I'm also in electronic music so i use only sampled kicks and drumloops. One thing i never do is compress them. They are supposed to be already mastered(from sample cds) and ready for use and that includes compression as well. If i'm not satisfied with the kick sound i try some eq or another kick in the end.

When people who always compress their sampled kicks listen to my tracks they ask me what compressor i used and so on. And when i tell them that i never compress they just can't believe it.

Compression is something very serious and complicated imo, and since i'm a beginner on this, i just don't want to mess things up without knowing what i'm really doing and why.

thx. Anyone else?

btw, when they said proccesed samples that dont means they are "mastered"... its just the "trick" they use to buy they samples, in most cases they have lil reverb on tham

When you are making music, there are no rules.

Compress if it sounds better than not. Dont compress if it doesnt.

Its that simple, and only YOU can make that determination.

ROUDOS wrote: I'm also in electronic music so i use only sampled kicks and drumloops. One thing i never do is compress them. They are supposed to be already mastered(from sample cds) and ready for use and that includes compression as well. If i'm not satisfied with the kick sound i try some eq or another kick in the end.

When people who always compress their sampled kicks listen to my tracks they ask me what compressor i used and so on. And when i tell them that i never compress they just can't believe it.

Compression is something very serious and complicated imo, and since i'm a beginner on this, i just don't want to mess things up without knowing what i'm really doing and why.

Yes, compression is not for beginners. However, by no means are the loops or samples *MASTERED* already. If any literature in any of your programs indicates such, they are blatantly lying to you.

Samples are just that - samples. In other words, they record the sound of the drum (maybe...maybe...clean it up a little with a specific EQ and possibly even some compression, depending upon the sample) and when you hit that key, it plays it back. That's it. There has been no mastering performed. Mastering is only performed on an entire work or song, not any specific part of it.

That being said, I almost always use some compression on drums, sampled or not. In fact, I'm more likely to use even more aggressive compression on sampled drums than on live drums. On samples, there are NUMEROUS sounds from different sources. Compression can act as a glue. I don't use high ratios almost as a rule and certainly keep the thresholds tame.

Adding light compression can really bring the disparate drum sounds together and make it sound as though it's a unified kit.

One gigantic caveat:

Compression done poorly is far worse than no compression having been done.

That means, if you're not sure what you're doing, don't do it. Or, better yet, read up on compression and learn how to do it right. Bob Katz's book has a great section on compression and the book is worth its cost on this section alone if it helps you understand it.

Oh...and what Dave said too!

J.

Thx Dave!
I readed Bob Katz's book. I know to use copressor (do i know when is diferent story) But i just whantedfor someone to confirm that i dont need to use conpression always.
thx for ur replys guys.