I didn't mean to make you feel dumb. The question was more literal than that, I really *was* wondering why you felt you needed compression. Why compression intrigues you instead of mic placement, preamps, reverb, effects, to name a few examples.
My questions and comments were definitely intended to help.
So I'm still asking part of the same question again: what are you recording? Voice, guitar, keyboards?
You have a good recorder there, so you should be able to do some good work.
Before compression, the first thing to work on is getting your gain staging right. This will have a huge impact on how good your recorded tracks sound. The idea is to get a good signal to noise ratio. This means that you want your recorded signal hot enough that the residual noise of the mic/preamp is very low in comparison. Two common mistakes are to record too low, meaning that the quality of the track is compromised due to a high noise floor competing with the music, and recording too hot, which leads to distortion and generally pushing the gear past it's sweet spot.
An outboard compressor can help with that if used properly, but is not necessary. And probably to be avoided until you get a little further along. Better to learn things the right way first and then add gear gradually as your needs and knowledge grows. Compression can be overdone very easily and you can ruin your recordings with it if it's over used.
What mics are you using?
, I was simply pointing out that someone was trying to help you. But your insecurity and paranoia made you respond with a whiny, defensive post. It seems to cloud your already impaired judgement. 