parallel compression: am i doing it right?

i'm trying to achieve parallel compression on my drums.. that and sending all my drums to another track (in this case its called parallel) to achieve a bigger, more full sound. is this what parallel compression is (besides the plugins we'll be using on this track) or am i off completely. any how, could anyone tell me if this is set up properly? just want to make sure i'm not missing any steps. how do you generally set up parallel compression.. if you do at all?

Wouldn't it be simpler to place a compressor on the drum buss and set it's FX mix to 50% assuming you don't want to do additional separate processing on either the dry or effected signals.

+1 to KM and TG.

can anyone elaborate? not sure what that really means

To add to what TG said... Place a compressor on your Drum folder or buss, and set Reapers Mix control (top-right of the plugin window) to 50%. Just remember this cuts the true reduction of the compressor by 50% and is one reason that parallel compression tends to use sufficiently higher amounts of compression. IE: You get all the benefits of that extra compression minus most of the disadvantages since the unaltered signal is blended in which is the idea.

so from here i'd delete this "parallel track" i have going on... add a compressor to my drum track (folder) and set the mix knob in the corner of my plugin window for superior to 50%?

I think that adding the Post FX(1,2,3,4,5, etc.) sends/receives would be very useful. All would be more simply!

Setting two busses has its advantages though, but it's mostly if you work a lot with your meters,otherwise just use the dry/wet knob.

Using a send means I don't have to dig into the fx dialog and adjust the makeup gain and mix percentage every time I want to touch the level of the parallel FX, the fader for it is right there on my mixer.