Understanding and using multi-band compressors/limiters

Remember how I said a de-esser was a frequency-specific compressor working only…on the sibilant sounds within a track or mix. A multiband compressor follows the…same idea, but works across the entire frequency range.…By splitting up the compression into multiple parts, or bands, an engineer can…focus dynamic control within a specified frequency range, leaving other…frequencies uncompressed.…Because of these multiple bands of gain control, multiband compressors are…especially handy in situations where only certain parts of the signal need…dynamics control, like cleaning up the low-end resonance of a signal while…leaving the high-frequency content uncompressed, or less compressed, or super-…compressing the top end of a vocal to achieve that pop polish without all the…harshness that would come from using EQ only.…

Mastering engineers will sometime use multiband compression to tighten up…elements of a mix that didn't receive enough compression during the mixing…stage, like a bass guitar that was left uncompressed, creating unpredictable…