Welcome to Essentials: Compression
Dynamics are fundamental when recording and mixing music, with Compression the essential tool at the heart of dynamic control. Whether you want treatments for individual tracks, groups of related sounds or a solution for the output stage of your mix, this course will take you inside a huge range of dynamics-led, musical scenarios.
The Course
Alongside EQ for tone control, Compression is the sound-shaping tool you'll find on every channel of classic mixing consoles, giving a firm indication as to how fundamental Dynamics processing is when it comes to shaping the individual and grouped sounds within your mix.
Whether you're looking to add emphasis to kick drums or snares, or tame the whole of a multitrack drum mix, nothing provides mix glue quite like compression. Perhaps you're looking for a way to add power to a lead vocal, or to tame the rangy, unwieldy dynamic range of a bassline.
Or maybe your mix is already more fully developed and what's needed is a freqeuncy-dependent controller at the output stage, where the low end of a mix requires independent dynamics consideration to the upper frequency content. Capable of treatments so subtle they're almost subliminal, through to special-effects dynamic shaping which reinvents sounds completely, compression is ready to respond.
- Learn how dynamics control can add more presence to sounds
- Look carefully at compressor parameters, to learn how they relate to dynamics shaping
- Discover how dynamics and tone-shaping controls are inter-connected
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Use compression to add confidence and extra power at every step of the mix process
What you will learn
When producers and mix engineers talk about 'volume' and 'dynamics', they're talking about different concepts and, on this course, we're going to explore those differences. I'll show you all of the parameters which compressors offer, explaining - in depth - what each does and how it has the potential to shape a compressor's response to any source.
We'll soon learn that compressors can target different 'stages' of a sound's evolution, either aggressively seeking to tame transient peaks, or even out the dynamic shape of decay stages of sounds, no matter how long and sustained, or short and transient.
Essentials: Compression will take you inside a wide range of musical examples to let you hear how compressors can help tame sounds gently, or far more significantly affect their behaviour and shape.
- Fully understand compression parameters including Threshold, Ratio, Attack, Release, Knee and Make-Up Gain
- Discover the differences between Compression, Expansion and Limiting
- Learn the nuances of classic compressors, discovering why their designs have remained so popular
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Explore parallel compression, alongside using internal and external side-chaining techniques
Curriculum
Save When You Get the Collection
Save money when you buy the Essentials Complete Collection of deep-dive courses which explore the full toolkit of professional production. You'll learn how to shape tone and balance with EQ and compression, craft irresistible rhythmic energy, master gain staging, volume and understand pitch relationships that define melody, harmony, and mix cohesion.
The collection includes Essentials: EQ, Essentials: Compression, Essentials: Rhythm and Groove, Essentials: Pitch and Essentials: Volume Management.
Essential
Punchy, well-balanced mixes need compression - it stands alongside EQ as a fundamental audio processing technique.
Step-By-Step
Experience a carefully curated set of musical examples to bring the magic of compression to life.
Comprehensive
Understand how compression can be applied to individual sounds, groups and full final mixes.
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Your Instructor
I’m Jono Buchanan. I’m a composer and producer specialising in music for TV and Production Music. I write extensively for some of the largest broadcasters around the world, having also worked on films, documentaries, composed for sports broadcasts and much more besides. I’ve always been a huge fan of electronic dance music too and in the early to mid 2000s, worked as a producer of remixes for some of the biggest pop acts of the day, including Whitney Houston, Pet Shop Boys, Shania Twain and LeAnn Rimes.
I have been a visiting lecturer at London’s prestigious Guildhall School of Music & Drama for 25 years. Despite a busy life as a media composer, I’ve never been able to stop myself wanting to teach - I love seeing creativity unlocked in anyone who wants to learn more. For me, the mix of composing, producing and being fascinated by developments in music technology have all developed side-by-side.
YouTube has provided a platform to offer free Logic Pro instruction and on the Jono Buchanan Music channel, a new longer-form video and a Short are posted every week. My Teachable courses will let you take your knowledge deeper, as they're all designed to allow you to unlock your creativity in a more immersive and focused way.
- Learn from a Guildhall School of Music & Drama Professor with 25 years’ experience
- Jono’s extensive experience as a media composer is central to this course
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Immersive, focused teaching