ABSTRACT
Equalizing Parallel Processors One simple way to begin exploring how dynamics can be aimed at specific frequency regions is by elaborating on an idea we’ve already dealt with quite a bit: parallel processing. If you set up any dynamics processor as a send effect, then you can EQ its return channel to tailor the processed tone. So where a fast-attack/fast-release compressor working in a parallel configuration would normally just emphasize overall sustain, a low shelving cut to the return signal would direct that sustain more toward the upper frequency regions-a good way of compensating for the shorter sustain of higher piano notes, to give one example. Dave Pensado supplies another application, this time for the kick drum. “You can have the main kick drum fader, and another fader where you compress the dogsnot out of the kick, and add a lot of top end to it. Then, maybe in the chorus you add in a little bit of that second chain. It gives a tiny bit more attack… as if the drummer was hitting it harder.”1
