In our recent article 5 Old But Gold Pro Tools Plugins we referred to a PureMix video in which Greg Wells chose the venerable Focusrite d3 plugin to control the dynamics on a piano part. We commented at the time that however old it is, if it was good enough for Greg then it’s good enough!
In this excerpt from Episode 2 of the "Start to Finish Series, with Greg Wells," we find Greg working on the piano part that he recorded for the song "Lucky Number," which he's producing for singer/songwriter Bryce Drew.
A Limiter Followed By A Compressor
He says the piano part he played was quite dynamic, and the instrument he was playing was on the punchy side. As a result, there are a lot of loud peaks. A piano is an unforgiving instrument and if it compressed inappropriately the effects can be very obvious but Greg makes in interesting point about the difference between natural sounds as heard in the room and how our perception of them changes when we hear them over loudspeakers.
Specifically he says that large changes in level, however dynamic and expressive they might be in the room, sound “amateurish” when heard over speakers. They need controlling, but not so much as to kill the expressive playing.
To achieve this dynamic control he uses the Focusrite d3’s limiter to catch the peaks. A carefully set up limiter should leave the rest of the sound intact, without any unwanted ‘squash’. He follows this with a Neve 33609 compressor plugin for more conventional compression, looking to introduce some tonal colour.
Watch the free video extract to see Greg demonstrate this technique on his, very dynamic, piano part.
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