It’s amazing how one simple compressor can do two wildly different things to your audio – all depending upon how you set the Attack and Release knobs.
As we continue in this 7 part series I want to dive deep into what exactly Attack and Release are and how to use them when you mix.
Knowing this can mean the difference between getting a fat sounding snare, and a snare drum that is squashed to death.
Want to have all of the Compression techniques in this series on hand next time you’re mixing with compressors? – Download my FREE 7-Step Compression Checklist here!
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My name is Graham Cochrane and I'm the founder of The Recording Revolution, one of the world's most loved audio recording and mixing blogs with over 200,000 readers each month. 
May I suggest starting with a repetitive identical snare WAV – then apply the compressor once with fast attack and release times with increased output gain to match the input, copying the result to a new track.
Later you do the same basis the other 3 alternatives ( slow attack-fast release / slow attack and release / fast attack- slow release, in all cases with corrective gain).
This will permit us to visualize the changes in the wave forms so as to help us be able to better distinguish the subtle (for many of us) differences between “energy” and “warmth”.
Yeah I had just thought of that while watching this. I am surprised I never thought to do that before in my DAW. Would of probably helped me understand what the effects are doing earlier on when all this was new.
That is in fact a good idea. As a former teacher of recording engineering for a number of years, I think, one of the best tools or uses for a DAW is visual representation of teaching how dynamic processors affect audio signals.
Got it Graham, but I would like to get your recommendations on using compressing a whole mix.
(Compression on the mix bus. Setting up the attack and release )
Coming in a new video soon!
Graham, great job explaining these two knobs functions. They are definitely confusing just because there are 2 things you have to get set right to achieve what you want. This on top of getting threshold, ratio and knee figured out! You clearly explained how different settings affect certain situations. It might be helpful to show a snare waveform that has compression on it to visually compare the two. I have not used compression on tracks just because I found trying to get all the possible settings right nearly impossible! Your info has definitely helped clear the confusion for me so I can start using compression properly. Now if I could get multi-band compressors figured out….
Thanks again Graham!
Ron W.
You’re welcome Ron!
Great tutorial, Graham, this is very helpful in de-mystifying.
I know these videos take a lot of effort… Thank you for making them!
My pleasure!
Graham,
in your checklist you write “The threshold and ratio knobs are interconnected. You can have a high/hard ratio (8:1) and a high threshold and get the same sound as a low/soft radio (2:1) and a low threshold.”
This is not quite true. You will get a similar gain reduction, but with a different texture.
Thanks for your work, I enjoy your videos.
-helmut
You’re absolutely right. That is a typo! Will fix it now.
Great series, Graham. Thanks! I’m still confused about Release….Isn’t it true that the Compressor will always compress the signals that are above the Threshhold? Or does a fast Release setting change that?
You are implying that a compressor does *not* influence the signals below threshold. This it not in one instance: when raw gain reduction returns to zero, it cannot do that in zero time. It has to wait until release time is gone by. A fast release setting does indeed make that period shorter.
Hello Graham.
You’re a legend buddy. So well put, and now I get it!
Brillaint! I use so much of your knowlege whenever I work. Bravo man!
Hi, Graham, I’d just like to throw in a cent and a half on what you’re saying in the checklist, and in some other tutorials, that you can set your threshhold and ratio at different values, and the result is the same, as long, as the gain reduction is the same.
I think you’re taking this automated volume fader paradigm, which I can understand and appreciate, a bit too literally. Cause while a compressor is just that, because of the simplified idea of volume, which doesn’t change tone, you’ll find that a compressor changes tone – at different volume floors of a signal, depdending on the sound, you’ll have a different frequency composition, and, UNLIKE the volume fader, which has a “threshhold” of -infinity dB, the compressor has a threshhold that, depending on your adjustment might, NOT engage all the frequencies – for instance if you have a transient peaking at 3 dB above the body of the sound, and you set the threshhlod at -3dB, with a 3:1 ratio, the compressor, while giving you a 2 dB cut, will only touch those high-mid and trebly portions of the sound, that form the transient. While, if you set the threshhold at -10 dB with a ratio of 1.2:1, you’d get the same 2 dB reduction, but throughout the spectre, not only in the transients, and the sound will be massively different.
So, even if the gain reduction may be the same, different ratios and threshhold are very DIFFERENT in terms of the tone you get, and this has been my experience.
How do I then purposely use each, then, ratio and threshhold, other than in random combination, for a certain dB cut? To my ear, the threshhold determines the amount of “polish”, of “roundness”, of “velvet”, of “big studio quality” in the sound, while the ratio determines the feeling of “processed”, “messed with”, “aggression”, “hardness”, etc. And I set them up according to the blend of each of these qualities that I am looking for. Threshhold first, ratio after. The attack woudl give me exactly the… attack of the instrument, the transient, as you’ve said. And if I find that, for the attack impact that I like, the transient still sounds a bit too unruly, I lengthen the release a little bit, and, conversely, if it is a bit muffled, but don’t want to open the attack more, cause it would change the character of the attack too much, I shorten the release time, and, it usually works in these combinations. So I just mess with combination of these things.
THANK YOU.
Wow! Thanks Graham for sharing this practical, applicable tutorial. It is wildly helpful for me as a beginner and I’m even learning a thing or two from the comments. Great job!
Thanks Graham For all your lessons.
Emmanuel from Kenya
Hey Graham!
The link for the checklists (both eq and compression) are not working!
Just the heads up to make it work again 🙂
Cheers!
Luiz