Need help in understanding 'compressors'

[Edu Cesar]

Originally Posted by shackman

For what it's worth my view is that "The compressor is one of the most OVER used tools in audio recording. "
(...)

Agreed!

[brandondrury]

For what it's worth my view is that "The compressor is one of the most OVER used tools in audio recording. "

I personally feel that there are just as many under-uses of compression as there are over-uses in amateur land. It's always a tricky balance. EQ is the most abused, by far, in my opinon.

But that's smart advise, tho' "compress the peaks and then pull up the output!"

haha ..have a dirty feeling, tho', that that might also increase the background noise considerably

Compression definitely brings up the quiet stuff. You have to be prepared for that and you have to be careful how much compression and makeup gain you use.

Compression DOES do a great job, BUT it can change a vocal into something almost mechanical, or make a guitar sound like a synth.

I've never managed the synth part, but both of these could be great things depending on what the music calls for. Compression can add a huge amount of excitement to the right track too. The word "right' will come up a lot with the compressor. The rules for jazz music are 10 trillion percent different than the rules for an industrial record or whatever.