In this article Studio Slave aims to cover: what compression and dynamic range are, Common compressor parameters and settings, the different varieties and models of Compressors available as well as how to set a compressor up, the different types of compression and also some useful tips and tricks when applying compression.

Compression is a fine art form that when used correctly can do wonders for the mix.

Compression can serve many different purposes from colourisation, sound sculpting and shaping, dynamic control and side-chaining.

Many producers in the digital era have got into the habit of throwing compressors on every channel and not putting any thought into the settings used, or using presets which may not do the sound as much justice as dialing the settings in yourself would.

Older producers didn’t have the luxury of these kinds of resources and often only had a few hardware compressors to use within their whole mix.

Because of this, it was important that they knew their compressors, and how to use them inside out.

Did you know?

The techniques covered in this article are put into practice during our Tech House 2017 Course. Whilst the course is genre specific, a lof of the techniques can be easily applied across genres. Click here for more information.

WHAT IS COMPRESSION

Compression is the process of reducing the dynamic range between the loudest and quietest parts of an audio signal. attenuating louder signals that exceed a certain threshold in order to boost the overall output signal. This results in an overall louder perceived volume.

There are many different forms of compression such as upward and downward compression, parallel compression, multi-band compression, glue compression and bus compression as well as side-chain compression. Each of these types of compression has a number of different uses and functions within a mix.

SO WHAT IS DYNAMIC RANGE

Dynamic range is the ratio of the softest sound to the loudest sound in a musical instrument or piece of electronic equipment. This ratio is measured in decibels (abbreviated as dB) units.

Dynamic range measurements are used in audio equipment to indicate a component’s maximum output signal and to rate a system’s noise floor.

As a reference point, the dynamic range of human hearing, the difference between the softest sound we can perceive and the loudest, is about 120 dB.

16-bit audio has a dynamic range of 96dB and 24-bit audio has a dynamic range of 144dB.