Wait- multiband EXPANSION!? This changes EVERYTHING!

[gavintheaudioengineer]

I'm on a multiband honeymoon right now. After years of considering it a mastering tool, I've started using them on mixes and it has improved things drastically.

I love the way that you can lift and subdue separate harmonic components of instruments dynamically- it's giving me WAY more control of the behaviour of each track.

An example of where I'm using it with acoustic guitars- I'll expand the HF range to make the string strike jump out without having to bring the overall HF content up with EQ (which can often make the signal a bit screechy overall). I can do the same with the low mid- make it punch up on strikes without having to increase the overall boominess of the guitar.

I've used it on kick drum to good effect too.

I'd love to hear how everyone else is using multiband dynamics. Seldom? Often? Never? Always? When Mars is in retrograde?

[lefthanddoes]

I use it when I have to mix someone elses' track and the mic choice isn't workin for me. It's great on acoustic guitars because they are like little mixes themselves, with hi transients and low transients and everything.

http://lunkhins.bandcamp.com/track/family-prayer

This song uses extensive multiband compression on the acoustic guitars and the vocals, which I wanted upfront but needed to sound both bigger and more controlled.

[Gregg Juke]

Haven't really done anything with it (a little playing around with multi-band compression, but)... This makes me interested in exploring for sure!

GJ

[mwerden]

I use full band expansion sometimes when I need to pull some transients out of the source material, but haven't really found reason to go multiband. I guess it's because I'm trying to get into transient land which is time related. I could see it being useful to add 60 Hz to a kick drum or something, but really by the time I'm getting into multiband it's usually because I'm trying to solve a problem.

[Spark]

Which multiband plugs are you all using?

[ott0bot]

when needed I usually just threw a eq on the sidechain of a expander. I don't think I have a multiband plug-in...unless there is a stock one on PT 10. maybe the channel strip...but I really don't like that plug in.

[Theo_Karon]

Yes! I do this on an all-analog setup, which can be a bit of a pain, but after racking up a few active crossovers and connecting them to the patchbay as an experiment a few years ago I have never looked back. I started out just wanting simple multiband compression, but quickly realized that I could pick and choose character as well (for instance, something nice and clean like an RNC on the highs, something a little more gritty on the midrange, maybe a 160a on the lows... you get the idea.) but quickly realized that there were plenty more applications than that- basically the ability to apply any processor or processing chain in the patchbay to any band without affecting the others. My method is a little rocky in that it requires that I sum the bands either at the patchbay or the console, and also can eat up a lot of rack real estate quickly, so I usually end up printing the summed signal to free up those pieces for other tasks.

A few favorites:
-Mix through a 2-way crossover, steep slope, around 50 Hz or even lower and key gate the entire sub low end of the mix to the kick drum. Obviously this would be a terrible idea in many contexts, but for a really outsized-sounding mix with a simple kick pattern that really needs to slam it can be awesome!

-FX sends off of only one band- great for vocal delay without any sibilance, drum verb that only catches the mids and not much cymbal, etc. Simple but useful.

-Honing in on the area of an instrument's spectrum that's conflicting with something in the mix, and ducking only the problem range only when the conflicting instrument is present. Works best when one source is more percussive and the other source is fairly steady-state. A good, common example is electric bass and kick drum- say the bass is stepping on the kick when it's playing in its lowest octave (around 40-80 Hz,) you can duck only that range by a few dB with each kick hit. If the bass is playing in a higher register during a kick hit it won't be affected. A little deliberate overuse of this, with a slightly longer release time that fits the rhythm, can also add some pumping/breathing to a part in a very natural way.

-Build the gnarliest distortion ever by using a different distortion box to get exactly what you want out of each band.

[Burnt Ernie]

Always loved using this technique with Samplitude. One of the main reasons
I bought it in 96. No extra plug ins to buy,and the best math/algorithms
out there at the time.
Used to do it with the old
analog rig with a bss crossover into a couple channels of valley people dynamite,or aphex 661,depending on how heavy/gently handles dictated.
Used to use ITB version a lot opening up upper midrange of mixes,after tracking 15 IPS big room drums,with lots of dark guitars. Fun Fun Fun!

[KennyLusk]

Personally I've been using multiband compression for many years ITB in Sonar mainly for summed drums and drum loops.

I setup 3 aux busses, one for each band. But I plug a reverb in there for a little "excitement", injecting life into the soundstage for the drums and with great success imo. In each buss I carve the target freq range to be effected, then compress, add reverb, then compress again, then blend however much of that effect into the signal as I want or need.

To my ears it really sets up an amazing lifelike effect that makes you feel the drums are right there in front of you in this ultimate room.

Sometimes I'll send the signal for the summed vocals, guitars, etc., through the same busses lending to a totally live feel.

[Brett Siler]

I am a big fan of Ozone's Harmonic Exciter and the Multiband compressor.