The Secret Audio Sauce No One Ever Told You About
Tom Buck and acclaimed Audio Engineer Marcus dePaula show you how to get a punchier more direct sound or a smoother more inviting voice by mastering these very simple pro-audio compression tricks. If you're like most content creators, you're probably just turning the knobs until everything sounds right. And like everyone else, you kind of understand the basics of compression—but not really. You know it's something that you should do, but you're not sure why. No one has really shown you the giant impact that mastering compression can have on the content that you create. And no one told you about the secret sauce that takes your audio from just sounding good to sounding pro-level great. Watch as Marcus and Tom give you an easy-to-follow hands-on tutorial that shows you how to master your compression threshold, ratio, attack, release and makeup gain. Chapters: 0:00 Introduction 0:37 Question 1:12 What is compression and why use it? 2:37 Threshold (where) 4:13 Ratio (how hard) 5:08 Attack and Release (when) 7:03 Output or Makeup Gain (what) 7:18 Recap 8:10 Ending Ask the Audio Engineer is the new show brought to you by Earthworks Audio and Marcus dePaula to help make exceptional audio accessible to all content creators by answering your questions about audio and video equipment, software, recording, editing, and troubleshooting. We're here to help you tell better and more impactful stories! Follow Tom Buck at himynameistom.com and subscribe to his YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/@tombuck. Marcus dePaula is an audio engineer who spent the early 2000’s at Clair Global touring with musicians like Jars of Clay, Amy Grant, Creed, and Michelle Branch, and then the past two decades installing professional recording studios, producing podcasts and live streams for clients, and providing consulting services. Equipment and software Marcus used in this video: Earthworks Audio ETHOS broadcast microphone Custom low profile Mogami XLR cable made by Marcus Elgato Wave Mic Arm LP Sound Devices MixPre-6 II Fujifilm X-T4 with Sirui Night Walker 24mm f/1.2 and 7Artisans 25mm f/1.8 Atomos Ninja V monitor recorder Two Neewer 960 bi-color LED video light panels with soft boxes and grids Glidegear TMP100 teleprompter Davinci Resolve Studio 18.5 running on a MacBook Pro 16” 2021 (M1 Pro) with LG Ultrafine 4K display Softube Console 1 channel strip effects with American Class A gate, Chandler Limited Zener-Bender EQ and saturation, British Class A compressor, Weis Deess, Tape saturation, Drawmer S73 and Weiss Gambit Series limiter. iZotope RX 10 Advanced (Voice De-noise, Mouth De-click, Phase rotation, and Loudness Control) and Ozone 10 EQ+Maximizer Melda Production’s free MCompressor was heard only during the demo with no other effects except the Weiss limiter Adam Audio A7V studio monitors on IsoAcoustics ISO-155 stands and Ultimate Ears UE 18+ Pro in-ear monitors Download the free MCompressor plugin Marcus demonstrated in the video at https://www.meldaproduction.com/MCompressor Website: https://earthworksaudio.com/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthworksaudio/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/earthworksaudio Twitter: https://twitter.com/EarthworksAudio
