Imagine you're mixing a vocal. The singer goes quiet on the verse and screams on the chorus. You'd ride the volume fader DOWN during the loud parts and UP during the quiet parts to even them out.
That's compression. It rides your fader for you. Faster than you can. Forever. Without complaining.
Cool — let's fix that in 5 minutes.
The threshold is the volume level where the compressor kicks in. Anything LOUDER than the threshold gets pushed down. Anything quieter is left alone.
Drag the threshold slider. See the LOUD parts get squashed in real time:
See how the louder parts of the OUTPUT (right side) are shorter than the INPUT (left side)? That's the compressor at work — pushing the loud parts DOWN so the whole thing sounds more even.
If threshold and ratio decide HOW MUCH to squash, attack and release decide WHEN to start and stop.
Attack = how fast the compressor reacts when the signal goes over the threshold.
Release = how fast it lets go after the signal drops back down.
Move the sliders. See the curve change. Slow attack = transients (the snap of a snare, the crack of a "T" sound) get through before the compressor catches them. Fast attack = the compressor grabs everything immediately.
Trained engineers can hear bad compression in 2 seconds. After this zine, you will too. Listen for these clues — then pick the one that's been squashed too hard:
You don't need to memorize this. Just know it exists. Save the page, come back when you need it:
When you click Mix & Master in our console, here's the compression happening per stem — automatically, tuned by genre:
Vocals get a 3:1 ratio with a 10 ms attack and a slow release. Then a dynamic de-esser. Then a "soothe" pass that catches harsh resonances without dulling the air.
Drums get parallel compression in the style of a Neve 33609 — heavy compression on a duplicate channel, blended back with the dry signal at 40%. That's how pros get drums to punch without squashing.
Bass gets an opto-style comp with a medium attack so the pluck/transient breathes, then aggressive on the sustain so the low end stays glued.
Mix bus gets SSL G-Bus comp glue — the legendary "30% of mixing is just this one comp" trick.
Drop a vocal and beat. Hit AI Analyze. Our system does every compressor move from this zine — automatically, tuned to your genre.
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