Dynamic Processing
The use of dynamic usually consists of corrective use, and this was it’s predominant use within my final mixes. There aren’t too many different dynamic processes that are in the mixes. Compression and gates are the two that were used, and gates weren’t used very often. I used compression to have alter the musicality of the playing depending on the musicianship of the performer. This could arguably be altered by the perfect take, but the perfect take doesn’t always exist and there are anomalies that need addressing. This is where small amounts of compression used. On the other hand, compression was used creatively. As mentioned previously, alternative rock consists of fairly heavy compression, and to represent this in my mixes, I would have to use heavy compression in places, and take it back in others - for example, I wouldn’t heavily compress the vocals as it would destroy the take. This was used primarily on the bass and drums (in places). The other uses of compression, on the vocals for example, were used more subtly, and were used creatively to enhance the sound of the recording. Parallel compression was used on the drums to bring them out in the mix and compete with the loud guitars in the mix. This is a technique where the dry drums signal is playing alongside a compressed drum signal, therefore pushing the drums further whilst compressing to improve the sound. This features on all the tracks.
For gating, it was rarely used. It was used on the overdubbed toms of “Interlude” to enhance the attack of the tom sound. The rest of the tracks didn’t need gating, as the bleed wasn’t intrusive and effecting the overall drum sound.