I have trouble getting my head around it...."I dont understand for every 10db that goes over the treshold 1db comes out as a output". And also "the higher the ratio the more compression happens"
If can someone enlighten me would be great!

 

That's because you're new and don't yet realize that we have our own academy which will make understanding this concept a breeze. This is just one topic but there are a bunch in that section of our forums so spend your weekend exploring: AudioSex Academy (Part 1) The first set of videos are quick tutorials but the first season is in-depth so I recommend to go straight to that. I will be adding more, as will other members, as time allows.

 

You have got the whole internet. Read. Ratio works like any other ratio (1:1 is no compression and above 10:1 is regarded limiting).

I once was given a compressor by a friend, because he thought it was broken, which it wasn't. Lol. Still use it to this day (boss cs-2).

 

image you are on subway packed train, ok?
a woman crush your feet with high heels, this is a low ratio compression with fast attack.
then a fat woman with summer flats crush the other feet, this is high ratio compression with slow attack.
then you are upset and get out the subway and so a bus squash your feet...this is limiting.

 

i hope this is big enough:

 

To understand this, you first need to understand why the ratio system.

The ratio system, as proportional system allow to control but keeping differences in the sound dynamic, which is more respectful to musical expression.

Example: You have a solo from a guitar. The guy plays with all his heart, and the power of his notes (the volume) have big differences, so big that some are too high and go saturating or clipping in an awful way. You want a solution to this, but if you get every higher (in volume) notes get down the same way, you are loosing part of the expression, part of the heart.
So the solution is to change the volume of the higher notes, but keeping part of their relative differences. That is where the ratio system comes in.
Think of the " : " sign as a division symbol, so ratio 1:1 = 1 no compression, ratio 2:1 = 0.5 every note that go beyond the threshold will be allowed to go half of their prior level up to that threshold. ans so on.

So if you have a threshold of -5db and a note goes to -1db this note is 4db higher than the threshold right?
So if you have a compression ratio of 1:2 (=0.5), this note will be allowed to keep only half of its power that goes beyond the threshold:
the threshold is -5db -1db = 4db * 0.5 = 2db so now the note will be allowed -3db.
Let us see what happens to next note played at -3db:
the threshold is -5db -3db = 2db * 0.5 = 1db so now the note will be allowed -4db.

As you can see , these notes had a difference of 2db between them, after compression the difference is only 1db, so we have lost part of the expression, but not all.

How can we work with this without thinking mathematics?
Think of throwing metal balls to an elastic web or tissue, depending on how strongly the balls are thrown, they will deform the tissue, but not go beyond.
As you tense the tissue, there will be less difference between each ball trajectory. more or less tense this is the Ratio.
And the balls that don't even reach the tissue will remain with unchanged trajectory. How far or close to the starting point you put your tissue this is the Threshold.

You can find a good help to understand that by experimenting with compressors that offer a graphic view of both the clean and the compressed signal at the same time, like the FabFilter's Pro C.

Hope this helps.

 

love your tutorials post

 

Thank y´all!