Basic Compression?

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studiogenocide

studiogenocide

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I need someone to explain THRESHOLD /RATIO/GAIN as it appears in my Waves Compressor. I have been playing with it for a couple of years and I understand the "feel" of it, but I need some exact math as to how ratio affects the output and so on and so forth.
 
The link Drummer4life05 gave you is very good and correct. But wordy, tedious and tiring but offers great info.

To shorten it:

COMPRESSOR: - Regulates/Limits the excessive volume of sound

LIMITER: - Is a compressor without all the controls.

THRESHOLD: - "How loud should the sound be before the compressor triggers?"

RATIO: - "How much compression should be applied?" 1:1 means no compression, 4:1, some, INF:1 total compression. Select the one that suits your ears or the one that sounds good to you.

GAIN: - Member of the INPUT and OUTPUT group. INPUT - How loud you want the sound to enter your compressor. Limit it so that it does not distort and you get a cleanest and loudest signal (average with occasional peaks) you could get. OUTPUT - Simply the volume level of the compressed signal you want to feed out.

ATTACK: - "How fast you want the compressor to react when a sound meets or exceeds your THRESHOLD?". The less milliseconds, the faster the attack.

RELEASE: - "How long do you want your compressor to keep compressing after it triggers since threshold was met". The more milliseconds, the longer"

Now after learning all of the above, reread the link again, and learn more, it offers a lot of information. Great info and link. Thanks Drummer!

Hope that helps.

Tony A.

------------------
"There is no greater joy than in sharing and giving"
 
tonyA said:
LIMITER: - Is a compressor without all the controls.
Click to expand...
Hmmm.... it can be, but any compressor with a high enough ratio and fast attack settings can be a limiter.

You acheive "LIMITING" by setting a compressor with a very high ratio (> 25:1) with a fast attack. The release will also tend to be fairly fast (10-75mS)...
 
You must have misread what I meant Blue Bear,

a LIMITER - is a COMPRESSOR with less some of its' (COMPRESSOR'S) controls.
 
I don't think what you wrote is what you wanted to say!

My point is LIMITING is not a compressor with less controls, it really just describes a compressor's settings for a particular application.
 
Yes of course, Blue Bear, you could obtain limiting by your compressor settings, but not vice versa. In short, a LIMITER could be considered as a strip down COMPRESSOR.

Is that all you do around here Blue Bear to get high post score? Tear somebody's post down by shooting from the hip, just like you advised somebody abour CD-R/CD-RW totally clueless yourself. I am not going to let your arrogance pass me anymore by letting your inaccuracies go pass us while you tear everybody every chance you could. I am not saying you are not technically savvy - just arrogant. But your ignorance shows.

Explain this error - one of your posts:

https://homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?s=&threadid=115049
 
My. my, resorting to name calling now....I think I won't dignify that with a reply.

But we are here to help, so I will stay focus on the subject:

LIMITER: Sets the upper limit on the volume and will not allow the signal go above that volume.

COMPRESSOR: Reduces the changes in volume, so that the dynamic range of the compressed signal is lower than the dynamic range of the output signal.

COMPRESSORS are normally sold as COMPRESSORS/LIMITERS because with its controls, you could achieve a LIMITERS functions, but not vice versa.

STUDIOGENOCIDE: There are a lot more to learn about these, but for your needs as I gather, stick to what I have just told you. When you need more, then explore other things and meanings like DYNAMIC RANGE, etc. And remember to ignore those who posts just to boost their ego and keep a high post score but shoots from the hip. They're a plenty out here....

That is how I teach my students, the black and white first before learning the grays....Learn the ABC's before writing a poem....

Learn manners, courtesies before calling someone names....there are half-wits and nit-wits......you know what I mean...
 
Tony,

Thanks for all the good info on this topic. I have a Behringer compressor and I also use the Waves Compressor in Cakewalk.

The most important thing I took from that article is to STOP using the pre-defined settings. Now that I understand a little more about compression, I wont be afraid to change some settings to suit a particular track.

I am currently recording some new songs in my home studio. I decided to try something new in the mastering phase. I added compression to the entire stereo mix. It seems to be giving my music a really cool "Punch" or "In Your Face" sound. I like it alot, and I am planning on using this method on the rest of my songs for this particular project.

Just curious..... Are there others reading this forum that have tried this or are currently doing this to a entire stereo mix of a song?

Steven
 
Steven,

> The most important thing I took from that article is to STOP using the pre-defined settings. <

Absolutely. By definition creating compressor/limiter presets is not even possible because appropriate settings depend entirely on the volume of the source!

Besides the wordy and terse versions given, here's one you may find to be "just right." Go to my Articles page:

www.ethanwiner.com/articles.html

Then look for the compressor tutorial, sixth in the list.

--Ethan
 
The Waves compressor--at least the Renn. Maxx version--has some other features that you might want to look at. Specifically, the settings ARC, Opto/Electro, and warm/smooth. These options are unique to the Waves compressor so generic advice about compression might not apply. The following article has some useful information (see the final section):

http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articl...9fed7e1e97dc4c9a862566e70067b116?OpenDocument

You can also find more Waves-specific information in the PDF files that come with the software.
 
Thank you Tonya. And Blue Bear, for what its worth, I did need the black and white and you fed me some gray. I appreciate it immensely.
Maybe Tonya has a point with you tearing down other members? Remember Psychology 101 states 2 positives then a negative. It is obvious you know what you are doing, but I can also understand that once you get to a certain level of expertise, folks have a tendancy to forget that they once too were clueless.
I have read many of your posts Blue Bear and you are some kind of awesome- but it is way over my head especially when it comes to the math part of recording which is what I hate the absolute most.
Tonya, can I have your email address? I would love to ask you a couple of questions about specifically two other plug ins I have that seem to be key to that "commercial" sound. Thanks again guys and I mean that from the bottome of my heart. You are wonderful!
 
Actually it was Tony A who started the name calling, saying Blue Bear was arrogant, which may or may not be true, but at least he gave the correct definition of a limiter.

As for presets, hardware compressors with presets can be the best. Take the LA2a, works on just about anything.
 
Knightsy, yes, it does appear that way, doesn't it. My apologies. I didn't mean to. I wasn't calling him names. I was describing his action.

Actually, I diplomatically ignored his post and posted mine and didn't even mention how glaringly wrong he was. But only edited my comment to him, when I saw he incorrectly lambasted me at other thread, so I went back there and edited it with my that unfortunate comment (you could see the edit comment)

Believe, it is so unlike me to call people names and retaliate, and I apoligize to you, him and everybody. Any name calling is uncalled for.

It scares people to ask questions and defeats the purpose of this Bulletin Board.

I have before, but feel must, at this juncture, announce and acknowledge once more that Blue Bear is one of the most knowledgeable member of this Bulletin Board and his input and posts are greatly appreciated by hobbyists like us. I could never hope to equal, much less exceed his knowledge AND SKILLS in Recording. But there are times that there are things that I have detailed knowledge of.

I have always believed, that every person I meet on the street is better than me, in one way or the other. Like a Dentist is better than a lawyer when it comes to teeth, but likewise, the lawyer is better than the dentist in the field of law. I believe we should all be aware of that. Besides, this is America, isn't.

There is always joy in sharing like we all do now. and that is why:
__________________
"For God so love the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him, shall not perish, but have everlasting life"
 
Wow, from 1999, I had 75 posts, took five years, and in the last month, I doubled it. I must get a life.....:) Well this is not a bad life. I enjoy this board.

Studiogenocide - I will leave you my email at your mailbox in this board.
 
...

america eh....

well come north and we'll all grab a beer. I can't come down there cause your drinking age is too high...
 
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