Multiband compression for dummies

Anyone know of a super simple multiband compressor vst? Tried waves C6 quickly but didn’t get a grip on it. Will have another look at it ASAP but wondering if there is something else out there more like Fabfilter pro-q, where I would just select the single frequency and then Adjust the compression settings for that frequency. I have a feeling that waves C6 does this, the UI just overwhelmed me a little on first look. Thanks

If it’s for a single frequency, maybe have a gander at a de-esser. Generally doesn’t give you as much control as a full compressor, but sometimes it’s enough.

Otherwise the C6 looks fairly standard to me. Not sure if you’re likely to find anything much simpler in a multiband comp. I’d highly recommend a quick scan of the manual to see what everything does - its quite well written.

Basic rundown:

The compressor of the far left and right (band 1 & 6) are for your individual frequencies. Pick the required frequency and Q setting (just like an eq) and away you go. Sounds like these are the ones you’re after.

The middle four (bands 2 - 5) are your classic band compressors - the crossover freq sets the boundaries for each band. Q give you the steepness of the roll-off into the next band.

Bypass (BYP) will turn off compression for a given band. So if you only want that one frequency to be compressed, you can turn everything else off.

The different options in the master section (including side chain behaviour) are explained pretty well in the manual.

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Thanks a lot. Yeah, guess I need to just wrap my head around C6. I don’t own it and just had a short try on a friend’s laptop at wknd. Sadly he’s never used it so couldn’t give me a quick walk through. I’ll dig in to the manual and go try it again.
Main reason I need it is I dug my rc 300 looper out and found some old scratchpad ideas I want to use. But a lot of it’s bounced on to one looper track. Recorded really badly/carelessly. One frequency in particular (caused by ehx C9 pedal…) that fluctuates between fine and super loud/piercing through different parts of various loop. I’d just bought that pedal and thought it sounded great at the time…
Guess I could automate a frequency band reduction in Pro-q to get similar result but feel like getting my head round a multiband comp would be useful in general…
Thanks again.

Edit - I have a couple of vst deesers, good shout. Never thought to use them outside of vocals. Will try it out.

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No worries, glad to be of some small help.

Another option is to roll your own de-esser using an eq & compressor. Give you a whole lot more control over the sound.

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If you dig fabfilter, don’t forget the Fabfilter MB. Same familiar ff UI, great multiband comp too!

The idea of multiband anything is very similar to signleband-processing, but everything is just split into frequency range bands with crossovers (ie the bands need to overlap slightly). So first you listen for the freq range you need to work on, set a band for it with appropriate crossover values, and treat the other controls like you would treat a singleband process.

Theoretically, multiband compression is superior to singleband compression, since you can tailor the comp attack/release values differently for each octave, thereby obtaining a better “fit” around the signal. Hope that makes sense.

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Thanks. Yeah I think it was setting/understanding the crossover stuff at same time as using an unfamiliar UI that overwhelmed me. Will try again and also definitely look at the Fabfilter MB :slight_smile: Fan of the FF UI for all things surgical so I prob should have looked there first…

Always liked the look of this one -

https://www.softube.com/index.php?id=drawmers73

Ended up buying iZoptopes Neutron in the sale instead with the intention of learning to master multiband compression.