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Understanding compression

RA's Jono Buchanan simplifies one of

the most misunderstood of production
processes.
In this tutorial, we'll be looking at how to get started with compressors. Along with EQ and
reverb, compression is one of most common types of processor used around the world's
recording studios. To understand why this process is so popular, we need to understand
what compressors do, what their parameters are and how the role they play can be
useful to individual sounds, groups of sounds and even to entire mixes. As with all
technological processes which balance music-making with "science," this tutorial will aim
to simplify a complex technique.

A compressor's role is to reduce the dynamic (volume) range of the audio file or
instrument onto which one is inserted, effectively lessening the volume gap between a
part's quietest and loudest moments. It's easiest to think about this when a compressor is
applied to a long, dynamic part such as a lead vocal, though of course an individual drum
sound has a dynamic range toothese start with a loud initial hit and fade to silence, so
drums have a wide dynamic range, it's just that this range plays out over a short period of
time. We'll see how compressors can help shape drum sounds a little later, but first let's
see what they do for longer parts with less predictable dynamics.

To understand how compressors work, it's worth analyzing their key parameters to
understand how these combine to reduce dynamic range. In this picture, you can see
how volume rises if a sound starts from silence and grows to maximum volume along a
linear path.

The first parameter common to all compressors is Threshold which sets the point above
which dynamic change will occur. By placing the Threshold point in the middle of this
volume rise, the quieter section of the sound will remain uncompressed, while the upper
section will have its dynamics compressed.

The extent to which the level of the audio above the Threshold Point is reduced in
volume is set by the Ratio. A Ratio of 2:1 will ensure that the volume above the
Threshold only grows to half its original volume, whereas a Ratio of 4:1 will reduce the
volume to a quarter of its original. The greater the Ratio "number," the greater the volume
reduction applied to the compressed section of the audio file, as you can see here.
What this means is that the overall dynamic range of the sound changes. Whereas the
original dynamic range is "total," the new dynamic ranges are smaller. If you set the
Threshold point in the middle of a linear volume rise like this and set a ratio of 2:1, the
new dynamic range will be 75% of the original. If you set a ratio of 4:1 it will be 62.5% of
the original.

You can see the colour-coded new dynamic ranges for these compression values over
on the right-hand side. As these show, using Threshold to determine the point above
which compression occurs and any Ratio value above 1:1 (where no compression would
be applied), the dynamic range and the volume of the sound decrease. Often, producers
use compression to ensure that volumes appear "louder" than their uncompressed
equivalents. So how does that work? If compressors reduce volume, surely the
processed audio will be even less easy to hear than the original?

To understand how compressors "add" volume, we need to jump to their final parameter,
that of Output Gain. The final stage of any compressor allows you to "make up" volume
levels to restore the loudest moment back to the level you want. In this image, you can
see that by boosting Output leveloften referred to as Make-Up Gainboth the Yellow
and Orange compressed signals have been returned to their original volumes so that
their loudest points match those of the original, uncompressed signal.

Crucially, you can see how much of the original dynamic range is removed altogether by
noting the "lost volume" dotted lines at the bottom. Effectively this means that this portion
of the original dynamic range simply no longer exists in the compressed versions of this
sound, meaning that the quietest parts of these linear sounds start at 25% of maximum
level (2:1 Ratio) and 37.5% of maximum level (4:1 Ratio). In turn, this means that the
quietest moments of the compressed sound will be easier to hear, as their levels are
boosted, while the loudest moments remain as loud as they were in the original. So,
average volume levels have been boosted in both compressed versions of the sound.

Now let's look a more extreme version of compression. Again, let's start with a sound
which fades in from silence to maximum volume but this time we're setting Threshold
much lower so that almost as soon as the volume is heard the compressor sets to work.
We're also setting a higher ratio of 8:1 so that the amount of compression applied is high.

You can see the vast difference in the dynamic ranges between the compressed and
uncompressed signals on the right, where the compressed level represents a tiny
proportion of the original's full range. Applying Make-Up Gain here produces an
incredible amount of "lost volume," meaning that as the loudest moment is restored to
maximum volume, a huge amount of the quietest parts of the signal are also substantially
boosted in volume.
Again, this means that the audio file will always be heard. If a sound with this amount of
original dynamic range featured within a track alongside other instruments, it's inevitable
that the quietest parts of its volume would be drowned out by competing elements within
the mix. After such heavy compression, it would be audible at all times.

Extreme forms of compression like this are referred to as Limiting and if the DAW you
use features a dedicated Limiter, you now know that it applies an extremely high Ratio
(perhaps even as high as infinity:1) to levels above a Threshold Point to prevent them
getting any louder than this level, before automatically or manually allowing you to boost
volume to bring levels up. This "flat line" approach to dynamics reduction can be hugely
effective on certain parts of a mix but it would be wrong to think that the answer to
balancing levels in your track is simply to squash dynamics on every part. Dynamics play
a huge role in ensuring the parts within your mix ebb and flow and sound natural and mix
headroom will be compromised hugely if everything is simply made as loud as possible.

Of course, it's also true that it's highly unlikely that parts within your mix will start from
silence and fade up to maximum volume. While the above graphs demonstrate how
compressors would work with signals with predictable amplitude rises, most audio files
rise and fall in less predictable ways. Vocal parts, in particular, frequently register on the
"fairly quiet to fairly loud" scale, with phrases and individual notes rising and falling
depending on the strength of the performance, their recorded level and the demands of
the backing track over which they have been recorded.

Now that we know how Threshold, Ratio and Make-Up Gain work, we can start to think
about compression settings for parts like this. Again, it helps to work backwards from the
loudest moments in a performance. Frequently, vocals suffer from having levels which
are too quiet in some places but too loud in others, so that while some sections of a
performance dip below a level to render them unintelligible, other notes might stick out
too much. The best way to approach vocal compression, then, is to place the Threshold
somewhere towards the middle of the overall dynamic range, while setting a Ratio level
which provides adequate volume drop to pull down the level of the louder notes. Lastly,
use sufficient make-up gain to bring up the levels of the quieter sections which are being
drowned by competing tracks.
There's no way to specify exactly which settings will work best as the variables of the
style of music you're making, the recording levels of the vocal performance and the
competition for space within a mix are just a few key components which make providing
default settings impossible. In this way, be hugely careful about loading compression
settings from preset menusas no preset list can analyze your track's needs. You'll
achieve much better results configuring compressors yourself rather than hoping a preset
will achieve a better result.

The other parameters within more comprehensive compressors extend to Attack,

Release and Knee levels. All three of these allow you to determine how "naturally"
compression settings will be applied. In the grabs above, you can see how the volume
increase lines sharply change at the Threshold point, with obvious deviations above this
level as the sound moves from uncompressed to compressed. This point is referred to as
Knee as, like a real knee, you can either see a steep, acute angle at this point (imagine
your leg in a sitting position), or a more gradual slope (including your knee-cap) if your
leg is stretched out in front of you. Compressors refer to Hard Knee and Soft Knee to
describe these approaches, the latter of which allows for the volume to briefly continue
along its original, uncompressed path, before bending in the direction of the Ratio level
as you can see in this image.

Attack and Release times set the speed at which compression settings are applied as the
sound passes through the Threshold point as it gets louder (Attack) and as it converts
back to uncompressed from compressed as it gets quieter (Release). These controls can
have a radical approach to the resulting sound.

Let's suppose you have a kick drum which features quick Attack and an even Decay
speed so that over a total period of 500ms the sound attacks and decays to silence. You
want to use a compressor to "lengthen" the sound by compressing the Decay period so
that as the volume naturally tails away, the compressor fights this volume drop, pushing
up its level in the process. Obviously, having Threshold and Ratio controls alone wouldn't
achieve this goal, as the sound would be compressed instantly, thereby compressing the
initial Attack as much as the subsequent Release. However, by setting a longer Attack
time the hit point at the start of the kick will be ignored altogether by the compressor, with
its parameters only starting to work on the sound later on, achieving the result you want.

By setting the Attack Time at 100ms, the whole of the beginning of the sound would
remain uncompressed, while the following 400ms of the sound would have its dynamics
processed in accordance with your compressor's settings.

You can hear an example of that here, where a kick drum with
high Ratio and low Threshold has its Attack time modified via
automation. At the beginning, with Attack times of just 1ms, the
whole sound is compressed whereas as the Attack Time
lengthens, only the Decay portion of the sound is compressed.

This is how producers use compression to shape the sounds of their drums by choosing
bespoke settings for each percussive element in turn. Remember, for best results, each
drum hit will need to be on its own channel. You'll get a different result compressing a
kick drum separately from a channel which features both kick and snare simultaneously,
for instance, as the compressor will only have one sound to process rather than two.

Of course, like most effects processes, as well as having a literal role to play,
compressors regularly have their parameters creatively abused by producers to produce
alternative effects. Compression is one of those effects which, when used literally is
barely heard. As it's rare for an individual sound to be heard both compressed and
uncompressed within a mix, the listener isn't treated to before and after versions of
compression within a track. As an alternative, consider how changing levels of reverb are
regularly applied through a track, or the way that delay effects might be switched on and
off to highlight particular phrases or words.

However, some of the more alternative treatments using compression are designed to
reverse the naturally transparent nature of compression. The best example of this is side-
chain compression which is now a common trick used in many genres of dance music.
Usually, this works by inserting a compressor into the output channel of a mix so that the
entire mix is subjected to dynamic range treatments. However, rather than simply
allowing the compressor to respond to the natural dynamic contours of the track, it
receives a separate input via a side-chain channel. In this way, it "listens" to the
secondary input and responds dynamically to this instead. You can, of course, feed any
signal in as a side-chain trigger but the most common use of this trick sees the kick drum
part used so that every time the kick plays the output of the compressor (which,
remember, will affect the entire mix if used in the output channel) ducks, producing an
obvious level drop. This technique is clearly heard in tracks like Eric Prydz's "Call On Me"
but it's been used on thousands of other tracks too, producing a deliberately warped,
sucky result. You can hear before and after examples of how such tricks can be effective
below.

A mix with no compression

A mix using a sidechain compressor

Another way to use compression dynamically is to put a

compressor after a reverb plug-in assigned via an auxiliary to a
vocal part. This can be effective when you want to apply longer
reverb times but don't want the reverb to "fight" the lead vocal.
That's what you can hear in this clip as the vocal part is clearly
swimming in reverb.

By placing a compressor after the reverb and assigning the lead

vocal sound as a side-chain trigger for the compressor, the reverb
level will drop whenever the vocal part is performing but rise
whenever a phrase finishes, providing long reverb times in gaps
but apparently smaller levels when the vocal is in full flow.

So now you know how compressors work, you can go forth and apply them literally, or
with deliberate, dynamically-oriented creativity in mind. One last point: While
compressors are fantastic tools for lessening dynamic range, it would be wrong to think
that, in most cases, a compressor alone will provide such smooth dynamics that every
word or phrase within a vocal part, in particular, will be perfectly balanced from start to
finish using compression alone. The reason DAWs feature volume automation tools is
because they are nearly always neededalongside compressionto create the illusion
of perfect level balance throughout a track. If you find you still have words or phrases
 poking out of your mix, don't assume your compression settings are wrong. If you've
found a compression treatment which works for a good proportion of your mix, you've got
it right and volume automation will happily help you balance the remaining trouble spots.

Words / Published / Photo credits / Also available in /

Jono Buchanan Mon, 7 May 2012 Header - Dominic Alves Japanese

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37 comments
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Viewing 1 - 6 of 37 comments

orbitsugafree Sun, 14 Aug 2016

Am I the only one that is seeing a blank white space where the audio examples
are supposed to be?

These tech features look incredible, help!!!

bardobasho Tue, 31 Dec 2013

Thank you so much, super useful. Clears up a few questions of mine.

abyadb Wed, 4 Sep 2013

Thanks for this piece Jono, so clearly written and informative.

tractbas Wed, 31 Jul 2013

Compression's a good thing.

fourfourfun Tue, 30 Jul 2013

I like that efabric has provided 5 different remixes of his comment.

eluxir Fri, 26 Jul 2013

Thanks for sharing this! Very helpful. Cheers!

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