Somebody brought this up in a post about guitar mixing, and I think it is worth having a post about. Compression is incredibly common but very important, especially for metal, and it is easily overlooked or often poorly thought-out.

For a multitude of reasons, compression has become more and more a tool to make tracks sound as loud as they can possibly be, all the time. This can be beneficial for certain sounds but overall it can absolutely destroy a well-produced song. Many popular bands are guilty of using compression to get everything the entire song as loud as they can make it. And guess what? This destroys the power of metal - a genre focused on the various intonations of guitar riffs, powerful drumming, and countless layers of distorted harmonics and overtones.

It's all about dynamic range - the only way to increase is for the overall, apparent volume to be lower, allowing the peaks and loud sounds to have more space and thus more volume over the mix. A lot of compression these days is to just make the whole song loud and clear, and you completely lose this range in the process. While you still hear the thumping bass drum kick, it doesn't slam into the bass drum with the chest-punching intensity you would hear live or in a real-life setting (this of course differs from genres like black metal). You can get this intensity back by really letting the peaks of the sound tower over the rest of the mix. The problem, and the reason why popular bands don't do this, is that the overall mix sounds quieter - which is unacceptable for the radio or other bullshit. With less compression, you will usually have to turn the volume up higher than a typical well-known release to hear the guitars at the same level.

If you're subscribed to this subreddit, you probably know what I'm talking about, but if not I'll provide a few examples. If you've been to a metal show it sounds much, much different than an album - you may have noticed the snare drum slams into your eardrums above the crunching guitars. This is the thing that compression takes away from a song. The snare and other loud drums are there and well-defined, but they do not have any power.

Here are some examples, which are not very good because they are compressed by the lossy youtube video format. For best results, find the cd quality versions.

• Lots of compression - Akercocke - Verdelet The entire mix is crystal clear, but in particular the drums are very very weak. The snare folds neatly into the mix and is exactly the same volume as the guitars and the other drums.

• Compare this to High On Fire - Nemesis You have to turn the volume up higher to get the guitars to the same loudness as the Akercocke song. The result? Pounding drums - something that gives metal a lot more power. The snare in particular is heavy and intense, much more similar to how it would sound in person.

Now, both of those bands are good, and there are other elements that affect the sound (Akercocke is more technical and has a lot going on compared to High On Fire, High On Fire's drummer is pretty much their frontman so he is higher in the mix), but hopefully this sheds a little light on what I'm talking about.

• If you're still confused, check this comparison video of Death Magnetic out.

So metal musicians, compression is a great tool to clear up your tracks and create a well-rounded mix, but don't brickwall your signal. If you overly compress, you lose the strength that makes heavy metal heavy. This may result in your song being quieter-sounding than the Billboard 250's hits, but when you turn it up it will be more powerful than any of that garbage. Dynamic-range is something that metal relies on for its heaviness, which is something that too many people overlook or don't realize.

This is just a general overview of the overall effects of compression, however. There are downsides to not using noticeable compression, particularly with less-than-perfect recordings. Compression can bring out the edge in some distortion or fold the cymbals better into the mix - it really depends how you use it. There's a lot more to it than what I covered, so what other points can you provide to help with the mixing and mastering of tracks?