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3. Master glue compression

1 By adding some gentle glue compression to our EQed mix, we can smooth out the difference between the quietest and loudest passages, subtly increasing the perceived loudness at quieter points whilst reining in any overly loud sections. To start, set the monitoring level to K-14 and import MixEQK14.wav and RefK14.wav and add Voxengo SPAN in K-14 metering mode to the master bus.

2 Duplicate the MixEQK14 channel and mute the original channel so we can A/B against our starting point. Focusrite’s Red 3 compressor plugin (free with this issue) is an excellent choice for gentle bus compression – add it to the duplicated channel. The default settings give us about 4dB of gain reduction – turn the Makeup Gain up until SPAN’s reads K-14, meaning we’ve matched the reference’s volume.

3 Switch between the processed, unprocessed and reference tracks – the processed version sounds denser, but it’s suffering from a subtle pumping effect. Compared to the reference, this really spoils the smoothness of the sound – backing off the gain reduction alongside some tweaks to the Red 3 controls will help to achieve a neater, cleaner sound…

4 Disable the Auto Release and turn the Input gain down to -6dB – this reduces the gain reduction to a gentler 1dB or so. Increase the Makeup Gain until SPAN’s meter reads K-14. We can now further shape the compression – setting the Attack to around 8 o’clock with Release at around 12 o’clock gives us a quick attack but slower release, avoiding any unwanted pumping effects.