when compressing....should the threshold be in between the signal (i.e sometimes the signal going over it and sometimes under it)

or should the threshold be below the signal all the time.....

the reason i'm asking this is because i'm trying to compress and i've put it in between and its obvious when the compressor keeps in and out and its unnatural....maybe i got the settings wrong but i'm just checking whats more correct from the above

thanks

 

As a rule of thumb, yes, though it doesn't always have to be far under the peak. It depends what you're compressing of course and what effect you are looking to achieve. Most likely that you have your ratio too high and/or attack/release times aren't timed correctly if it's sounding overblown.

Some info on what you are compressing, and why, would be useful...

 

acoustic guitar for example.....why isn't it better for the threshold to be always be under the signal? wouldn't that give a more smooth result since the compressor won't activate and deactivate based on when the signal goes over and under?

 

If the threshold is always under the signal it cannot trigger the compressor and so no compression will take place.

 

sorry i meant it the other way...what if its always over the signal..whats wrong with that? so that there's no kicking in and out

 

if i dont get it wrong, u want just to get a compressed audio, not an effect with this tool... so check attack and release, if i have to guess, maybe there are the problem from where u start going down the threshold and start to sound unnatural.
if its too hard, get some compressor which have dry/wet ability !!

but attack and release its my bet. did u know that u can calculate AND see where the transienst and stuff happen?

 

If it's always over, the compressor will not be triggered either.

Some of the signal should get above the threshold in order to kick the compressor into action.

 

It depends on the attack and release time. It's not unusual for both attack and release to trigger numerous times while the material remains above the threshold because release engages the moment the output falls below input (release is not monitored by a compressor threshold).

 

Not correct, take FirComp set the threshold to min and watch the GR meter. Even the attack time is applied when its compressing all the time.

@stav, there is no general rule for this. Vocals are often compressed with an 1176 (emu) to catch the peaks and an LA2A (emu) to compress it all the time, especially when you think of its incredible long release time (up to 30secs). You can do this also with an accoustic guitar, if you want.

If your compressor produces unwanted pumping you need to adjust its attack and release times.
Whether you want to constantly compress a signal or not depends solely on the signal and your goal.

 

Compression principles 101:

 

I meant if the threshold is always above the signal.

If the signal is always above the threshold, constant compression will be applied, and att/rel behavior can be observed indeed.

 

depends on what you're doing.

If your'e just lookingto tame some parts that are a bit too loud then you should set it so it only reacts to those parts. if you want to keep things very controlled or just add a compressed effect then it should probably be set to compress all the time and so on. Then of course different compressors on different settings will react diffently, some analog emulations for example do a very good job at compressing constantly without you noticing too much, others don't. So there's a lot of vartiation in results and it's something you need to try.

Take a look at this (2:20:00 - 4:00:00). Yes, a bit long, but if you know what a compressor does but you're struggling with how to actually use it, this is gonna make things a lot clearer.

 

Semantics? But it's not physically compressing the fed signal until it does, or not that I have ever experienced or seen. If FirComp is receiving signal one can see it being metered, of course, but it's not actually compressing the audio until you see it doing so. What's the threshold for if for not setting the threshold?

???

 

What I meant (and obviously failed to achieve) is, even if the threshold is permanently below an existing/audible signal, the compressor including its attack time is triggered.

 

Ideally you should be able to tell by ear what compression does to your sound, and not theoritize on paper.

 

How far below?

 

I think you ment to say "above the signal".

 

semantics can help. at first read i didn´t even understand what he means with "signal", as it could mean anything.

the collegue who pointed him to a "what is a compressor" tutorial nailed it. if you don´t know what it does, you don´t know how to operate it.

 

I've never thought about it that way - "threshold between the signal". It's best to just listen. Train your ears to hear what's going on. Once you start hearing what's going on, you will never wonder. Dynamic drum loops, possibly live loops, are great for that.

 

Come to think of it, I never know where I set the threshold, well I listen to it and set it where it feels right, but still that doesn't really mean anything because what to hear and the ability to hear, detect it is the most important thing. I don't remember compressing a track for the sake of compressing which truly a strange way to look at it for me at least. I didn't learn it that way. It's always something else I want to do, but doing it with compressor. Never had a need to "compress" track because it needed compression, I don't even know what that means. I think of it as tame/leveling the peak for headroom, leveling the "meat" so the track's volume consistent, reshape the attack/release so it will hit differently, change the groove (microdynamics) so it moves correctly with timing, blend things/tracks (bus comp) to add togetherness, relax/excite the low/high end or transients,side-chaining for space, making things louder.. to list a few. All of those have different threshold to set for its specific task, sometimes it's all the way down, sometimes halfway or higher, sometimes at track's RMS point, sometimes just on the tip of the peak, sometimes not even reaching the peak (still triggering because of the soft-knee). Try formulate a better question please, not a proper way to look at things if you ever want to learn more about endless compression technique/dynamic manipulation and worse no definite answer for your question. What is it you are hoping to achieve with the compressor/compression ? think of that 1st, then maybe others can give you accurate answer or close to it. Also does it need a compression to begin with, if it needs it, what is it you want to control/tame/enhance, by figuring out that question and learn settings for the att/rel/sidechainEQ/ratio accordingly, slowly you will know where to set the threshold on just like that simply by listening does the settings work or not. Where to start ? experiments with presets on your fav compressor plugins. The preset name should give you the idea what it does and learn where you should put the threshold level to make it work.

 

Last edited: Jun 18, 2024