Bus Compression / Group Compression

[Henry-S]

Well thankfully now my SSL plugs have been authorised I can use them.

But one question that I'm not really sure on and just trying to see what others do and if my way is wrong or could be streamlined to make mixing easier. When attacking a mix I will usually group things together so I am not mixing some 40 track monster. I will send tracks to buses for example

Verse Vocals and Verse Vocals DT to a bus called VVocals

I can then obviously set the levels for the Vocal/VocalDT on their own faders + apply compression/eq and then use the Verse Vocal Bus to control the overall volume levels and automate where appropriate. Now to me this seems a good way to do it but the problem I have is understanding about Compression and EQ over this bus. I think this is mainly due to my fear of crushing vocals and not being a singer!

On guitars I will have a single and double track, EQ and compress the seperate tracks (IF NEEDED!) and then send to a bus and then again if needed apply an EQ to that bus, usually just to tighten up. It seems to work well with guitars and I have now started to think about doing this with vocals (really to make mixing faster and easier to manage)... but maybe its just me but distorted guitars seem to be able to cope with this method more than vocals.

I understand that a compressor inserted on the seperate track will behave totally different to the compressor inserted on the bus as the bus will be receiving two vocals... but should I be afraid to use a very subtle compressor/eq to help glue the parts together?

Any thoughts would be great.

[StuartBallingall]

I've always found that a few stages of subtle compression are better than lumping it all on in one place.

I will (generally) have compressors on

Channels, Busses, (vocal buss, instrument buss, drum and bass buss) and Master buss

I'm only taking 2-3 db at each stage, with maybe harder compression on channels if needed.

Dont be afraid to experiment, use your ears, whats the worst that can happen?

[The Elf]

Don’t be at all afraid! I’ll often have some light compression on the individual tracks, along with separate de-essers, but I share compression (and EQ) on the group; it makes the two (or more) signals support each other and helps to keep the DT effect more consistent.

[Zukan]

I use group compression when I have like for like sounds and want to gel them together.