Imma take a simple example :

You got a kick , so you got the attack of the kick wich is the TIK the decay - wich is the Tok and kinda pump feeling and the sustain- release wich is the OOMPH you got with a sub or in festival.

 The compressor also has Attack release treshold ratio

The Attack is when the compressor is gonna hit the sound
The release is how long it gonna compress
the treshold is there to say how much you wanna reduce the levels
and the ratio is how much it will reduce when the kick hit the treshold 2-4-10 generally

Personnaly I use compression a lot with drum loops and synth with too much attack

So you got your drop loops , Kick hi hat snare Kick hi hat snare etc

You found that the Kick and the hi hat are good but the snare hit too much
Here you compress it you set your attack really fast because you want the Tik of the snare to reduce but the other thing to keep originally where they was you put the release fast as well as you don't want to affect the other drums
and i usually have a ratio between 2 and 10 , the treshold is for you to set !

It's good to compress group with some Glue compressor like the SSL comp or The glue , as it "Glue" thing together it help have same kind of levels between your thing.

For the master try compressing a bit but not too much overcompressing will flatter your sound and it will sound shit
Otherwise it's for you to try and understand what you can do with it , and remember every compressor is different in a way but work in the same manner

Sorry for the long writing , hope i helped you.

love.

Yap ! You can also do the total oppossite as puting slow attack and fast release to keep the transient and compress after it , you can also achieve distortion by over pushing the ration and the treshold making it crash a bit and creating a new sound !

Quote from: Blakelight on January 06, 2016, 03:27:08 am

Yap ! You can also do the total oppossite as puting slow attack and fast release to keep the transient and compress after it , you can also achieve distortion by over pushing the ration and the treshold making it crash a bit and creating a new sound !

That's super useful & simple, thanks man

It's not true that if the release/attack time is fast that you compress the beginning of the sound! If the attack/release time is fast this just means that the compressor will activate very quickly when the input is over the threshold (fast attack), and that the volume will come back up very quickly when the input is no longer above the threshold (fast release).

If you only want to compress the beginning of a sound (say a snare which has a strong transient) then you would set the threshold to be less than the peak volume of the initial few ms of the snare but louder than the body of the snare, so it only activates for the initial few ms/the beginning of the snare. This is assuming the only time you want to compress only the beginning is because the sound has a very strong attack that you want to tame, like some plucks or in particular drums.

EDIT: Quoted the wrong thing and can't fix edit it out because I'm on mobile and it would be too much to do, but I meant to quote the 3rd post in this thread about compressing the beginning of a sound

Quote from: chezek on January 06, 2016, 03:34:43 am

Quote from: Blakelight on January 06, 2016, 03:27:08 am

Yap ! You can also do the total oppossite as puting slow attack and fast release to keep the transient and compress after it , you can also achieve distortion by over pushing the ration and the treshold making it crash a bit and creating a new sound !

That's super useful & simple, thanks man

It's not true that if the release/attack time is fast that you compress the beginning of the sound! If the attack/release time is fast this just means that the compressor will activate very quickly when the input is over the threshold (fast attack), and that the volume will come back up very quickly when the input is no longer above the threshold (fast release).

If you only want to compress the beginning of a sound (say a snare which has a strong transient) then you would set the threshold to be less than the peak volume of the initial few ms of the snare but louder than the body of the snare, so it only activates for the initial few ms/the beginning of the snare. This is assuming the only time you want to compress only the beginning is because the sound has a very strong attack that you want to tame, like some plucks or in particular drums.

EDIT: Quoted the wrong thing and can't fix edit it out because I'm on mobile and it would be too much to do, but I meant to quote the 3rd post in this thread about compressing the beginning of a sound

Oh, well thanks for clearing that up

I think of compression as a hand turning down the signal when it gets too loud. The threshold is how much the hand turns down, the ratio is the intensity of the movement, and the attack and release is how lazy or on point the hand is

Compression seems to be an aspect surrounding music production that many try, but few understand. Does anyone know the science on how to properly compress a track? How do you know when you're compressing too much to little? What exactly does it do? When should you use it? When is it necessary?

An answer to any of these questions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

This is a Lesson Review from a Mixing and Mastering Course I had.

Compression is one of the most difficult practices to comprehend without proper explanation. In every great mix, there is plenty of compression—on the individual elements, on the group tracks, and on the master fader. Multiple layers of good compression choices add up to a really strong, powerful, alive mix.

Compression is essentially dynamics control. The use of compression allows us to control the dynamics of the various elements of the mix. It is like having a team of elves with their fingers on a mixing console, hovering above the channels, and reaching to dip the faders down in a manner that you prescribe. You can have jumpy elves, mellow ones, or total alarmists. It's up to you, and you can have a variety of personalities on your elf team, which is typically the way to go.

The threshold tells the elf when to act. The attack time is the time the elf takes to start turning down the fader after the threshold is crossed. The ratio is how far the elf pulls the fader down. And the release time is the amount of time it takes for the elf to let go of the fader (no elf meddling) after the signal has crossed below threshold.

Some compressors have a knee control, which is the speed of the elf's finger as they pull down the fader. In addition, some compressors have an auto-gain make-up that knows exactly how far the elf is pulling down the fader, and adjusts the overall output of the channel to keep gain up as the dynamics are being adjusted by the elf.

Sometimes the engineer wants to gently contain the dynamics of a signal. Other times the engineer wants to reign in the dynamics so that they exist within a very small range. For example, if you are compressing a very dynamic singer, your goal is to make sure that the quiet parts of the performance are still heard, but that the load points are not piercing. In this instance you would probably use a medium threshold, a medium-fast attack, a medium ratio (4:1 to 6:1), and a medium-fast release. You might even want to employ a limiter after the compressor that does not react at all to the general performance, but kicks when a really loud part of the performance occurs.

On the other hand, if you were trying to level out the snare playing from an erratic drummer, you would probably want to end up with a snare track that had a very narrow dynamic range -- so that all of the snare hits felt consistent and even. In that case, you would want a low threshold, fast attack, medium release, and a high ratio like 10:1. This setting would react to every snare hit and level each one out to create a very even sound performance.

The permutations are endless. Once you grasp that each one of the parameters of the compressor can create more or less compression, but in different ways, you will begin to understand that the compressor is a highly configurable tool, capable of envelope shaping and sound design. It takes a bit of practice, but over time you will find that the compressor will perform according to the settings that you dial in. You will start to learn how to communicate with your team of elves. They will learn to respect, obey and love you. And you will love them back!

Quote from: Blakelight on January 06, 2016, 02:59:05 am

You found that the Kick and the hi hat are good but the snare hit too much
Here you compress it you set your attack really fast because you want the Tik of the snare to reduce but the other thing to keep originally where they was you put the release fast as well

So if the attack is really fast, but the release is too, it will only compress the beginning of the sound?

That's something new I learned about compression, appreciate it!

Well no. Compressors modify the dynamics of a sound based on the dynamics it already has. The attack is how fast it goes from no change in volume (or the last time it changed the volume) to the new change in volume. The release is how fast it recovers from each attack. That's not the best explanation, I understand how it works but I'm not entirely saying it right. I'll create a visual representation of it later.