Compression

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
from third:

the changing role of the audio compressor in the nuum. it's almost as if the nuum required sound to be made even more lo definition (/punchier?) than what was technically possible at the time.
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
i spoke before about "third world compression", a certain signifier that screams "this isn't a rich country":



arab tv has this too i think.

a dying sound with the computer-led democratisation of production value
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member

on the dad psychedelia thread i though that maybe this hyper compressed sound also reflected that universal hum you get on drugs. the universe electircally charged. "i'm buzzing".
 

sadmanbarty

Well-known member
compression was crucial in allowing diva vocals to go all cosmic and mother nature goddess-ish during the rave era.


 

version

Well-known member
I think Actress' sound was a watershed moment for a lot of people in the 'nuum sort of space. Nobody was using that sort of sidechain compression to the extent he was then that greyscale, heavily-compressed thing started popping up all over the place.


 
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thirdform

pass the sick bucket
to be fair I was thinking more of the oldskool dynamics compressor not the new sidechain ones but yeah. if you listen to those oldskool kiss fm tapes from randall you can really hear the ambient jungle coming to life. like a greyscale yet euphoric inner city ambient. Burial didn't really hit those heights for me. it's about squashing jungles euphoria/sophistication dynamics into FM/AM radio quality. there's something magic there that can't really be recreated through coceptualism, you just have to do it via trial and error till it sounds right.

If you have foobar 2000 it comes with a configurable dynamics compressor. sometimes when my ears are exhausted or I want to listen to old turkish aunt music I wack it on. really opens up a previous but forgotten dimension
 

version

Well-known member
to be fair I was thinking more of the oldskool dynamics compressor not the new sidechain ones but yeah. if you listen to those oldskool kiss fm tapes from randall you can really hear the ambient jungle coming to life. like a greyscale yet euphoric inner city ambient. Burial didn't really hit those heights for me. it's about squashing jungles euphoria/sophistication dynamics into FM/AM radio quality. there's something magic there that can't really be recreated through coceptualism, you just have to do it via trial and error till it sounds right.

Actress goes on about radio.

"When I switch to more off-radar radio stations, it's for a different thing — it's like a sort of resistance to listening to the music that's not on a stay-able frequency, so you have to align with the frequency but also engage somehow with the music. I like that sort of level of interference, and this is why I like artists who go into that area of static and subtle noise, spectral noise, ambience and whatever. It’s just funny at times, because you'll try and tune it and this classical radio station will start to emerge into that whole thing, and this bashment with like flippin' Chopin’s whatever symphony playing in the background or something like that. That gives me inspiration more than anything else."

I quite liked it when he described his stuff as 'R&B concrète'.
 

muser

Well-known member
Kuduro was really extreme example of this, makes it pretty exhausting to listen to.

I remember reading about actressv experimenting with messing around with digital compression, talking things to the extreme and creating lots of artefacts and digital noise and resampling it, I thought it was a kind of backlash to the new wave of a no analogue enthusiasts at the time.
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket
I once saw DJ Marfox do a set with some of the most relentless hyper compressed kuduro drum trax at around 155 bpm. like a european version of power soca. boy I'd love to hear that again.
 

version

Well-known member
Madrok
1 year ago
How is this bassline even legal?

Maximus Rapturous
1 year ago
That bassline is inexplicably removing my clothes...

Esteban Brena
1 year ago
This bass is ridiculously good. I'm at the library and fighting the urge to dance.

 
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other_life

bioconfused
(one quick comment from my dumb wheelhouse)
cartoonish squashing compression/hard limiting was Crucial to 'chillwave', especially of textures that already sounded cartoonish (cianni/library music-type onomatopoeia 'cat meow'/'lasershot' synth noises), also fed by the actress stuff in a big way
the net effect of this whole lp is the feeling of being on dissociatives where your limbs are all different sizes/you have no resistance in any of your movements
this links to the 'cartoon physics' idea, as well
 

thirdform

pass the sick bucket

Masterful encapsulation of the disco and US centric DNA running through north and East London but not South and West. I tip my hat to you, boss.

Played by all the hardcore djs when south was still listening to Terminal cheesecake, Leftfield and underworld as well.

the south london value set in 1992.



North:

 
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