►► Download “The Fundamentals of Compression” FREE Guide https://mixdown.online/compression

*** Correction: At 8:14, I meant to say that a very fast “Release” can produce distortion and not “Attack”.

Here is a good article on this topic from my good friend Tosho at Mixing Tips.
What Is Multiband Compression? 3 Best Places to Put It!

(video transcript)

Hey, what’s going on, my friend? Chris here from Mixdown Online. I had a good one for you today. I’m going to show you how you can train yourself to hear compression.

Welcome and thank you for watching. We are going to dive into compression today. It’s going to be a very cool one, but first, if you’re new here on the channel, feel free to subscribe to the channel, to click the notification bell so you don’t miss anything.

For all of you, share and like this video if you think that the video is helpful. You can also download the Fundamentals of Compression Mini Guide for free. I’m going to leave the link right on top and down below.

Now, let’s talk about compression. Compression is something that can be very difficult for us to understand and for us to listen to and to hear and to notice what compression is. It’s not like EQ. EQ is pretty much straightforward, but compression can be very tricky.

I’m going to share with you a very cool tip, something that you can do on your own as an exercise to train yourself to hear compression.

The first tip to understand what compression sounds like is to understand the concept of the sound envelope.

Now, the sound envelope represents the varying level of a sound wave over time, and that breaks down into four areas, the attack, the decay, the sustain, and the release.

Now, I’m not talking about compression parameters. I’m talking about the sound envelope. If we look at the attack of the envelope of a sound, this is the first initial part of the sound itself.

It’s where the sound reaches its maximum level. The decay is going to be the drop in amplitude of a sound over time from the highest peak point until reaching the sustain level.

Then the sustain is the period of time during which the sound will resonate before it starts to fade out. Then we get to the release, which is basically the time of that fade out or the final reduction in amplitude of a sound over time.

This is the envelope of a sound or the sound envelope. It’s very important to understand that concept of the sound envelope because every time you’re going to work with a compressor, it will affect the sound envelope of the signal you’re adding compression on.

Now, let’s jump in Cubase and look at the FabFilter Pro-C 2 that I’m going to use that as a compressor.

That is visually very appealing and very easy to follow, so that’s why I’m going to be using this one for this video. We’re going to focus on three parameters off this compressor, the threshold, the attack, and the release.

Now, the attack and the release are two very important parameters found on the compressor and that will affect the sound envelope of the signal you’re compressing.

We’re going to focus on those parameters to start our training, to train ourself to hear compression.

Once you have that figured out, it’s going to be way easier for you to hear compression and to determine which type of compression you’re going to need to compress your sound.

You’ll be able to determine how much attack and release you’re going to need to compress your sound, depending on the sound you’re working on, by doing only that exercise that I’m going to show you right away.

First, we’re going to set up a threshold because we want to have compression. To have compression, we need to set up a threshold point. When the signal goes past the threshold, the compressor is going to start working. It’s going to start compressing.

Now, I’m going to work on a snare drum. Okay? This is basically what we are going to do today. Working on that snare drum is going to be easier to hear what compression sounds like using a snare drum.

Now, I’m going to overdo things, and this is the number one rule when you want to train yourself to hear compression, or if you want to train yourself to hear all sorts of effects. You need to overdo it. This is the only way you’ll be able to hear what compression sounds like.

Now, this is not a video tutorial on how to mix a snare drum at all. It’s only about hearing compression, so that’s why I’m going to overdo things. Let’s start by having a quick listen of that snare drum and I’m going to just tweak the threshold value to make sure we have some compression going on. Okay.

Now, I’m getting like 15 dBs of gain reduction. That’s going to be good for the exercise. Now, let’s start with the attack time.

Now, the attack time is basically the amount of time it takes for a signal to get fully compressed once the threshold has been reached. Now, if we have a quick listen to a fast attack to see how that sounds like, this is what we are going to get if we overdo it on a snare drum.

Things to remember with a fast attack, you get a bit more control, you get a smoother sound, a darker tone also. On the full mix, a sound can sound a bit more distant also with a faster attack. It’s going to sound more processed also. If you’re looking for a more processed kind of effect, a faster attack will do the trick.

But a fast attack can also suck the life out of your sound. It’s always a matter of balance. Now, let’s try this out with a slower attack. Okay?

I’m going to bring the attack to let’s go with 40 milliseconds, which is very slow for an attack time on a snare. Let’s have a quick listen to how that sounds like. We initially had way less gain reduction. That’s because we’re letting a lot of the initial transits through in a way and that’s why we have a bit less gain reduction.

I just brought my threshold lower just a bit. Also, we’re getting a bit more impact out of that sound. But on the other hand, we have less control. If you’re working within an uneven dynamic sound, that might be a problem.

If your attack is a bit too slow, you’ll have a bit less control. It’s always a matter of balance depending on what you are compressing. This is what you have to look for with a fast attack and a slow attack.

Now, let’s work on the release. Now, the release is the opposite of the attack. It’s basically the time it takes for the compressor to recover once a sound has been compressed. This is the release time. Now, I’m going to bring down my attack to 10 milliseconds and I’m going to focus on the release time only.

Let’s bring the release time very slow to 320 milliseconds. Let’s have a listen. Okay. Now, let’s go with a fast, super faster release, 10 milliseconds. Let’s go into 30 millisecond release time. What we get with a fast release is a bit more excitement.

It sounds louder also. It’s a bit more aggressive, and we have that sense of urgency. Too fast of an attack though can produce distortion. This is something you need to pay attention to. A slower release will have more control on the sound.

It will even the sound out also. It’s going to sound smoother. But on the other hand, if you have a too slow of a release time, that can also suck up the life of your sound.

Again, it’s a matter of balance and it also depends on the tempo of the song. It depends on the type of instrument you’re compressing. Those are the main parameters to start with to be able to hear compression, the attack and the release time. Once you’re used to hearing that effect, what the attack and release does to your sound, you can jump on the ratio. Try with a two to one ratio, a 10 to one ratio, six to one, eight to one, four to one, and so on.

Once you’re used to that effect, then you can try with different types of knee, a soft knee, a hard knee and medium knee, that also has a very nice effect on compression.

Once you’re used to all those different parameters and settings, you can try with a lower gain reduction. Start by using a snare drum like I did in this video. A snare is a very high transient type of sound, which makes it a bit easier to hear compression. Try to pay attention to what the compressor does to the sound envelope of your signal with a fast release, what that fast release is going to do to the initial attack of your sound, what the release time is going to do to the sustain of your sound also.

On top of the snare, you can try that on a kick drum, a bass guitar, a drum bus, which is also very good, a vocal, of course, the mix bus, a piano, guitars, and so on. Repeat that exercise on a lot of different types of sounds.

I’m telling you, if you do this on a regular basis, you’ll get way better at hearing compression and hearing the effect of compression, which is going to end up giving you the ability to make better judgment calls during mixing. There you go, my friends. This is going to be it for today.

I hope you enjoyed this video. If so, share and like, and don’t forget to subscribe to this channel if you’re new here. Again, I have my free guide on compression available for you to download for free. The link is down below. All right, my friends. Take care and I’m going to see you next time. Bye.