So from my understanding

If i put a volume envelope on a waveform, i can decrease louds parts and keep the lower volume parts the same. I can also control the attack and release as per compression by the shape of the envelope.

My question is

can't you get same effect from a volume envelope (as compression).....provided you spend much more time to get there

(lets ignore the colouring differences between compressors)

 

If the volume envelope can work down to a 1ms, yes you can get it to work as a compressor, or expander, or upward compressor, or... well, you get the complete dynamics control [ignoring the colouring differences between the compressors, yes] over your audio. I find volume envelopes nifty, too.

 

how do i check if it can work down to a 1ms?

i'm using reaper daw volume envelope

 

If you use reaper there is a script called envelope based compressor , you can set it and fine tune every hit if you want to , i find it gives more natural sound if you can hear compression artifacts
https://imgur.com/gallery/ajdprDe

 

can't you crossfade it? or fade it, or just lower the volume of transient...find it on the waveform make a selection around it and lower the volume

 

i'm not on that level i believe to understand that

maybe having a second track with same sound and taking it from there helps?

but i really dont' know

 

the difference between an envelope and the gain modulation in a dynamics effects is that an envelope has a limited number of time/value pairs and can only perform certain curves, while the modulation in a compressor/gate/AM/gainfader is free.

so i would say it is something completely different and one can not replace the other.

 

I am just wondering why you'd want to do it (other than as a "fun" exercise) when compressors exist for that reason. It seems like a lot of manual work.. but why bother? Is there a reason? Just wondering. You should be able to "manually" do most, if not all, of what the compressor would do, but it would take quite a bit longer to replicate "manually".

And that's not me trying to say you shouldn't, just wondering why you are. Maybe you're using it to only compress sometimes, for example.. or have a bit more control.

 

Last edited: Feb 17, 2021

i feel like i don't get a good sound out of compression, i don't know why, maybe i can't control them well......also i've been trying very long time to understand it

 

i just made a try in ableton. im able (sic) to zoom in until the single sample points are visible. the automation points are "between" the sample points, if you want. possible? yes! useful? for die-hards, whose make their kicks as hand-forged audios, and never touch midi. for anything compression-like... somewhat fiddly, samsone.
take the time and play with a compressor. eg, a snare, and always the same (!) compressor. ratio really high, you want something to happen! threshold until you can clearly notice something. and than, play with attack and release, and listen!!! what happens with the transient, and what with the tail. nothing for 5 minutes sparetime, theres much to discover.

 

Individual drum samples (or synthetic drums for that matter) I always try to carve the sound with envelopes first, it usually gets me 90% way there. For instance Battery gives me an AHDSR envelope for volume which is way controllable to me than a compressor, also if I want to lessen the transient then just moving the sample start works for that.

Stuff in the drum bus or live drums is another matter, that's when it's compressor time.

For individual tracks, if the compressor is serving just maintaining an even volume, then riding the volume by hand is usually more organic (whatever that means).

That's just me though.

 

Most DAWs have a sample accurate automation no ?

 

everything needs 2 things eq and compression you can use volume envolopes for sidechain but everything needs eq and compression imo

 

Just installed it will give it a try Thanks

 

You can use a volume riding plugin to keep everything relaxed and the volume between the levels that you set.

 

This thing is absolutely useful and incredibly well done.
And don’t forget to check the envelope based deesser from the same author...AMAZING!