I know nothing about compressors

[Ocean Zen]

If you want a good graphical representation of what goes on inside a compressor check out www.elementalaudiosystems.com NEODYNIUM

You serious? I've been using compressors for years, and I don't have a clue WTF that thing does. I tried. I tried to understand...

On the left side of that colourful diagram, you have the original clean audio signal. As you can see the loudest part of that signal (at the top in red) is made quieter.
Now rather than having an audio signal that spans say -20db to 0db you have a signal that goes from -20 db to -10 db meaning you can raise the overall volume of that track without it clipping.

[soulata]

Crunchessor is not a bad choice. Easy handling, works great on most instruments (I use it mostly on bass and guitar).

Another easy to understand is T2's new compressor.

k

[IIRs]

T2's new compressor.

they shouldn't be called compressors IMO: dynamics processors would be a better name, as they can expand up or down aswell as compress up or down.. I love them!

[rosa]

glad to see this post cus may be what i needed to understand what goind on here and why i cant get tha clean sound i hear on many songs , and a sound many people easylly do and i find myself goind crazy with some tracks cus i can get that and tottally abandon them ..

so are compressors and for example tl_pocket limiter ways to help removing that alwfull "noises" we get when we really need to put the song a few levels up??

theres no easy way on this? a small explanation to make me start to understant how this works and what i need to avoid that bad sound and get my song at a "normal" level but with good sound?
thank you

[3*s]

They do 2 things:

1: Make the volume more even over time. This is most useful for live recordings, as you can simply tweak midi. Say you have a rhythmic element like a guitar that's key to the track. If some parts are really loud and others are too quiet, then that element won't support the rhythm very well, as some beats will be hard to hear, where as others will be loud and annoying. Solution? Compress. The volume is now even over time, no dropouts or peaks, life is peachy.

2: Change the volume envelope of the signal. This is the biggie. The idea at first was to make things sound good at low level on crappy speakers, like in clothing stores, at the supermarket, quiet car stereo (most of us probably like our stereo louder, but the majority of people don't), or on tv. If the level is low, you'll barely hear anything. If you turn the music up so you can, it's no longer "background" music. Now, if you compress the hell out of everything to the fine line between sounding natural and sounding "compressed," you'll be able to get a decent sound at low level, since the dynamics aren't bobbing up and down.

Records were made like this for years and years, and obviously the engineers using these tools learned the insides and outs. If you're basically required to use a tool for an extended period of time. After much experimentation with compressors, one realizes how to make a "compressed" record sound good. It's as in depth as EQ or reverb. It takes time.

The only hint I can give you, is that it's a matter of balance. To demonstrate this, create a drum track. Now put something on top, synth, guitar, whatever. Put a compressor on the non-drum element. Set attack as low as it will go, and release to about 100ms. Now bring down that threshold; squish the hell out of it. It'll sound crappy, that's ok. Make sure you tweak the makeup gain too. Now listen to the drums. See how they sound more punchy? This demonstrates a fundamental truth behind audio, which is that everything is relative. Take punch away, everything else is more punchy. Add punch, everything else is less punchy. That's true for everything, bass, treble, distortion, reverb, stereo, whatever.

The key to contemporary compression is getting this balance just right, while at the same time creating a record with limited dynamics that works at many volume levels.

Try putting a compressor on every track. Tweak them until you get a sound you like. This is the quickest way to learn. Make sure you think of the big picture. This is extremely important. It shouldn't just be about how 1 element sounds, it should be about the entire mix.

[IIRs]

theres no easy way on this?

not really, no. There are lots of explanations of compression around so I won't go into that in detail.. but basically a compressor is simply an automatic volume control. This can be used to raise the average level of your tracks and / or even out the dynamics to make it easier to get a consitent balance.. the problem is, compression can have a dramatic effect on the way a sound is percieved, and this is not always for the better. eg: snare drums and acoustic guitars will sound dull if too much fast compression is applied, as the initial transients get squashed too far down in relation to the body of the sound. A bass guitar will almost certainly need compressing in a rock mix to keep the bottom end solid and weighty, but use too much, or the wrong settings, and the whole mix can be robbed of its life and energy.. unfortunately there is no substitute for training your ears to recognise these problems, and learning how to adjust your compressors to cure them..

[bitcrusher]

clean sound i hear on many songs

Honestly you are probably hearing (in order of importance)good level balances, good mics, proper EQ, subtle use of reverb.

Bad mixes have low-midrange and sub frequency issues (bad ears, bad monitors, or no clue there is a "problem").

Compression is not just about "phat sound". Many people make their stuff sound worse by misusing compressors. Why would they do such a thing? Well, they are adding gain to compensate for the peak reduction, and now the RMS is louder, affecting the way their ear percieves the audio. If you are careful not to raise your RMS when compressing, you'll probably have the opposite reaction ("this compressor thing makes it sound worse")

There is usually no need to remove all dynamics and have the inhale as loud as the shout... of course some can be needed to get a track to "sit in a mix" (much more with live instruments than VSTi's) .

It's orignally a tool to prevent sounds from being too quiet or too loud. Imagine you are in the 1920's, theres this cool new thing called RADIO and you're very excited about it. Now you have a microphone, but when your friend moves away the sound gets quiet, and when he talks right in to the mic, the sound is too loud. So instead of trying to adjust the volume constantly, you build a circuit to make quiet stuff louder and loud stuff (relatively) quieter. You call it a compressor.

Fast forward to 80 years where everyone thinks its the holy grail. Indeed I actually agree that compression is a bit of a white elephant. Making mixes loud versus making them good.... it's quite a bit of a trade-off.

[frank001]

Crunchessor is not a bad choice. Easy handling, works great on most instruments (I use it mostly on bass and guitar).

Another easy to understand is T2's new compressor.

k

I keep seeing "T2". What is it short for?

[Kriminal]

I keep seeing "T2". What is it short for?

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/358.html

[frank001]

I keep seeing "T2". What is it short for?

http://www.kvraudio.com/get/358.html

Thanks!

[johnmck6]

Hi all,

I've just been playing with MJCompressor, by smart electronix, and I think it's really very cool. Easy to use, nice transparent processing, sounds good on a kick, vocals, snare. It may eb a tad resource heavy, but it sounds good!

Oh, and it's free!

http://www.smartelectronix.com/

[Steven West]

Ancoats, you aired my sentiments exactly! Not that compression is total bollocks, but I think it's tainted the global listeners mindset to what sound SHOULD be, and then they'll spend $50-$100 to go get their ears blown at a club or stadium show, and bitch about how crap the sound was for the next 2 weeks!

I prescribe compression, but in very small dosages. If tones and waveshapes are all over the place, and affects the sound - then yes, a little dab will do you. But to compress every track with fancy WAVEs and Neodyninininiums - and then compress the whole mix after, and add compression on the mastering... That's just getting dang nutty!

[kilroy]

If you have to have a compressor on every track, then sadly, you have recorded a shite band.

[morelia]

Well all the tracks are recorded by me so you could be right.

[JackDark]

I recommend GCOMP!:



Great visuals to aid your understanding, and free:

http://www.chinaski.org/gvst/