Quick tips on using the knee on compressors

If this is what you think I'm talking about, you should study your compressors better.

There is a lot of confusion regarding the knee setting on compressors. Low end outboard compressors usually don’t have a knee setting, but since most of you are using a DAW with built-in software compressors you will most definitely find a knee setting lingering on your compressor plug-in, just waiting for your confused fiddling.

What does the knee do?
Bluntly, it smooths out the ratio in regard to how much of an a signal gets over the threshold. It’s a relationship between the threshold and intensity of the signal.

A hard knee applies the ratio directly when the signal passes the threshold,

A soft knee applies the ratio exponentially as the signal gets closer to the threshold.

Applies compression before the threshold?
You see, if the threshold it set to -10dB and the ratio to 1:4, the signal that will surpass the threshold will gradually reach the 1:4 ratio going from 1:1 – 1:2 – 1:3 until it reaches the threshold.

A hard knee setting wouldn’t do anything until the signal reached the threshold, where it would clamp down on it immediately.

So which should I use? Soft knee or hard knee?

This varies from instrument to instrument.

Vocals can benefit from a soft knee approach, and generally drums can be put on a hard knee attack.

But feel free to experiment and see what suits your style. A soft knee on snare can be a good idea, and a hard knee on rock vocals can also be fine.

Just remember to use your ears and not follow some blogger’s advice blindly. That’s it for today, hope you can squeeze something useful from this for your audio experiments.

Link roundup to start the week.

Today I want to use the Almighty Internet to find some useful websites for you. It’s a Monday and if you are having a hard time getting the week under your feet a quick browse through these sites may seem like a nice beginning to your week.

Partners in Rhyme have a pretty intensive sound effect library.

And the best of all, it’s free! Sometimes you need sound effects to make soundscapes in your songs, or are working on a post-production project that needs interesting sound effects. Check that site out if you are need of SFX.

Hometracked has an interesting article about the abuse of Auto-Tune in popular music.

Auto Tune has become a stable in modern recordings and suddenly the amount of great singers are augmented by the use of this plug-in. The things some artist get away with are incredible and sometimes they use Auto-tune as a vocal effect

MadTracker.org

Madtracker has an extensive library of all kinds of software plug-ins, and many of them are free. I haven’t checked out their library thoroughly but the sites definitely has a lot to offer in regards to new plug-ins to make your tracks stand out.

EQ Guide

And when you’ve finally surfed your Monday dose of audio websites, here’s a EQ guide you can check back to when you finally start recording or mixing your tracks. It’s an extensive overview of the frequency spectrum and a good thing to reference when you’re trying to make an instrument stand out.

Have a good day and remember to check back every week-day for a different tip or thought about the wonderful world of audio recording.