Using Compression in REAPER (ReaComp) transcript

[Music] okay how you doing I'm Kenny Joya welcome to another one of my tutorials in this video I want to show you how I use compression in Reaper mainly using the compressor that comes with Reaper Rec comp now although I'm doing this in Reaper and I'm using the specific plugin most compressive plugins are pretty similar so much of this can really be applied to anything you're using I just happen to prefer this one as it works great for me and it's free as it comes with Reaper so what we're going to do is go through the most common sources I use compression on it's not every Source but it's the most important ones for me and I'm going to show you how I generally use compression on these sources but please keep in mind that this is a general overview it's not how I always do it and it does depend on the source but I will say that for the most part this is how I use compression on these common sources so let's jump in let's start off with a kick drum here's our compressor before we hear it let's go to the preset that we're going to start with the threshold is pretty much off the attack is pretty quick and the release is pretty quick our ratio is 4:1 and I have auto makeup gain turned on this way the output will be pretty consistent so let's hear what the kick sounds like now now let slowly bring down the threshold so it compresses over here we can see the gain reduction [Music] now let's go over with the attack and the release two with the attack if we make it really quick it's going to cut off the attack of our sound so the compressor is going to react very quickly which on something like a kick drum will shave off the attack or the transient of the sound see how it's pretty much gone but if we bring it up it'll bring back the attack while still compressing the rest of the kick and if we go too far it loses it all together and no compression is really taking place as the entire kick sound is passing through and not compressing now what the release does is it decides how quickly the compressor comes back so after it compresses it'll either stay or it'll snap back for the next attack so if we start really quickly it grabs every hit but if we make it slower [Music] it doesn't bounce back in between each hit which makes a smoother sound but it doesn't react on each [Music] hit so round there is what we want so the attack still cuts through and the release bounces back to grab each hit somewhere around there feels pretty good before and after and using a compressor on the kick will make each hit more consistent so none of the hits jump out on different sections of the song and each hit sounds more even now it's here on a snad drum let's he what it sounds like first now let's put the compressor on there and see if we can't contain this and bring out the Snap and again we'll start off by bringing down the threshold [Music] and again if we make the attack too quick we'll lose the attack of the [Music] sound now let adjust the release a [Music] before and after [Music] that sounds pretty good right there now let's try it out on the room mics now if you notice we're not doing the overhead mics that's cuz I don't usually compress the overhead mics an awful lot maybe just slightly but not enough that it's worth showing you how I do it but with the room mics we can create different room sounds just using compression let's see what we have [Music] now now the room isn't very big but we can make it sound bigger using compression this is a pretty good one to really he the attack and release times and how they [Music] work let's make the attack really [Music] fast notice it cuts off all the attack of the sound if we slowly bring it up the attack comes back [Music] now it's per to release and notice how responsive it is as it bounces back after each hit [Music] right there feels pretty good [Music] before and after [Music] notice how much bigger the room sounds now let's check out the bass guitar let's see what we have [Music] now let's see if we can contain this to give him more even low and response to our track [Music] notice with the release you want to get it in time so each hit or Movement by the threshold is in time with the song [Music] and we could bring the ratio up a bit to make it more even [Music] before and [Music] after that sounds a lot more even to me now let's try it on vocals now you're probably wondering why we didn't compress or piano acoustic guitar electric guitar to be honest I don't usually compress that stuff that often especially not acoustic guitar I don't really care for the way that sounds sometimes I'll do a bit of electric guitar if it's a little clean and it's not played very consistently but for the most part pianos and guitars I don't tend to compress them too much so I think it was worth showing you but vocals are very important to me for compression let's see what we have now you had me I believed everything everyone just said from the start let's here with the plugin again we're starting at 4 to one you had me I believed everything every word that you said from the start and again we'll play around with the attack and release times to get the sound just right if the attack is too quick it's going to cut off all transients you had me going and I believed everything every word that you said from the start you kept me close you had me tied to the strings now you're watching it all fall apart you spent too much and so you can't get it all like you used to now the release time you had me go I believed everything every word that you said from the start you kept me close you had me tied to the strings now you're watching it all fall apart the quicker this is the more reactive it is to the sound passing through the threshold you had me go I believed everything every word that you said from the start you kept me close you had me tied to the strings now you're watching it all fall apart you spent too much and so you can't get it all like you used to you got you don't have notice how it puts the sound more in your face so it'll sit in front of the track when you're mixing it and overall it'll be more consistent so anyway this is how I use compression in Reaper using the recom compressor that comes with Reaper I hope you learned something I hope you use it and I'll see you next time thanks [Music]