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Compression Myths! 2016-11-12T09:59:20+00:00 Myth #1: Attack is the time it takes for a compressor to begin compressing once a signal crosses over the threshold This may be my favorite audio myth of all time, because I think it’s the most pervasive. People who know a lot of things; people who’ve written books on the subject of recording and processing audio, have perpetuated this myth by writing about it, repeating it and passing it along as established fact so that you can read it passed off as fact in countless blogs and forums. The only problem is that it’s completely, utterly incorrect. in the pursuit of truth, justice, and all that is good in the world, I give you the correct definition of attack And so, in the pursuit of truth, justice, and all that is good in the world, I give you the correct definition of attack: Attack is the length of time it takes a compressor to apply roughly two-thirds of the targeted amount of gain reduction. I say ‘roughly two-thirds’ because there is no agreed-upon, industry-accepted standard for what this spec actually is. Yes, you read that right: no two compressor designers will agree on exactly how to define, and therefore measure, attack. My definition above is within the ballpark of most thinking, so I’m running with it. To understand this definition of attack better, you need to get some basics of compression established first. Let’s say your compressor is set with a threshold of -10dB and a ratio of 3:1. If you feed this compressor a signal at -11dB, nothing happens because the signal is lower than the -10dB threshold. But if that signal jumps to -1dB things get interesting. Most notably, the instant the signal reaches -10dB the compressor begins attacking it. There is no delay whatsoever in this response, which belies the myth that attack is the time it takes a compressor to respond once a signal crosses threshold. With a -1dB signal and a -10dB threshold, the signal is 9dB over threshold. Our 3:1 ratio means that for every 3dB coming in over threshold, the comp wants to allow 1dB out the backside. Since our example has a signal 9dB over threshold, our hypothetical 3:1 comp wants to compress those incoming 9dB into 3dB at the output, which would require 6dB of gain reduction. Given that attack is the time it takes a compressor to apply roughly 2/3 of the targeted gain reduction, the attack in this case indicates how fast the comp will apply the first 4dB of the target 6dB of reduction. If you don’t follow the math of this illustration, don’t worry. For now it’s enough to know that the compressor starts applying gain reduction as soon as the signal crosses the threshold. Which means that attack is not a delay before action, nor is it even a measurement of time per se; instead, it is a rate, a measurement of the speed at which the process of gain reduction is occurring. Read the whole article here: https://www.attackmagazine.com/features/columns/gregory-scott-demolishing-the-myths-of-compression/ [/i] jmg8 https://www.kvraudio.com/forum/memberlist.php?mode=viewprofile&u=362500

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Post by MeldaProduction » Sun Nov 20, 2016 4:48 pm

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Hehe quite a conversation here. Ok, so Attack & Release are probably the least understood parameters ever. I think it's just wrong that they have been defined as times, because it is all just wrong. The basic definition is that Attack time is the time period in which the internal level goes from silence to threshold (hence the compressor starts working) after you send in signal of magnitude 1 (0dBFS). Release is the opposite. The problem is that this definition is completely useless

. It would depend on threshold, signal type etc. So my guess is that many decades ago when designing the first compressors, the engineers sort of measured how it reacts to typical signals, probably starting with drums, and set the values from there. But the reality is, that no 2 compressors match in that, not even close, not even very far away, they just totally don't match

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So this is my definition, which is always true :

Attack time defines how quickly can the compressor's internal level rise (hence how quickly the compressor increases compression, in other words how quickly the compressor reacts.

Release time defines how quickly can the compressor's internal level go down.

And forget about the actual times. It's even worse since many known engineers started saying that the compressor has an envelope follower, which would seem like there some sort of ADSR, which is NOT! It is level follower, yet envelope follower is just permanently associated there, sadly. Anyway when it comes to attack/release, one just has to listen, no numbers will save you

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