#125: What is Parallel Compression in Logic Pro X? Three Compression Settings for Vocals

Have you ever found yourself wondering about parallel compression pre and post-fader? Maybe you want to parallel compress vocals or learn more about parallel compression in Logic Pro or even just what is parallel compression. Then check out EP 125 of the Inside The Mix podcast.

Crack the code of parallel compression in vocals as I pull back the curtain on one of music production's most powerful techniques. With 15 years of mixing, mastering, and songwriting under my belt, I'm about to transform your vocal tracks from flat to fantastically dynamic. This episode is a treasure trove for audio enthusiasts, as I demonstrate the secrets to achieving that punchy, cohesive sound using Logic Pro on my own music. Whether you're a bedroom producer or a seasoned sound engineer, you'll discover how to fine-tune compression settings for vocals that command attention, all while preserving the natural ebb and flow of the performance.

Prepare to be enlightened on the subtleties of vocal EQ, and the pivotal role of signal routing, as I explore pre-fader and post-fader auxiliary sends in Logic Pro. You'll gain practical knowledge on enhancing vocal presence and ensuring your tracks stand out in the final mix, without overwhelming your CPU. Listen in and let your creativity soar as I break down the complexities of parallel compression, right down to the last detail. Plus, I'll touch on how this impacts the rest of your mix, giving you the full picture of how to harness the power of compression across your entire production. Don't miss out on elevating your music to professional standards – this is one episode that will leave your tracks sounding better than ever.

Submit a music production or mixing question and feature on the podcast: https://www.speakpipe.com/InsideTheMixPodcast

Listen to Let You Go on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/track/6GqJSdal2g9olwR0I2F7Pb?si=4b51530f7bd84420

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:01

You're listening to the Inside the Mix podcast with your host, Mark Matthews.

Speaker 2: 0:06

Hello and welcome to the Inside the Mix podcast. I'm Mark Matthews, your host, musician, producer and mix and mastering engineer. You've come to the right place if you want to know more about your favorite synth music artists, music engineering and production, songwriting and the music industry. I've been writing, producing, mixing and mastering music for over 15 years and I want to share what I've learned with you. Hello, folks, and welcome back to the Inside the Mix podcast. As always, if you are a new listener, make sure you hit that follow button on your podcast player of choice and if you're listening to this on YouTube, make sure you hit subscribe and that notification bell so you get notified anytime a new episode drops, which is weekly on a Tuesday.

Speaker 2: 0:47

I don't know what it's like where you are, but it's absolutely Baltic. Here in the UK it is so cold at the moment of me the point of me recording this podcast episode so I've spent most of my time in the studio because I got it's a small room and I've got one radiator and it's lovely and warm. But when I go home, it's a property that's pre 1900 and it's got central heating and double glazing and whatnot. Energy efficiency rating of C actually, but my God, does it take a while to heat up. So it's given me an excuse to spend most of my time in the studio Not that I need it, but, yeah, absolutely cold at the moment, but hopefully, at the point of this episode going live, it will love a warmed up. So the first couple weeks of January I've dedicated to improving the Synth Music Mastering website and if you check it out, I'll put a link in the episode show notes. You'll see there is now a dedicated inside the Mix podcast page and also, importantly, new for 2024 is a free test master to new artists going through the Synth Music Mastering website. So at the point of this episode going live, if you would like to hear what your music would sound like with a professional mastering, head over to synth music masteringcom, if I can say it correctly, and take advantage of the free test master folks.

Speaker 2: 1:58

So in this episode we're continuing this new episode format where you, the listener, submit a music production question. So your question will then be answered in the episode to this episode, because I want you, the listener, to be involved in the episode creation process. Plus, you can give yourself a little shout out. So all you need to do is submit an audio message via speak pipe using the link in the episode description or, if audio isn't your thing, send me a DM on Instagram at inside the Mix podcast, or email inside the Mix podcast at gmailcom, and remember to include a link to where our audience can find you online in your audio or your message. So the question in this episode was submitted by rogue effects and inside the Mix podcast. Alumni been on the podcast a few times now and also submitted a previous question. So if you want to learn more about rogue effects, check out Instagram. Rogue ethics underscore retro wave.

Speaker 2: 2:57

So his question is as follows. Just had a question that you may know the answer to, as I can't have a track in two groups in Cubasis, if I were to mirror the group and duplicate a lead vocal track in the new group with the same configuration apart from a higher or lower compression to the main group would then run both vocals given the same effect as parallel compression. Would you think so? One vox strong compression and one light compression. So from that what I can gather is if we were to duplicate the vocal track and then compress it and then blend it in with the original vocal track, would that create a former parallel compression. So let's give it a go.

Speaker 2: 3:37

But first, what is parallel compression? So, essentially, imagine you've got two parallel lines okay, two identical lines side by side, vertical. Now transpose that into your DAW. So we've got two identical tracks sitting side by side and this technique, also known as New York compression, parallel compression, new York compression so it started in the 1970s and the idea was you could use it to add punch to drums, for example. So basically, you are sending the output from one track to an auxiliary send, or you could duplicate the track as I just described, and then you blend that in with the original. But the duplicated track or the auxiliary send is the track that is going to have the compression on it. And remember, with compression what we're trying to do is make the softer passages perceived to be louder and at the same time we are trimming those peaks, so to speak. That's more of a limiter really. I mean a compressor when you put it to 10, to 1 or above really does turn into a limiter anyway.

Speaker 2: 4:37

But that, in essence, is what parallel compression is, and we're going to use it today on vocals, so how we can make a vocal just sound that bit bigger as well. It can also be used for glue as well. So if you've got a kick in a bass drum, you can use it to glue those two elements together. So you've got your drums and then they're not just quite sitting right. You want that kick in that bass to really hit hard. You could send it out to an auxiliary send and use parallel compression. I'm waffling now, but that, in essence, is parallel compression. Okay, folks.

Speaker 2: 5:07

So let's start with number one, and in this one what we're going to do is we're going to duplicate the vocal track and then we're going to compress it and then blend it in. So let's give it a go. So here we are in Logic Pro and we are in the session for my song Alive, which featured on my EP Lost and Found, which came out just before Christmas. Christmas is just gone and I have my lead vocal track here and I'm in the chorus section and I've duplicated this vocal track and I've option dragged the audio region down. So I've literally just got a duplicated track with the audio, no processing whatsoever, just top and tailed this, these audio regions. And on this parallel compression track I've got a compressor and an EQ, and I'll go through the EQ in a minute If I open the compressor, I'm using the Logic Pro compressor, so I'm only using Logic Pro plugins here.

Speaker 2: 5:53

And I'm using the Studio FET because I like the transistor style compressor in this instance because I want it to be fast, acting right. So it's parallel compression. So I'll go through the settings I have. I've got the threshold set at minus 28 dB, so this is giving me around minus 10 dB in gain reduction. I've got a ratio of 4 to 1, pretty moderate medium style ratio. The makeup gain is set to 8.5 dB, so that's compensating for the gain reduction.

Speaker 2: 6:21

And then I've got my attack. Well, it says 29 milliseconds, so that's timed to the bpm of the track. So it's quite fast. It's going to clamp down on any sort of quick loud sections of this vocal, not that there are many. And then I've got this release set at 240 milliseconds because I want it to not pump. I don't want audible pumping in this, in this vocal. I want it to breathe with the track. I don't like using auto on the gain compensation or the release, to be honest. But you can do. And let's have a listen to it with the compressor bypassed and see what we have.

Speaker 1: 6:57

I'm feeling high by the side, our soul's in line.

Speaker 2: 7:01

And I'm gonna play it with the compressor.

Speaker 1: 7:04

I'm feeling high by the side, our soul's in line.

Speaker 2: 7:08

I think, overall much more controlled performance. But it is quite subtle. I just wanna make it apparent as well why I've used Makeup Gain for the gain compensation. It's because that Makeup Gain will take effect before we hit the mix output and then the output gain is gonna control the overall output level, as it were, post mix knob. Okay, so you could really push the Makeup Gain if you wanna do really really push it, and then, to stop it going into any nasty distortion, you could then adjust the output gain. But I'm not gonna do that in this instance. So next, what we're gonna do is this I'm gonna reduce the fader on the parallel compression track, I'm gonna unsolo it and then I'm gonna play the lead vocal track and gradually bring in the parallel compression and let's give it a go.

Speaker 1: 7:55

Feeling high by the side, our soul's in line. Feeling high by the side, our soul's in line.

Speaker 2: 8:04

So that's about minus 11.6. And I just wanna say there are some artifacts in this recording. My apologies, it's quite raw, so I'm gonna play it now with the parallel compression and then I gotta take it away, so you can hear the difference.

Speaker 1: 8:18

Feeling high by the side, our soul's in line. Feeling high by the side, our soul's in line.

Speaker 2: 8:27

So hopefully you can hear the difference there. It's much more powerful with the parallel compression and once again that'll become more evident when you listen to quieter sections. But remember, when we're compressing we're reducing dynamic range, to be wary. So another thing I have on this parallel compression track is an EQ and I'm rolling off low end with a six DB slope, a first order slope of about 100 Hertz. Then I'm rolling off any of the top end at around 18 kilohertz, once again with a first order slope, and then I'm boosting around the presence frequency of the vocal by about 1.5 DB and then I'm just adding a bit of air air quotes at 12 kilohertz with one DB as well. So I'm gonna put that in now and then I'm gonna play it without the parallel compression track, with the compression in the EQ, and then I'm gonna bring it in.

Speaker 1: 9:15

That's without.

Speaker 2: 9:16

And then this is with Just sounds, a bit bigger, more presence, and in the context of the mix it would definitely work. But there are a few downsides to this approach, one being this you would have to duplicate a track for every track that you wanted to do this on. So you can imagine you have drums and you wanted to do parallel compression for a drum group. You'd have to duplicate each drum and then it would have individual processing. It'd increase processing power and it would just suck your CPU. I mean, you could bounce the audio in place and then copy it across from the original track, but that gets quite cumbersome. I think if you're doing it in one instance like this, where it's just a single track in isolation, then it's okay. But as soon as the project gets bigger, you wanna use more parallel compression, more processing power. I think you can get quite cumbersome. And that leads on nicely to our next one, which is gonna be using auxiliary sends and doing the same thing. So let's give it a go. So here we go.

Speaker 2: 10:11

What I've done here is I've created an auxiliary send and I've literally just copied across the exact same compressor. So I've option, dragged the compressor across to this auxiliary send and the EQ as well. But I've bypassed the EQ and on my lead vocal track here I've got a send going out to this Vox parallel compressor and it's in pre-fader send. Now this is important because what that means is any level changes I make to this fader it's not going to affect the settings in my compressor. Ultimately, it's not going to affect the gain reduction in my compressor. So show what I mean. I've got the compressor on here and I'm going to play it and I'm gonna reduce the fader on that lead vocal and it won't affect the gain reduction in this compressor.

Speaker 1: 10:57

Feel the high way inside our soul's aligned.

Speaker 2: 11:00

Okay, so I dragged that all the way down to zero and it didn't affect it. Now I'm gonna put it into post fader. You could do post pan. I'm gonna put it into post fader. I'll set it back to zero. I'll do the same again and you'll see what I mean and you'll hear what I mean.

Speaker 1: 11:13

Feel the high way inside our soul's aligned. Feel the high way inside.

Speaker 2: 11:21

Okay, because it's post fader. Any fade of movements are then affecting the signal, going to that auxiliary send and thus affecting the settings that I've made. So I've put it in pre-fader and I do this when I'm doing any sort of auxiliary send, processing like this, anything with dynamic. So let's do the same again. I'm going to turn on the EQ, I'm going to have the exact same settings as before, I'm going to set my original fader for my track to zero, I'm going to unsolo the parallel compression and I am going to drag it down and then gradually bring it in alongside Parallel lines remember folks, alongside my original vocal. And there we go pretty much exactly the same as before, but this time we're using an auxiliary send. The benefits of doing it this way is that if you have more than one track, you can send it to this auxiliary send, for example, drums. I'm going with that idea again. So a classic one would be a kick and a snare. You send it to the same auxiliary send and you can glue the two together using parallel compression or a whole vocal track, for example, or vocal group rather not vocal track. Also, what you can do with this as well, and you can do this with the first option is automate the fader level. So if you ever want to automate the fader level of an auxiliary send, what you need to do is right click in the label for that auxiliary send in the mixer window and click on create track, and what that would do is in the main timeline. Here you'll see and I'll describe it to you. I've now got a vox PC, my parallel compression track in my main timeline window and if I press A, I can now see the automation lane for it. So you can automate the level of the parallel compression using an auxiliary send, and you can also do it as well. In the first option I showed you where you duplicate the track. So that's the second one that's using an auxiliary send and the next one is going to be using a plugin on the main track itself.

Speaker 2: 13:27

Let's do it. So this was really straightforward. All I'm going to do is option drag my compressor across to my main vocal track and I'll leave the EQ where it is. I'm going to turn off that send because I don't need it. And here are the settings same as before. But this time I'm going to control the amount using or amount of parallel compression using the mixed style knob in the plugin window. So I'm going to drag it down to zero and then press play. So that's about 75%. So all I'm doing there is I've got the exact same settings and then I'm just controlling the amount of compression using that input output dial there and in fact then what I could do off the back of that. I could then boost that signal if I wanted to make it even louder at the main output using the output gain. So I might actually turn that up to about 1.5, and let's say how that sounds.

Speaker 2: 14:33

And then this is without.

Speaker 2: 14:37

So, there we go. Really easy to do. You're literally using that mixed style there to blend in the wet and the dry signal. So much like we did before with the auxiliary send and the duplicated track. We've got our dry lead vocal and then we're blending in that wet compressed signal in parallel to it, parallel compression, new York compression, right. So really easy to do and also much like you can do with the other two options. You can automate that mix knob so you might find that when you get to the chorus, for example, you just boost that parallel, that compressed sound, just to make it sound a bit stronger, a bit bigger.

Speaker 2: 15:14

Personally, my favorite out of the three is to have an auxiliary send and control parallel compression that way, rather than use a plug-in and the mix knob or duplicate the track. So there we go, folks, three examples of how you can use parallel compression. So the first one duplicate the track. But you will have to duplicate every track that you want and you'll also have to at least double up on your processing, because any processing you apply to the original you then have to do to the second as well. That's not hard and fast rule, you don't have to do that, but in essence, you are going to be increasing processing power. You then have the auxiliary send benefits of that reducing processing power and we can send more than one instrument to that auxiliary send and we can perform a sort of glue, if you will. Then, and also, remember, I did show you and I found out in recording this episode that you can automate auxiliary send levels as in the actual fader level, not the send from the track to the auxiliary channel, but the actual level of the auxiliary send itself.

Speaker 2: 16:15

And then we have the third, which is to put the compressor actually on the track itself and use the mix knob to dial in how much of that compressor we want in our track. But remember that then means we cannot send another instrument to that. I mean, you got sidechain compression, but that's a totally different tutorial in itself. So three different types. Pick your poison, remember this is an advice buffet, so pick the one that works for you and let me know your thoughts in the comments or shoot me a message at inside the mix podcast on Instagram.

Speaker 2: 16:44

So before I go, folks, a couple episodes of the podcast that might be interesting to you based on what we've been through today. Episode 105, exploring retro wave, synth pop and vocal production techniques and episode 81, compression basics explained. And if you would like to be like my friend rogufx and you have a burning music production or mixing question, please do submit an audio message via speak pipe using the link in the episode description or, if audio isn't your thing, send me a DM on Instagram at inside the mix podcast or email me inside the mix podcast at gmailcom and remember to include a link to where our audience can find you. I cannot wait to have more of your questions on the podcast.