Rucklo High - Compression

[Rucklo]

Compressors

- Righty oh, what the hell is a compressor?

- A compressor is an effect unit that lowers volume, nothing else.

It's quite a difficult unit to understand, wich makes it difficult to explain, but I'll do my best here, and you can just ask questions in the thread and I or somone who know what they're doing will answer.

When does a compressor start working?
- A compressor will start working when the signal (measured in dB in most, if not all, compressors) have reached a certain threshold, wich you yourself have decided. It will lower the volume with a certain amount, set by the ratio. And it will start working X milliseconds after the attack, and get back to "normal" X milliseconds depending of your release.

Since I'm a dedicated Reason user, the compressor of choise for the first picture is the M-Class Compressor. most compressors have similiar knobs though.

Get it? No? Let's start cracking on it instead....

Note, multiple compressor ratio are MULITPELS. More of this later. Just starting to slap it in your head now already!

[Rucklo]

This is how I usually set the compressor on a sound. If you do this the right way, you should hear the difference and thus hopefully understand what it does, and use it properly.

If you don't know what you want to compress, I suggest you just pick a random kickdrum and loop it while working the knobs! The kickdrum I will illustrate and use as an example, kicks in at -5dB. Look at it, how beautiful it is, uncompressed and pure!!!

[Rucklo]

#1 - Set the ratio to infinite, or as high as it goes (20:1, 40:1 or whatever is maximum).

A ratio set to infinite will make the compressor work as a limiter. That's right, a limiter is just a compressor with an extreme ratio (dedicated limiters are usually faster than compressors when it comes to the attack, but you'll understand once we get to talk about attack).

#2 - Set the release to minimum. We'll be working this knob later on.

#3 - Start by setting the threshold rather to 0. Now slowly twist it downwards. Let's pretend that you are looping that bassdrum I spoke of, and that it kicks in at -5deciBell (with "0" being maximum volume before the software, and the soundcard starts distorting).
Once the threshold reaches -5dB, you should be able to hear that it starts lowering the volume of the kick.
Set it down to at least -30dB, so it works qutie alot, and you clearly can hear what it does.

I'll MS-paint some shit, trying to illustrate what the compressor do, and what the ratio do in perticular;

[Rucklo]

Hopefully that was understandable, what the ratio do, is that it lowers the volume above the threshold. In the case with the bassdrum, a 2:1 ratio will lower everything above

#4 - Now it's time to set the attack. Basicly, I always start out with the attack, just setting an extreme threshold and ratio, just like I earlier described. Now, you set the attack to minimum (measured in milliseconds, unless you've come across some secrut alien compressor from deep space).
Slowly increase the attack-time, and listen to the "klicking sound" in the beginning of the kick.

Attack time decides how long it will take for the compressor to start working, so if you set attacktime to 50 milliseconds, it will leave 50 milliseconds uncompressed. This can be used to create a punsh in transient sounds, like a kickdrum, or snare! Whoo!

Set the attack to whatever you think sounds OK. Obviously this depends on what you're after, in the world of audio, everything does.

#5 - Release is next. So, attack decided how long it takes for the compressor to start working, and release decide how long it will take for the compressor to STOP compressing, after the volume have gone down to below the threshold

i think i have type that twice to understand it... don't be ashamed to read it twice ^_______^

So here's another pic trying to illustrate what the release and attack do.

[Rucklo]

Yeah that image sucked ass, but I hope you see what I mean. I'll say it again;

- Attack is the time before the compressor compressing with full effect.
- When the signal have gone below the threshold, release is the time it takes for the compressor to stop compressing.

So a compressor actually lowers volume. You will have to compensate the gain, if ´that's nessecary. That's why alot of compressors have "output-gain". This will change the volume of the signal AFTER it have been compressed.
If you have an input gain, this will simply make the signal higher BEFORE it compresses.

Easy, eh?

If you compress a sinewave, it will force it into turning into a squarewave, effectivley distorting the signal. I'll just note that, if you don't know what the hell I'm talking about, nevermind. If I get the time to, I will make a tutorial of what sound really is, on a more physical level with lots of yada-yada.

Anyway, if you have any questions, remarks or whatever, shoot em out here, me or somone else will be around helping out, discussing etc.

- An expander, by the way, makes the signal louder when it's above a certain threshold.

And as a final note, like earlier mentioned; Adding multiple compressors will actually MULTIPLY the compression. If you compress a bassdrum with a 5:1 ratio, then route it into a drum-group where all the drums get compressed 3:1, and after that the whole damn song gets compressed with a 2:1 ratio, the total amount of compression applied to the kickdrum (after all compressors attack time is passed) is 5x3x2 = 30:1!!! Think about that before deciding to crush things with compressors!

Here's the image to compare the uncompressed bassdrum in our example. The compressed bastard have;
ratio of 5:1
threshold at -30
attack: 14.7ms
release: 29.9ms

lol compress

[SBB]

...am I like allowed to post now?

Thanks for making this tutorial- I've never really understood how compressors work-

which is why I'm using... limiter :/

[loogiesquared]

At 6/16/07 06:07 PM, SBB wrote: ...am I like allowed to post now?

Thanks for making this tutorial- I've never really understood how compressors work-

which is why I'm using... limiter :/

whatever happened to making your song, then record it while you turn the volume knob?
[i used to do that =P]

[Rucklo]

i was just about to delete the last post and fixing a typo, but whatever Here's the confusing thing;

At 6/16/07 05:58 PM, Rucklo wrote:

- Attack is the time before the compressor compressing with full effect.

Correct thing wouldbe Attack is the time before the compressor start compressing with full effect.

bla bla bla

[B0UNC3]

This is great ruck, however there are minor things that I'm not quite satisfied with... I'll take that with you on msn and we'll see if u want to edit your post.

Keep em coming bitch <3

[Rig]

compressor + master bus = teh awesome!

lol

[B0UNC3]

At 6/16/07 06:33 PM, RigAudio wrote: compressor + master bus = teh awesome!

lol

That's a possibility....But that is NOT a possibility here tho.

[ZENON]

Huge, full "metal" drums + Uber compression = fuckin' awesome sick sound.

Fact.

[Rucklo]

At 6/16/07 07:39 PM, ZENON wrote: Huge, full "metal" drums + Uber compression = fuckin' awesome sick sound.

Fact.

wrongfully done = squashed and crappy sound.

Fact.

[Bandwith]

I never use compression.

[SBB]

At 6/16/07 08:13 PM, Bandwith wrote: I never use compression.

Stop it, you're scaring them! :O

[Bandwith]

At 6/16/07 08:15 PM, SBB wrote:

At 6/16/07 08:13 PM, Bandwith wrote: I never use compression.

Stop it, you're scaring them! :O

>>
<<
Ehehehe...

[ZENON]

At 6/16/07 08:11 PM, Rucklo wrote:

At 6/16/07 07:39 PM, ZENON wrote: Huge, full "metal" drums + Uber compression = fuckin' awesome sick sound.

Fact.

wrongfully done = squashed and crappy sound.

Fact.

You're silly if you do it wrong :O

Fact lolzozlzol

[B0UNC3]

At 6/16/07 08:17 PM, ZENON wrote:

At 6/16/07 08:11 PM, Rucklo wrote:

At 6/16/07 07:39 PM, ZENON wrote: Huge, full "metal" drums + Uber compression = fuckin' awesome sick sound.

Fact.

wrongfully done = squashed and crappy sound.

Fact.

You're silly if you do it wrong :O

Fact lolzozlzol

You're silly if you actually tell people how to do it wrong.
:Facts

[darkkloud]

i use compression, but never a compression in my PC, i use all my compressin from my guitars effects pedal. hell, i leave nothing to my PC when it comes to my G-tar except for the recording lol. but you did good here ruck, real good.

[DavidOrr]

Wonderful stuff here Rucklo. What other tutorials have you written?

[DJ-Ravecore]

This is really helpful! Good work Rucklo.

Btw. since when are you producing music?

[MackerelSalad]

Thanks again for a perfectly fine learning course at Rucklo High.
I knew how to do it, but now I even learned something new. :D
What's the next lesson gonna be, dude?

[pitbulljones]

Rucklo goes to school to teach us about music yays!

[B0UNC3]

At 6/17/07 04:46 AM, DJ-Ravecore wrote: This is really helpful! Good work Rucklo.

Btw. since when are you producing music?

Since before you got here ^^

[Rucklo]

Glad you peeps liked the tutorial, there are many aspecst of a compressor, and you can take it's usage to many different levels. I tried to keep it quite simple and not get in to too many techniques of specific situations etc. That's something to discuss in this thread when somone have something to ask/come with! Point was to learn what the different settings actually do on a compressor.

I have no job or anything to do during summer, well, I have things to do, but not as much as before, so I will most likley make another tutorial or two, we'll see.

At 6/17/07 04:46 AM, DJ-Ravecore wrote: Btw. since when are you producing music?

Uh, you didn't know i was making music? *sob*, i feel so underrated... :(

At 6/17/07 06:13 AM, pitbulljones wrote: Rucklo goes to school to teach us about music yays!

not anymore, i've finnished the course :(

[B0UNC3]

At 6/17/07 06:47 AM, Rucklo wrote:

At 6/17/07 06:13 AM, pitbulljones wrote: Rucklo goes to school to teach us about music yays!

not anymore, i've finnished the course :(

You never told me what your grades you got.

Btw, I'll let you in on my "special plan" if you're interested.

[Rucklo]

At 6/17/07 08:14 AM, B0UNC3 wrote:

At 6/17/07 06:47 AM, Rucklo wrote:

At 6/17/07 06:13 AM, pitbulljones wrote: Rucklo goes to school to teach us about music yays!

not anymore, i've finnished the course :(

You never told me what your grades you got.

We don't get grades at the university, either you pass, or you suck. Well, some courses might have "grades" etc, but in the final papers it will only say if you passed or not.

Btw, I'll let you in on my "special plan" if you're interested.

sounds interesting. hook me up on msn.

[B0UNC3]

That would have been easier if you were actually logged in :P

[B0UNC3]

How do I bump a topic for having good reading value?

Ooops

[/sarcasticbumpfornogood]

[Chronamut]

what ever happened to a song just sounding good??

but noo.. now a song may sound good - but then someone has to go and analyze it under a spectrogram and see "oh look.. that level is a bit too high"

music has gotten a bit too snobby in some cases for my liking..