Grimy,
I'm not sure about the level of sarcasm in your last reply, so I'll handle it both ways. If there wasn't ignore the rest of this paragraph. If there was, I just want to make sure you understand no one who responded was being a wiseass. Well, maybe they were, but they did give you the proper answer. There really is no way to answer your initial question as asked ("What settings work best?").
To answer your specific question about threshold, the threshold is the level at with the compress will actually begin to compress the input signal. Let's say you set the threshold to -20 dB. That means signals under that level will be allowed to pass through the compresser unscathed. As soon as an input signal reaches the level you set in the threshold, the compressor will begin to reduce the level of the signal by the RATIO setting.
Suppose your ratio is set to 2.5, which is a reasonable value to use for, let's say, bass, assuming that the bass actually needs compression. If you assume that I'm playing bass for you, it WILL need compression (I'm no Jaco/JPJ/Geddy/Ox/etc.) Now let's say an input signal comes in at -15 dB. That's above the threshold, 5 dBs above it to be exact, so it will get compressed. Since your ratio (2.5) goes into that 5 dBs two times, that means the 5dBs above the threshold in the input signal get compressed down to 2 dBs above the threshold. The output signal at this given moment in time will therefore be -18 dB.
To sum it up, the threshold is the level at which the compressor begins to compress an input signal. If you want more of the signal compressed then set it to a lower value (to pull a number out of the air, -30 dB instaed of the -20 I used above). If you want to let more signal through unaffected, then set the threshold higher.