

Lesson #3 – Learn why the weird techniques worked well. It's very possible that I could be placing my snare top much closer to the drum, I may be able to get this chunk in other recordings Of course, I need a drummer who gives me plenty of snare in the overheads and I need to mic the overheads in a way that gives me plenty of crack / sizzle in the snare. It's also very possible that I could have gotten similar results by eq'ing the drums to have quite a bit more energy in the 200Hz region, but maybe not.

Lesson #4 – The lesson I'm going to be reminded of immediately on the next mixing project is this trick probably won't work twice!

I went to a St. Louis Blues hockey game last night. I wondered how much their sticks or skates cost. It occurred to me that their sticks and skates may be $400 each. It also occurred to me that I would be equally useless with a $400 hockey stick as I would with a $4 hockey stick.

So even if compressor plugins aren't 100% equal to the best hardware compressors, there are some serious advantages to using plugins. Price, quantity, and sound all come to mind.

Price – Hardware compressors range from $100 up to $4,000 (and probably higher than that). It's rare to see a compressor plugin that costs more than $1,000. There are some great free compressors plugins out there.

Quantity – I can't afford to buy 20 $1,000 compressors. However, if a mix calls for me using 20 compressors, I can use the same compressor plugin 20 times.

Sound – Have you ever stopped to wonder why there are SOOOOO many compressor models? The answer is simple. They sound different! Some work better for different things. Of course, the opposite is true. Some sound worse on different things. Typically, hardware compressors are going to have a specific character to them. In many cases this character will be a positive thing, but there are always times when it will be a bad thing. So, what happens if you save your pennies to buy a high end hardware compressor and then find out that you aren't thrilled with what it is doing to the signal.

While not a high end compressor, I tried out a Presonus ACP 88 a while back. I must say that I was WAYYY happier with my Waves Rcomp for vocal compression.

So, I think a person can not expect one compressor to be perfect all the time. Plus, I think if you are on a budget a software compressor may even sound better than a hardware compressor.

Last, but not least, don't forget that it is very simple in a program like Cubase to use a compressor plugin only on the monitoring end while tracking. In other words, you can put a compressor on a singer while they are tracking and then turn it off, remove it, or use a different compressor later. This is all done without the need for a mixer.

Conclusion
Unless you are a badass at recording, you don't have any need for a hardware compressor. The big boys use plugin compressors all the time even if they sometimes prefer a high end hardware compressor for this or that.

Brandon