Be gentle with compression

Compression is routinely added by many artists to their home recordings to make the track sound more balanced.

It allows you to ensure the resulting song sounds smooth and even, so that a voice or instrument maintains a consistent volume throughout.

After all, it's very easy for a vocalist to move their head away from a mic when they are recording so a few words end up less clear and distinct than others.

However, many producers and home musicians struggle to use compression properly and end up making a track sound sterile and processed.

With this in mind, be gentle and restrained if you plan to compress a signal, as you want it to sound natural and constant.

If you do this well, you should hopefully find mixing your song a relatively painless process.

But if you do it badly, it will show and the results can end up putting off prospective listeners.

Product category: Home recording studio