CHURCH TECH
WHICH COMPRESSOR SOUNDS BEST?
PART 2: MULTIBAND COMPRESSION AND DYNAMIC EQ | Jeff Hawley
Preface: Before we dive into part two of a
series of articles we kicked off at the end of
2019 about audio compression and different
compressor types, I think it is important to
acknowledge that things have drastically
changed over the last six months. Like really
changed. A global pandemic, mass civil unrest,
political and social turmoil—with folks from all
walks of life striving to bring about change to
address fundamental issues which have been
endemic to the American cultural landscape
since its founding. The impacts have been
deep and pervasive.
In addition to these macro issues and hitting
much closer to home (literally), live sound
professionals and musicians and production
crews are struggling to find their place in a
socially-distanced world still largely devoid of
live in-person concerts and church services.
Churches have had to pivot technologically
and shift their format to best serve their
congregations and to share the Word with
all of society in this new world. Things have
changed, indeed.
As many churches are still limited in their ability
to meet local health code and guidelines and
provide in-person services, one thing hasn’t
changed. “For where two or three are gathered
together in my name, there am I in the midst
of them.” (Matthew 18:20) We’ll note that the
verse doesn’t say “only when gathered together
sitting on pews next to each other in the big
building down the street,” but it simply says,
“gathered in my name.” Let’s remember this
the next time we are on a Zoom prayer meeting
or joining in the Sunday streaming service
of a church 1,168 miles away. Certainly, I am
looking forward to getting to a phase where I
can be sitting in the pew (or behind the console
or up with the worship band!), but I believe we
can all rest assured that the ‘why’ of worship
holds firm and strong no matter which ‘where’
and technical ‘how’ we happen to be applying
at the time.
GETTING THE (MULTI)BAND BACK TOGETHER
Speaking of getting back into the sanctuary
live with the worship band, let’s talk multiband
compression! First off, let’s work on getting a
good conceptual overview and wrap our head
around just what multiband compression and
its closely-related cousin dynamic EQ can do for
us and when we might opt to utilize them over
the more common single-band compression
and standard EQ.
The analogy I like to use here is ordering a pizza
for the family. You pop over to the website to
order your pie and choose a crust and sauce
and topping for the entire pizza. Let’s say you
go with pan pizza and light sauce and regular
cheese and mushrooms. I happen to be ok
with that pizza selection myself. But maybe the
kids aren’t big mushroom fans. The youngest
really wanted thin crust. We essentially have
one slice of the pizza that matches up perfectly
to the needs and the best options that are most
suitable to one family member. We hope the
others are ok with it. This is akin to applying a
single-band compressor to a single source or
a group or even the entire mix. You’ve served
up the same toppings and pizza recipe to
everyone in that ‘family’ or to all frequencies
within that particular group or track.
With multiband compression, we are splitting
up the pizza into individual slices and we
can optimize the toppings and the overall
126 July 2020
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