Dobro,
Glad to hear your working on it !.
For your second question - For controling peaks only you should limit and not compress. A limiter will remove spikes and peaks from your track and maximize loudness. ( there are also negetive things too like add distortion)
A compressor will level out dynamic problems, and give you a more consistant averege leve. A;so it willl faten your tacks making them sound fuller.
AS to your first question - You should hear the difference in the initial attack of you instrument. On a fast attack setting it will cut sharp peaks and the instrument will sound smoother. On a slow attack (letting the initial attack to come through before going to work) will give you a punchier sound or more clear attack.
Example - when playing
acoustic guitar with a fast attack, it will sound duller then with a slow one becuase on the slow attack the compressor will let the instruments attack of the note, pass through before it compresses. and that will make the attack sound exxgerated = clear with lots of defenition.
On a fast attack it will compress the peak of the guitar alond with the rest of the note and so it will sound duller.
This can be very important to making it stand out in your mix. You got to love it !!
* Hit a snare a couple of times through a compressor.
* Set the ratio between 3:1 and 10:1
set the release so that the leds on the gain go off between hits.
* Set threshold at 3 to 9dB gain reduction
* Set the attsck very fast ! and now slow it down and "listen to the attack of the snare" !.
You should hear the difference !
Attack is most clear when using instruments like bass snare guitar. __________________________________________________________
Mister qcue,
Hard knee and soft knee are similar to using a attack.
On hard knee the compressor will compress the full ratio you set, as soon as the signal passes the threshold.
With soft knee it will start to compress but with a small ratio. and as the input level gets higher, it starts to compress with a higher ratio. In short it is a gentler process.Little by little untill it's at the full ratio you set.
With soft knee you will get a more gentle compression becuase if the input is around the threshold you set, it won't clamp on your signal with a very high ratio EVEN though you might have set it to 5:4 as the input level goes higher it starts to raise the ratio to your setting
and so... compressing harder.
Of course soft knee sounds more natural.
You would use a soft knee for a compression on a mix or something you think needs subtle compression.
Hard knee you could use on bass or a kick drum etc..