Betreff: How to understand compression the simple way

Von: Sam Matla (sam@edmprod.com)

An: oliver.labes@yahoo.de;

Datum: 17:24 Freitag, 22.April 2016

Few aspects of mix processing seem to confuse more small-studio owners than
compression, despite the fact that this mix prices is actually closely related to what the
faders dothe only thing that really differentiates a fader from a compressor is that the
latter can perform balance changes automatically." - Mike Senior, Mixing Secrets for the
Small Studio

Do you even compress, m8?

Compression is one of the most commonly used yet misunderstood mixing tools in the
electronic music production world. Many amateur producers think they know what
compression does or think they know where to use it, and thus tell other people to follow
what they do.

Often youll see a forum post where some asks how they can make their drums more punchy,
and the answer is add compression.

Or, they say their mix isnt loud enough. The answer? Add compression.

Now, compression can be used to make things punchy and increase loudness, but these two
things are not its main purpose. Its akin to using an EQ for minor enhancements - the
primary purpose of an EQ is to reduce frequency masking.

What does a compressor do?

A compressors primary purpose is to create balance in the mix by reducing the dynamic
range of an instrument.

Lets say you invite a friend over to sing a top-line on your track. Hes a decent singer, but
like all singers, he cant hold the same volume throughout recording.

As you start to mix the recorded vocal with the rest of your track, you find there are frequent
jumps and dips in volume. The jumps are too loud and overpower everything else, and the
dips get lost in the sea of surrounding instruments.

So, you add compression to lower the jumps, then add some makeup gain to effectively
raise the dips in volume. Youve lowered the dynamic range, so instead of having a
waveform with a load of peaks and troughs, you have a more consistent waveform.

But how does this work?

Im going to omit the technical details and simplify compression as much as possible.

On a standard compressor, you might have the following controls:

Threshold
Ratio
Attack
 Release
Makeup gain

There are more controls, such as lookahead, knee, type** and many others, but we wont
worry about them for now.

Threshold is the signal at which you want the compressor to start compressing the signal.
Lets say we have a vocal track that sits aroujnd 15dB, but contains a number of peaks at
10dB. We could have the threshold set to 13dB which means that the compressor would
start acting when the signal passes 13dB.

Ratio in simple terms, is the amount of compression that takes place. In other words, the level
of gain reduction. High compression ratios are more aggressive and sound less natural, but
can be good for taming out-of-control peaks. Low ratios sound more natural.

Attack is the amount of time it takes for the compressor to clamp down on the signal. Here's a
quote from Graham Cochrane that explains it well "Imagine the compressor is an audio
engineer riding a volume fader. A fast attack setting would mean the engineer would grab
the fader and turn it down the instant he hears audio coming through."

Release determines how long it takes for the gain reduction to reset. If you have a long
release time, gain reduction will still take place even after the signal has dropped below the
threshold. Release is often adjusted to make compression sound more natural.

Makeup gain is self-definitive. When you add compression, youll almost always adjust the
overall volume in some way. Makeup gain is a way to make up for the lost volume introduced
by gain reduction so that you can keep an instrument at the same volume it was earlier with
less dynamic range.

When is the best time to use compression?

There are few cases where compression is absolutely necessary, and I think its overused in
the electronic music world simply because we record few live instruments (and MIDI
sequences with soft synths contain few accidental peaks like a recording would).

The best time to use a compressor, according to Mike Senior, is when you keep feeling the
need to reach over an adjust a fader on a certain instrument. If a tracks bugging you, and you
cant seem to find the right fader setting for it, its probably because the dynamic range is too
high and it jumps all over the place.

How to add compression the easy way

This might be controversial, but its a simple approach.

A simple way to add compression is to do the following:

1. Lower the threshold a lot (until you get 510dB of gain reduction)
2. Adjust the attack and release times to taste
3. Adjust the ratio until you find the sweet spot
4. Increase the threshold or lower it further if needed

Notice how these are simple steps without much explanation? Compression is something that
relies on your ear. I cant tell you what your attack or ratio settings should be for each
instrument.

The reason for lowering the threshold a lot initially is that it allows you to hear what the
attack and release are doing more clearly. If youre getting little gain reduction, its much
harder to hear when the compressor starts kicking in.

Tips & Tricks

Dont add too much compression. Theres nothing worse than a lifeless track.
Use different compressors for different characteristics, but keep in mind that as an EQ
is an EQ, a compressor is a compressor.
Use an oscilloscope to see how the signal is being affected.
Want peaks to initially punch through but not for long? Increase the attack (this, by the
way, is how you add punch to an instrument).

More resources

You asked for em:

A Complete Compression Tutorial

Mixing Secrets for the Small Studio by Mike Senior (I mentioned this in the EQ email
already, but I dont care, its a great book).
Mixing with Compression by Matthew Weiss (20% off with discount code
'EDMPROD')

Talk to you soon. Have fun compressing!

- Sam

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