Are you compressing everything else individually as well?

Lately what I've gotten into doing more of is multing it off, like I said. The kick and snare I'll put through maybe a [dbx] 160 and very lightly compress it, maybe pulling down half to 1 dB. Then I'll mult them off and go through a new 160S and really compress those and sneak them up underneath, so you're basically hearing the character of the drum you recorded rather than this bastardized version of it. Then I also send all the dry drum tracks, not the rooms or overheads, but the kick, snare, and toms, through another compressor and sneak that in to give the kit an overall sound. Distorted guitars I don't compress as much because, when you get a Marshall on 10, it's so compressed already that it doesn't really need it. But cleaner guitars or acoustic guitars, I'll compress. And I actually got into doing the vocals the same way I do the kick and snare - multing it off and compressing it real hard and sneaking that under the original vocal.

When you say "real hard," how much do you mean?

I would say 10 or 12 dB and at a ratio anywhere from like 4:1 to 8:1. My compression technique is something I learned from [engineer-producer] Ed Cherney. He was telling me about compressing the stereo bus when I was assisting him, but I use the same technique on everything. I set the attack as slow as possible and the release as fast as possible so all the transients are getting through and the initial punch is still there, but it releases instantly when the signal drops below threshold. I think that's a lot of the sound of my mixes. It keeps things kinda popping the whole time. Also, you can compress things a little bit more and not have it be as audible.

Interview with Jerry Finn (EQ mag)