I’ve been working with compressors for well over two years now and while at first I generally used to avoid using multi-bands because of the more trained ear it required, I’ve recently been looking more into using Waves’ Linear Phase MultiBand processor. Not only because of the improved sound quality due to the linear phase crossovers, but also because I’ve been starting to listen more critically to the effect the C1 had on percussive instruments, such as a kick and snare.
The thing with regular compressors is that all frequencies are compressed similarly, making these percussive sounds sound dull and artificial, because the higher frequency transients of, say, a snare are squashed just as much as the lower frequencies. So I turned to using multi-band compression in order to apply less compression to the higher frequencies of a snare, only I have yet to come across an online article stating its use on individual instruments rather than on a full mix. So does anyone know if this is actually common practise in professional studios? I’ve always thought so anyway.
In Waves’ LinMB guide it states that the benefits of splitting the signal before compression are that it eliminates inter modulations between bands, as well as gain riding between different frequency bands. I understand how the latter would be useful when compressing a full mix, so for example that the kick doesn’t have the effect of pulling down the hihats with it, but I’m not quite sure what is meant with inter modulations. Does anyone have any ideas? And do other people use multi-band compression on individual instruments as well for this type of reason?