compressor question

  • Thread starter Thread starter stereovein
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stereovein

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i was just wondering what attack, release, and knee mean when working with compression. i can tell the audible differences when i adjust it but i have a feeling that if i knew what they meant i could utilize them a little more!
thanks so much!
your friend,
mike
 
Attack: the amount time BEFORE the compressor starts compressing. Set long to allow a loud attack through; set short to compress almost immediately after the signal crosses your set threshhold.

Release: the amount of time after the compressor kicks in that you want it to keep compressing for, more or less regardless of threshhold (Is that right? Can anyone help fill in here?).

Knee: the compression ratio and how sharply it kicks in (a soft knee gradually increases the ratio as the volume rises; a hard knee is at your ratio setting as soon as it kicks in)

This is fairly close, at least.... I'm still pretty much a newbie myself. :)
 
...Good shot escatun. My 2 cents, if you run prog like SONAR or CEP, and you do have compressor plugins, you can tell visually what and how they works. Just see the graphic shows the input line on the bottom, and output line on the left, and the diagonal line from bottom left to up right that transforms the input to output. As you make a change on the value of each parameter, you can see the affect in the diagonal line. If you smart enough to "read" it, then you have an idea of what they do...

;)
 
James is right there is no better way to see what you are doing with compression and expansion than on a computer where you can view the wave form. If you are using a computer. mess around, make drastic changes and see what you get. Study the wave form on a kick drum before & after the compression. The best way is to duplicat the raw track and leave one untouched track to compare with.

Compression is a bitch! Have a ball:D


F.S.
 
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