Parallel, or New York compression as it’s sometimes called, is a mixing technique that blends a dry and compressed signal, and is particularly popular for beats, bass, vocals and even the master bus.
The technique was first developed back in the analogue days and in its simplest form involves paralleling a signal across two channels, one of which you compress quite heavily and one of which you don’t. You can then find a balance of the two signals, allowing you to benefit from the flavour the compressor adds but also retain some of the cleaner transients of the original sound. It’s a very liberating technique, and if done properly, can really help position sounds in your mix.
