Reduce dynamics without compressors

[bencuri]

I am heavily dependant on compressors for my guitar playing. I use them as a kind of "Touch Sensitivity Switch Off". You can say it is not the proper approach, but while I don't need this when playing bass, it improves my solo guitar playing quite much.

The problem is compressors might have certain side- and artifacts. At one instance, however, when I was not very experienced about compression, I solved dynamic problems with my recording in a way that I opened the recorded guitar track in Spectralayers pro, went note by note, listened for where the note was too loud or too silent, I selected that note with the Time Selection Tool, and adjusted the volume. Many years have passed since then, I have several compressor pedals and plugins now, learnt a lot about using them, but still up to this day that recording modified manually is far more superior in quality than any other tracks I processed with compression. That guitar track sounds more natural and pleasant, yet its dynamics are perfectly regulated, it sits wonderfully in the mix.

This made me wonder: isn't there a plugin that works the same way to my method? Companies come up with so many innovative stuff recently, I wonder if anything like that is available?

[Fannon]

Not an expert, but compressors that run live (pedal, VST) cannot look into the future. They need a live trigger point and the settings already need to be set how the volume will be shaped. When you manually adjust the volumes of the notes after you recorded them, you have a very different situation and can change a notes volume in its entirety and you can do it differently for each note.

And what you want to do (dynamically adjust the volume) is basically the definition of a compressor.

Since you already have some manually edited tracks: You could keep the original version and the manually edited one side by side and then try in the DAW to get as close as possible to the desired result. You can bounce / analyze the results and compare visually, too. Maybe that helps to learn which compressor and which settings come at least closest?

[bencuri]

You are right about that but according to my recent understanding compressors can only mimic what I can do manually. So actually yes, the aim of compression is what I am trying to do myself, but as I know (and I am not an expert) they can only get close to it but cannot solve the problem that 'precisely' so to say. So what you get from compressors is a kind of 'averaged' result.

I know that compressors cannot look into the future in real time, but there are plugins that have lookahead, and I use them real time as well, they are quite much on time. And there is AI now and technology is advancing, I wondered if they can achieve what I mentioned during that short time that is available for the lookahead I am referring to. This could be one possibility for example. The other could be editing after recording. That would still be useful, because in spite of that the aim of compressors is what I do manually, but as I mentioned they are not that precise. So that's why having something that saves me time and can do the manual work instead of me would also be useful. For example in Spectralayers Pro, a kind of 'brightness detection', to be able to define which brightness to look for at a time segment and define a db level to adjust to.

I was just thinking about whether such technologies already exist. Because those could achieve a more precise result than compressors. Of course it depends on you what your goal is, but for certain tasks it would be useful. If you want to get a tone for Country picking, of course you need the traditional compressor pedal. But I am talking about a different case here.

[lfm]

Waves has a voice plugin Vocal Rider that generate volume automation instead of what compressors do.
- that sounds pretty much like what you are after

https://www.waves.com/plugins/vocal-rider

There are probably more brands and plugins that use similar approach.

Since you still have to have reaction times(attack) and knee how to transgress to actual compression the right compressor with the adjusting the knee as well can work.
- so attack, knee, and release fully customizable, as ratio and threshold of course
- I think Image Line has a plugin with custom knee on a compressor

Or some transient designer plugin whatever they are called.
https://www.waves.com/plugins/transx

Combine transient stuff with compressor/limiter maybe.

[Songwriter101]

I'm a big fan of adjusting the release times to the tempo of the track. It makes the compressors almost inaudible. Doesn't make sense with drums and sounds with short transients but melodic stuff reacts well to a compressor which works with the rhythm and tempo of a track. Worth a try. Don't forget to add enough makeup gain, a tad more than you think to get an even sound.

[BertKoor]

An overdriven guitar amp will deliver the max volume it can produce, since it's clipping. So there is less volume difference, in exchange for difference in amount of distortion.

It has to be said though: you need to practice playing. With more experience you get more control over your tone and volume.

[Funky40]

........went note by note, listened for where the note was too loud or too silent,......

to me, there´s a question open here: what is your reference for "too loud" ?
is it a fixed volume threshold, or is "the musicality in the context" the measure ?....sounds to me a bit like the latter was the case.

A possible tool you could look at is from "playfair", dynamic grading.
https://playfair-audio.com/
ilok based. They have sales. But not right now.

I was just thinking about whether such technologies already exist.

i don´t think it´s the right tool here in this case, but you could check out "Zip" from unfiltered audio too. It has settings to set the threshold in relation to totally different parameters other than volume. For example brightness. This might be fun for some funky experiments, though.
sometimes available for $29, or even way lower, at plugin alliance.

[mjolnir]

you might want to experiment with Transient Shapers also.

[_leras]

. At one instance, however, when I was not very experienced about compression, I solved dynamic problems with my recording in a way that I opened the recorded guitar track in Spectralayers pro, went note by note, listened for where the note was too loud or too silent, I selected that note with the Time Selection Tool, and adjusted the volume. Many years have passed since then, I have several compressor pedals and plugins now, learnt a lot about using them, but still up to this day that recording modified manually is far more superior in quality than any other tracks I processed with compression. That guitar track sounds more natural and pleasant, yet its dynamics are perfectly regulated, it sits wonderfully in the mix.

This approach yields great results as you can get your volume levelled how you want it. This works great for vocals too.

I'd also say it's step one, general volume levelling.

Compression is a different beast, especially when you have attack and release times. I'd say it can be thought of more a a per note volume adjustment. Can be used just to squash and add volume, but better used if you're trying to get it to sit in the mix such that the dynamics work well.

[Boone777]

MSpectralDynamics I think could work.

[BERESHIT]

saturation, limiters, transient desiger, experiment

[rackrack22]

Melodyne could work. You can edit individual notes or segments in Meodyne in a similar way to what you described. One big benefit is that you could do this polyphonically, which is pretty cool. It can be destructive depending on what you're doing, but I'd try it out if you have the chance. Or you can use a simple gain plugin and just zoooooooom right on in to each note.

[andivax]

I am heavily dependant on compressors for my guitar playing. I use them as a kind of "Touch Sensitivity Switch Off". You can say it is not the proper approach, but while I don't need this when playing bass, it improves my solo guitar playing quite much.

The problem is compressors might have certain side- and artifacts. At one instance, however, when I was not very experienced about compression, I solved dynamic problems with my recording in a way that I opened the recorded guitar track in Spectralayers pro, went note by note, listened for where the note was too loud or too silent, I selected that note with the Time Selection Tool, and adjusted the volume. Many years have passed since then, I have several compressor pedals and plugins now, learnt a lot about using them, but still up to this day that recording modified manually is far more superior in quality than any other tracks I processed with compression. That guitar track sounds more natural and pleasant, yet its dynamics are perfectly regulated, it sits wonderfully in the mix.

This made me wonder: isn't there a plugin that works the same way to my method? Companies come up with so many innovative stuff recently, I wonder if anything like that is available?

if your goal is to tame the dynamics so it should be easy.
1) decrease attack 1-3 ms will be ok
2) setup threshold

by the way you can use some "special" compressors like PSP DRC so it will decrease noise and rise or compress your guitar peaks.

[lwj]

Sounds to me like you shouldn’t be looking at compressors and stuff like that, but rather at ways to do that kind of manual editing in a more efficient, maybe automated way.

Compression is really more about changing the way a sound hits (shaping transients, bringing up tails), not so much the volume. The artifacts are the point.

Maybe experiment with something like a peak controller automating a volume fader, then recording the automation curve and look at editing that in some clever way.

[Clearscreen]

Have you tried parallel compression here? Effectively brings the quieter parts up to the louder parts if done correctly, without killing transients from the original signal. Worth a try.