Parallel mixing

Seems weird to me. I bet most are using a blend knob wet/dry so they are accomplishing the same thing? I’ve known a lot of sound guys and they’d often tell me simple recipes for success, and leave out the important details so that it’s impossible to recreate. One example that tortured me while learning: always use top/bottom snare mics! They never mentioned invert polarity and why you ALWAYS have to. Same with bass DI and mic

Although I can see the merit in trying new things, if ain’t broke why fix it? Everything is just a means to an end, it if works for you it works.

I recently had an amateur mixer tell me I was crazy for NOT using parallel compression, because his friend who won a Grammy told him to do it. I’m like, “yeah so what? Different mixers do different things, who cares?”. He was kind of astonished at my attitude, and had this mentality like there was some special sauce only the pros new about, and that us “normies” would be crazy for not listening. What he didn’t understand is that his Grammy winning friend obviously has the discretion and good judgement to do what works, when it works, and most likely doesn’t care what others think or do. It was a funny conversation, especially because this guys mixes don’t sound that great, so whose the crazy one? Lol

Anyway, not saying that’s you. I know you know all this. But If your system works I wouldn’t second guess it

Parallel compression is usually a crutch for poorly set compressors or trying to do something partially cool and get away with it. I always find dialing in the compressor works better than a parallel crush. Filtering can cause phase issues so complicated routing is better but can get you the cool sound of many compressors with the natural sound but I usually just go for coolish anyway to begin with. The problem is the mix of both of them usually must be compressed because parallel compression raises the volume

Mike Caffrey’s “two stage compression” method gets around this.
www.fullcompass.com/gearcast/common/images/1368-1445-file.pdf
tapeop.com/interviews/61/two-stage-compression/


An even bigger improvement on this that avoids the distortion from the first compressed bus in parallel with the uncompressed bus being compressed again, thus overmodulated are dual detector compressor that treat the louder sections completely differently than the softer ones, eg George Massenburg compressors (GML 8900 and MDWDRC2), Aphex Compellor, Kotelnikov, Oxford Dynamics using both the compressor and the limiter, Dangerous Compressor’s Smart Dynamics, and some others set up correctly but these pretty much force that workflow. Some of these are more flexible, have a wider sweetspot, and are less distorted than others and will use RMS, Peak, or a blend of both detectors.

i do parallel almost only the drums. most of the time i just put on PA1176 and soundtoys radiator and mix in a tiny bit of it, just for excitement. in reality it almost doesnt mather with what settings because its just a tiny feeling mixed in in parallel.
if i want to play with darker/brighter sound i mix in parallel a bit of klanghelm SDDR.
but i never overthink it, just a tiny bit.
bit i only do drums, i know theres people how do all kind of parallel on busses. but like stated before, to each its own.

Yep, sounds to me like you've done a fair bit of metal. Although I am "panning" hehe, out from just rock / metal and I was just looking to expand my horizon's, it seems to me like the first post it's either blending, sequential chain and / or just backing off with the comp. Nothing special really..

I use parallel on things that have transients, like drums. The parallel track is to fine tune the "body" of the track compared to the transients. It does something that a compressor alone can't do. I could probably do without it, but it's just easier to get to the end faster.

I'm similar to this in that, I usually set up a drum parallel at the onset of mixing.  I also start with the Overheads and Room mics NOT going to it, but there are times when they do.  That was my biggest ITB adjustment. From tape and on the console the overheads  and rooms usually went to the parallel as well.

Some times I do other parallel things, but that is usually song or record specific.  I probably should do vocal parallel more often than I do. 

And I very often use the Tchad Blake bass preset on Decapitator and that has blend built in...

Once I discovered sending things (kick snare bass usually) to an 1176 right up the middle I never looked back. Gain Brain also great here.

But maybe I do that 50% of the time. Depends on the mix. Even in ITB I find it can work. Started with Blockfish and now it's DevilLoc, or Molot, or dbx160. ITB can be a little less focused despite how far latency correction has come but it usually does more good than harm.

For some reason I never really got along with wet/dry knobs most of the time. Adding a bit of uncompressed into the signal can be nice but almost never use it for say adding 10% of crushed into a drum buss.

Exactly. Usually dead center, fed from an aux so you can dial in however much you want from any track. Usually kick snare bass but can also sneak in guitar, vocals, whatever. And it's not just for smash or crunch, you can get some nice movement going on under there.

I always have quite a few parallel channels set up while mixing, usually at least 1 or 2 get used, sometimes more.

The main advantages for me over using gear/plugins with internal wet/dry mixing or doing serial compression are:

Gluing together multiple instruments or groups (for example lead + backing vocals)

Being able to automate (mutes and/or level)
different compressor returns on drums to get various textures or levels of density throughout a song, or have something like an audible pumping come in behind the main sound for certain sections. Always production dependent of course, this doesn't make sense for softer genres but helps a lot in pop mixing or rock to create a sense of dynamics when really there's little overall dynamic range

Having a couple different vocal textures to blend together for tone (even if they're not compressing much)

Having a really aggressive dirty and bright bass parallel that can be muted or automated down in sparse sections and up to help it cut through very busy sections

Using the Standard Audio Stretch modules or a Dolby A/exciter plugin too add air to combined vocal groups or in all-bands mode on a subgroup to add a kick of excitement in a chorus, etc.

What did you most often send to it?

In all bands mode, just a tiny bit of wet blend is like a sonic highlighter in a different way than saturation.

Another approach that has come up lately with a visiting engineer:

Sending all the drums to Stereo A on the Legacy with then Smart across it, and then maybe the Neve on Stereo B (everything else) and the 2500 on the master insert.