*NOTE: The answer to this question is based on ACOUSTIC kick, snare and bass. For compressing digital samples you can hit them as hard as you want. Your ear is the guide.*
Question: What type of compression settings should I use as a starting point on the kicks and the snares and the bass. and are there any other tube pre that are less expensive that can work , I’m on a bit of a buget and I trying to upgrade to an Pro Tools HD rig.
P.S Thanks for your info it nice for you to share this info I like to learn as much as I can.
Answer:
1) Any other tube pre less expensive that can work?
Yes. With DIGITAL preamps the idea is to not colour the sound. Alternately, the usual intention of a TUBE preamp IS to colour the sound with tube warmth. So the answer is any preamp will work that will give you the tube warmth, and it just so happens that the higher end tube preamps tend to do better at this (that’s why they’re more expensive). I prefer the Avalon, but I also have an ART tube pre. The difference is night and day, and you won’t really appreciate the difference until you hear it. My suggestion would be to google reviews to find what’s currently out that is working for audio engineers. I consider MIX magazine an excellent resource. Spending an entire day or two reading reviews on tube preamps would NOT be a waste of time in my opinion. Might be the best time you spend for improving mixes.
1) What are good compression Settings for Kick, Snare and Bass?
First thing is to know in your head what sound your going for. Where you’re going will dictate how you steer the ship. If the kick and bass guitar are meant to work as one whole, then you may want to daisy chain the bass guitar compressor and kick compressor together so they work in tandem. If you want a beefy 40kz 808 bass sound compress it hard and fast to keep it even. If it’s jazz then let the kick breathe a little. IN GENERAL your attack can be between 3 and 14 milliseconds. Release depends on the style, adjust it so there’s no “pumping”. You will destroy a mix more often with too much compression than with not enough. Don’t try to get as much overall volume as the latest major artist release, 99.9% odds if you get it that loud then you’ve crushed any life in the mix. Let Bernie Grundman and Glenn Meadows do that work, they are the masters.
If you have a really good studio bass guitar player, you won’t have to use much compression. But for most bands you’ll have to use stronger compression to “tame” the playing of the bassist. Overall I like the bass guitar working together with the kick drum, so that will dictate my compression settings which vary.
If you’re using ratios more than 6:1 then something else might be a little off. For a jazz kick you might use 12ms attack, 30ms release and 2:1 compression ratio. For a heavy metal kick might be 3ms attack, 12ms release and 4:1 compression ratio.
The biggest single tip I ever got about audio engineering: Know what you want before you reach for a knob.
Hope that helps.
Conrad