This question is directed more towards mastering on ES. I spend too much time on my hi-hats trying to find the right levels of my highs and lows, and from what i understand, compressing the song is supposed to fix these problems right? But I’ve only been able to use the effects on individual tracks. If I can have more effects/edits to apply when I’m done, rather than throughout, I can be more productive and focus on whats really important… the music. But finding the right balance of highs and lows are equally important. So, how can I compress an entire song and is that the correct way to use it? Also, what else should be added to a “finished” song to make it sound complete?

When you say hi’s & lo’s on your hi hats are you refering to EQ or volume?? Compression is designed to reduce strong peaks in the voice or overall mix. This balances the soft passages with the strong ones so the dynamic difference is reduced. USE COMPRESSION carefully. Today too many overcompress loosing dynamics in songs. Before using compression, get your EQ & volumes mixed the best you can.

Overall compression in Master Effects should be done last. Use it sparingly. You have 3 bands of compression: Lo, mid & hi. You can adjust the overall amount of compression by setting the threshold (it actually tells the compressor when to kick in) and then boost or reduce each of the 3 frequency bands to your liking. USE YOUR EARS. They are the best tool you have.

Bad mister has devoted some good posts to this subject. Do a search on compression in the archives.

Hope this helps.

Pete

Master EQ is also a good tool for final mastering.

Great, but can u tell me how to initialize these effects? Like I said I have no problem applying these to individual tracks, (although using it properly might take a little more research), but I have no idea how to apply it to all tracks at once, or how to apply it to the WHOLE song when I’m done.

See this thread in the Archives on Multi-Band Compressor

More on using the Multi Band Compressor

I don’t think we’re realizing how much of a rookie question this really is, I’ll break it down some more and hope yall have enough patience for one more response! To create an effect from pattern mode I go to mixing, voice edit, effects… in the middle of all thes effects I see a compressor which allows me to compress that TRACK. What I want to know is how I can use the compressor for the WHOLE song. I tried saving it as a wav. file to put it all on one track and then add compression, but the voice edit function then is no longer available. I checked those links yall reffered me to but there were no instrucions on this.

If you want to put compressor to your finished (resampled) material stored as WAV, I could suggest you to do this:

1. If you already use Master Effect (Multiband Compressor),
turn it off before resampling.
2. Load your resampled WAV file to your DAW.
3. Use some Mastering software. I could recommend you Yamaha’s
Final Master. It has very good presets and final result is
very satisfactory. Also, IK Multimedia T-RackS is highly
recommendable, since it has a powerful compressors
(analog age replicas used in pro studios).

Alex

I’ve notice some software compressors on my computer but I was hoping I could get the hang of the motif’s compressor… one reason being that my computer shuts down for no obvious reason, I think it’s a problem with my interface driver. But from one of these links I opened it looks like I need to use the master effects… I guess thats a start. I’ll play with it and check out the manual again when I get home.

I did answer your question in my first post. In the 2nd paragraph I mentioned the Master Effects multi (3) band compressor. This is for the whole mix, not the individual tracks. Use this along with Master EQ to master your final mix working from your keyboard.

Pete

Re read Badmister’s link to compression. You will probably get more out of it the 2nd time around.

I had to break out the manual to figure it out but I finally got it! I had never used a master effect and had no idea how to get to it… but you definitely set me off in the right direction. Thanks