Compression settings guide

My preferences are above, in pink.


My gain reduction rarely goes above 3-5dB for any single instrument besides bass guitar.  I try to compress with more compressors in series than a single compressor doing lots of work.

You're thinking literal flat GR..  But compressors don't act that way.  You're shaping the dynamics with the attack and release.

Think of it this way..  Perfect GR with perfect program attack/release would flatten only the parts above the threshold until the signal is a perfectly flat line.

But if you take a snare with an ultra fast transient that you can't normally hear very well, use a fast attack and release to just reduce that initial transient, you have a flatter signal, but the body of the impulse is large untouched.  You then follow with a drum bus compressor with a slow attack that allows an amount of time to progress before compressing, and now you have a rounded impulse with slowly rising front end and then add a fast release and you'll get a quickly falling decay, creating the effect of having a much longer transient that the ear picks up. 

Like this:




So what you are doing is working on different parts of the signal with the different compressors, for shape and color, not just for crushing dynamics.

This is the trick that most pros are using when they use a lot of compressors in series.

Another example is vocals.  A common series compressor trick is to use a fast compressor (1176) and a slow compressor (LA2A) in series.  The 1176 will be used with fast attack and fast release to catch all the really fast transients, while the LA2A reacts to absolute level, only reacting to "loud" sections.  Each will be doing 3-5dB of GR but to different parts of the signal and in different ways.

Using just an 1176 can lead to "too fast" compression and pumping artifacts, while only using the LA2A will still let harsh transients come through due to it's slow attack.

Does that make more sense?

HOW DID YOU LEARN TO HEAR COMPRESSION?? I'm dying over here! can't hear compression for shit!

Ditto.

Its alot easier to hear and set attack and release with the comp slammed at 20dbs of reduction. Get it moving the way you want, then pull back threshold and ratio to taste.

These days I like to slightly clip/limit/automate peaks on some sources before the comp to try and keep the signal in the compressors sweet spot and to avoid big dynamic swings that can lead to pumping/pinching. This also lets you dig in a little deeper without ruining things.

Pump, breathe, hang, splat, smack, impact, glide, smooth, tame, control... just some of things compressors do. Knowing which one does what, how to set t and how to use it are the keys. That will help...

You could ask more pointed questions about, for example, Hugh Pagham's amazing splat on snare drum.

Honestly, I'm not sure even worrying about absolute numbers like that is worthwhile.

Some compressors, like the 1176 can be pushed hard on their inputs for "color" without even doing much compression.  I routinely do this with my LA2A as well to get saturation that happens from the amp circuit itself.

The 33609 loves high levels on it's inputs, much higher than some of the others.  I can max out my master gain into the 33609 and turn up the threshold so I can keep the output gain lower, and thus less noisy.

So mainly I'll jack the level into them until they either give me color I want, or I can turn down their output gains for least noise.

I guess you could say that it's MUCH more important to find their working sweet spots rather than being numerically correct.

JMO, but there are no guides, compression is thee most powerful tool in the bag, everything I do is contingent upon the music at hand, I have some fav tonal shaping comps, and settings I can repeat for a signature sound of a particular instrument/performer i discovered, but that's only ONE of many facets that compression is good for, and accounts only for that specific instrument/performer, there is no formula beyond that as everything changes with every new song, instrument, performer, space, mic etc.
  One of the biggest misconceptions seems to be that compressors are dynamic range shrinking devices..., that couldn't be farther from the truth in music production, the musical use of compression INCREASES dynamics, punch and density of a track, when used well the result creates the exciting illusion of real life, in the room band dynamics, miraculously coming from 2 little speakers, but the reality remains that a lot of folks, including the vast majority of self anointed internet "teachers", haven't a clue of how to use compression beyond UUUGE amounts of smack it down and turn it up, the horrible sonic proof of this is heard everywhere these days, a dead indicator of this fail is the ridiculous energy given to sibs and slice, a wholly unpleasant, unnatural phenomenon, that is PROVEN to lead listeners to turn down, or shut off the music, slice and sizzzzz isn't exciting, it's an amateurish, and painful pandemic IMV.

If there is a "Guide"? it should be the answer to this question.. "what kind of dimensional image do i want to create?", once you answer that question, you can make logical pointed compression decisions, turning a single knob before answering that question is tantamount to getting in your car and driving around without a destination in mind(which incidentally can be fun, and creative, you never know where you may end up 8)

A few thoughts.

First, I'm just a hobbyist. For three decades. But still, just a hobbyist.

And, for ages, I couldn't really hear compression unless it was obviously pumping. And then one day a light went on and it was like oooooooohh, that's what compression can do.

To begin to start hearing it, I'd suggest setting the comp at the highest ratio, fastest attack, fastest release and threshold so that the comp is engaging but not all the time. Assuming the most common controls. If there's a knee control, go hard. A drum loop that's got some fast parts, some slow parts and fills, and hi hat work and cymbal crashes. Lots of hard transients, but also transients plus the body of the drum and hopefully a bit of room ambience on things like slow Tom fills. That gives you a whole crapload of different things and parts of the waveform to bend to your will. And listen for. A fast comp like most vcas probably works best for the learning to hear the comp working.

Now, that drum loops gonna be pumping and probably not so good sounding set at maximum compression like this. Then, play with the attack. Do you want to set it slow and let transients through, or really fast to shave them down. Or somewhere in between. Just play with the attack and listen. When you've got the attack where you want it, move on to the release.  Do you want the comp to "bounce" with tracks, give it movement, or are you smoothing things out, or bringing up the room or sustain. After the release is set, I usually go to the threshold next to decide what is getting compressed, then the ratio to decide how much squash. And then, I compare the compressed signal with the no compressed signal. At the same volume level. Exactly. And then decide if the compressed signal is actually better than the non compressed version.

I think if you have a go at it for a couple hours starting with everything except threshold at max compression and then play with attack first, and the release, and then moving to ratio and threshold, whether a drum loop or a bass line, whatever, it'll start making a whole lot more sense.

And then, if your Daw or plugs model different types of comp (vca, fet, opto, vari-mu) repeat that little exercise.

And then spend the rest of your life working on refining how you use a compressor. Because once you start to be able to hear it, you can then move on to what do you want to do with the compressor, and then which one can best do that. And there are a lot of them.

ok, a lotta typing. Keep all of this in mind. I am a hobbyist. This is just how I started to get a grip on compression. Worked for me. YMMV.

Cheers,
Geoff