Calibrating Outboard for Brauerizing / Multi-Bus Compression

[mattlovessos]

This is a question regarding calibrating outboard gear and mixing in the Brauer style, basically resulting from reading these two articles:

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... xing-setup
https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... ael-brauer

Question 1 - calibrating compressors - there are multiple ways to do this, depending on the compressor, is it all the same outcome with regards to these techniques? you can either set the GR to -3db with the meter on the compressor, and use the makeup gain to reach 0, or put the threshold to 0, makeup gain to +3, and increase the threshold til it reaches 0. are both valid for these methods?

next, i want to incorporate into my workflow this 'set and forget' methodology, leaving the compression settings the same for all projects and changing the gain into the comp at a track level in order to effect the compression. i get it this far.
this brings me to the brauer technique, which i want to incorporate as an overarching workflow.

Question 2 - in practise, your tracks are always going to be varying volumes, but these methods above make no mention of adjusting the return gain to compensate the extra volume your sending. so if using the logic i/o do i send +5db to get it register -3db compression, then compensate by reducing -5db on the return gain - or is the idea that once you hit -3db of compression, either by reducing or increasing the gain of what youre sending, youve hit the spot where the track will now conform to rest of the busses, i.e. the output volume of the compressor must be outputting at -18dbs and thus hitting the next bus at -Xdb compression and so forth?

if thats the case, then when youre utilising that technique, then a bus with drum and bass for example, no matter what youve done to the tracks previously, youre going to balance them together, then gain their send til they register -3db on the compressor?

ok thanks for reading, hope that makes sense!

cheers

[James Perrett]

In the first article I got as far as

First, compressor parameters such as attack, release and ratio were set so as to give a great sound as a starting point — and no‑one has since felt the need to change anything.

and decided that it wasn't worth going any further. Set recipes like this simply aren't useful in my opinion.

[Hugh Robjohns]

I agree. If you want to stack compressors in series or parallel to achieve a particular effect for a particular track, go for it. But understand what you are doing and why.

Following someone else's slightly vague memory of a very specific setup for a very specific track probably isn't terribly helpful for your own very different track.

It is work checking the 'calibration' of your compressors, but only in so far as making sure you have unity gain through them with zero GR, and that limiting thresholds are accurate.

But other than that, I'd just set things up as needed on a song by song basis.

[Matt Houghton]

Following someone else's slightly vague memory of a very specific setup for a very specific track probably isn't terribly helpful for your own very different track.

I'd agree with that bit — in that vagueness is no good here. But there's a bit more to 'Brauerizing' than most online articles/tutorials seem to suggest. I wrote a bit about it here. If anyone's at all interested in diving deeper, I'd recommend checking out Brauer's own Q&A on the subject. The link to it in my article is broken because the URL has changed. We'll update that soon, but in the meantime you can access the Q&A directly here. It's not an approach that will appeal to everyone, but it's interesting to try it and get your head around WHY he adopted that approach.

[mattlovessos]

Hey all

Cheers for your replies. I feel I maybe need to clarify what im asking here, as your replies havent addressed the issue exactly. I recognise absolutely the need for different settings in different scenarios, however i have very pragmatic reasons for wanting to use my outboard gear in the manner of brauer and the 1st article, i.e. setting my compressors to 'catch all' settings that will be appropriate for most things, then leaving them there so recalling per project isnt needed.
Like you say in your great article Matt "And if working in the analogue world, it’s a studio assistant’s dream, since all the compressors have the same settings for pretty much every mix: once you’ve recalled the console your job’s almost done!" this is my aim!

so to loop back to my questions, matt in your article you write "Brauer says each compressor typically applies no more than a couple of dB of gain reduction" - so his process is: he's calibrated them, got them to settings he seems to use pretty widespread, where theyre taking off around -2db, and he's ready to go, sending whatever he needs to.

My question is: is he gaining what he's sending to the compressor so that it reacts accordingly, in line with the calibration, reducing the signal by -2db, so he's gained his tracks to hit it basically at roughly -18db, so then back it comes back into the box at roughly unity gain?

thanks!

[Hugh Robjohns]

If the idea is to never touch the compressor controls once set up, then you'll need to make sure you send the right levels from your desk/interface to achieve the nominal 3dB GR.

So yes, you'll need to 'gain your tracks' accordingly during each mix.

To set the compressors up, it's as I said before: first ensure unity gain through each unit with no GR. And then adjust the threshold so that — with normal signal levels going to the compressor — you get your 3dB GR. Then boosting the make-up gain or output control by 3dB will restore unity gain.

[Arpangel]

Unity gain etc, all very well, but I tend to adjust things for what I want, depending, is there enough going in, and is there enough coming out?
Going in is the "vibe" and coming out? all it has to be is loud enough.
I'm talking about creative compression here, but, what Hugh said fits the bill if what you want is minimal transparent utility compression.