Glue compressor before or after clipper?

[synthesized]

I have a drum bus I'd like to "glue." I also want to hard clip some of the transients. Should I use a glue compressor first and a clipper second, or vice versa?

[enroe]

I think the order should be:

1. Compressor,
2. Clipper.

Why? Because the compressor increases the volume and reduces the dynamics
more gently. The clipper, on the other hand, attacks very hard, it cuts off the
peaks harshly. That's why it's better if it works last. It processes the peaks that
the compressor has left behind that are too loud.

However, there may also be situations in which it is advantageous to use the
clipper first.

[kmonkey]

I think the order should be:

1. Compressor,
2. Clipper.

Why? Because the compressor increases the volume and reduces the dynamics
more gently. The clipper, on the other hand, attacks very hard, it cuts off the
peaks harshly. That's why it's better if it works last. It processes the peaks that
the compressor has left behind that are too loud.

However, there may also be situations in which it is advantageous to use the
clipper first.

Exactly!

Also Glue compressor already has a Clipper in the path!

[synthesized]

However, there may also be situations in which it is advantageous to use the
clipper first.

Do you have any good examples of this?

[Opaque]

To me, it seems more logical to use a clipper first, if you have the intention of using it on the drum buss. That way, you shave off all the extra spiky/sharp transients that stick out, and then compress the sound. Otherwise, those sharp, short attacks will trigger the compressor too hard every time, as those are the loudest parts of course. Afterwards, the compressor can actually react more gently and further glue the sound.

Just my opinion, I'm not a professional engineer, but this would be the way if your intention is too clip for a bit of loudness and glue the drum buss.

[legendCNCD]

It depends. Is the Glue making peaks eg. attack fast and too much threshold? Note it also has soft clip in it at output stage.
In mastering if the song is very peaky I'll clip a bit of it before it goes to the compressor if needed, can help the compressor work less and more stable so to say..

[_leras]

Clip first. You can usually remove many transients without affecting the sound.

Without transients the compressor should have a simpler simpler job.

Compress to shape and maybe beef up the sound.

You can always clip again at the end if you wanted to push loudness.


Also you can EQ before (or after) compressing, but before can also help better compressor response.

[WackyZoundz]

Do you want the overtones created by the hard clipper to be affected by the glue compressor?

[_leras]

Do you want the overtones created by the hard clipper to be affected by the glue compressor?

Don't clip that much...?

If clipping really spiky transients (obvious in the wave form), they are usually distorted transient sounds anyway like sharp high hats, cymbals, snares, maybe acoustic guitar initial transients. So im these cases clipping can go fairly unnoticed.

If not clear, I'm only talking about clipping transients to remove spiky peaks.

If there are no spiky peaks then don't clip before the compressor. ( This probably includes many modern drum samples as they'll have already been clipped...)

[WackyZoundz]

Don't clip that much...?

I assume OP wants those overtones, otherwise a transient designer or limiter or even soft clipper would be a better choice when it comes to dealing with transients in a rather transparent way...

[jamcat]

Don't use a clipper. Use an ISP limiter instead, as the last processor.

[ChanceB]

I put a clipper after the drum group compressor but also clip the kick and snare and hats on their own tracks before the drum group and clip again on the master before the final limiter . I guess the correct answer is probably just experiment with it and do whatever you want to get the sound and loudness you want.

[_leras]

Don't use a clipper. Use an ISP limiter instead, as the last processor.

You could use a limiter to clip, but simply clipping is usually fine if you have spiky transients.

Look at the snare example at this link. High hats are also similar in shape.

https://www.soundonsound.com/techniques ... e-easy?amp

If not removed they can sometimes affect how the compressor reacts. For drum bus 'glue' you want the drums signal to come together, removing it necessary spikes will help.

Probably worth adding some compressors are better than others at gluing a drum bus. You can also help by running a parrelel more heavily compressed or saturated channel.

More than on way to skin a cat. I tend to process my drums as a bus but with kick (and sometimes snares/claps) separated out.

[_leras]

Don't clip that much...?

I assume OP wants those overtones, otherwise a transient designer or limiter or even soft clipper would be a better choice when it comes to dealing with transients in a rather transparent way...

If you have a high hat track, you can hear what happens and how much you can clip quite easily.

Keep raising the volume until you are clipping the channel and getting overs.

You might be surprised how much you can get away with for high hats and snares - especially if the recording or samples are not already clipped and processed.

[WackyZoundz]

You might be surprised how much you can get away with for high hats and snares - especially if the recording or samples are not already clipped and processed.

That's true. But realistically - how large are the transients of hi-hats/cymbals/etc compared to those of kicks and snares? It's usually the latter which reaches the clipper threshold first, long before the cymbals do...