![]() While this is handy for some workflows, I find it can make the compressor's function misleading. Many compressors have a control that does this automatically, called makeup gain. Just like the lawn, even if the loudest peak doesn't change its volume, the higher average volume will make the whole signal seem louder. It just so happens that we accomplish this in the two-step process of selectively turning down the loudest peaks before returning them to their original volume by raising everything all at once afterward. In the same way, the goal of compression is to make the quiet bits in a signal louder. The lawn will appear taller now than it was before it was cut, even though the tallest grass is still the same height. In this case, the dynamic range of the yard has been reduced. When the grass grows (and for the sake of the analogy it will all grows at the same rate), the tallest blades will stand as tall as they were before the mowing but the shortest will also have grown, reducing the dynamic range. When you mow the lawn down to 3”, for example, any blades that were standing more than 3” tall will be cut down but those that were shorter – like the 2” blade – will not be affected by the mower at all. The dynamic range is the difference between these. Imagine an uncut lawn with its shortest blade of grass at 2” and the tallest at 6”. Technically, a compressor reduces the dynamic range of a signal, and it does so by turning the loudest points of the signal down. “So compression makes things quieter? I always thought it was supposed to make things louder!” is what you might be saying to yourself at this point. "Has the signal crossed the line?", "if so, by how much?", & "what percentage of the offending audio should I take out?" are questions the compressor is constantly asking. That all being said, knowing the exact amount of gain reduction is somewhat unimportant since it is in constant flux because the sound feeding through the compressor is constantly changing volume. The most important takeaway is that the amount of gain reduction that takes place is primarily an interaction between these two parameters – threshold and ratio. A ratio of 5:1 leaves 1/5 of the signal uncompressed, a ratio of 1.5:1 leaves 1/1.5 of the signal uncompressed, & so on. A compressor with a ratio of inf:1 is called a limiter – it creates a “brickwall” ceiling so that no signal can pass the threshold. It’s easiest to just think of the ratio as a fraction – if the ratio is set to 4:1, ¼ of the dB over the threshold will be preserved (or ¾ will be reduced). In other words, any dB's above the threshold will be scaled according to the ratio. How well this "android" works depends entirely on your understanding of the handful of instructions you have to communicate with. The android's precision is incredible but its intelligence isn't - it has a limited, sometimes unintuitive vocabulary of instructions it can understand but will follow them blindly, even if they make no sense at all. ![]() Think of compression as your personal mulit-armed android whose single task is to move your tracks' faders with superhuman speed, accuracy, patience, and foresight. Compression has become a dirty word in the fallout from the “loudness war”, but when you understand it as an automatic version of the above process, it can be treated as a versatile utility as opposed to some dangerous effect that risks ruining your track. ![]() Is there some way to automate this process when an instrument is too "clicky" with attack to blend nicely in the mix? The answer is yes – compression. This allows for detailed, granular control over shape & dynamics but it would take ages to completely go through & make subtle edits to a whole track. ![]()
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