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S1E15 – A Quick Up-Start With Compression

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In this episode we’re going to be talking about compression!

Compression is probably the trickiest tool to learn as a music producer, in addition, it will also be the last tool that you’ll fully comprehend, too!

We cover the basics of most compressors (threshold, ratio, attack, and release), as well as cover the knee (some compressors allow you to adjust this), and more advanced compression techniques, like upwards compression.

We even go further by describing how to get started using a compressor, what to listen for, and how to use a compressor so that you know the settings you’ve applied are actually benefiting your music!

Learn how to balance a vocal, or shape/mold a sound with your attack and release knobs!

Compression Mastering Mixing

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S1E15 – A Quick Up-Start With Compression

  1. Hey, this is Gratuitous. Welcome to Music Production Made Simple, the show that
  2. focuses on best practices about music production, which is based on FL Studio.
  3. If you're wanting to become the best producer you could be, subscribe and listen
  4. weekly. You can also check out my courses which teach you the principles and basics
  5. of music production. They'll get you up and running quickly.
  6. In addition, I also have books on Amazon and tons of music on Spotify.
  7. Always feel free to hit me up at Hi at it'sgratuitous.com.
  8. So let's get into the episode.
  9. Alright, hey, what's everybody?
  10. Welcome to episode number 15. In this episode, we're gonna be talking about a quick
  11. startup with compression. Now, a compressor is a super cool tool.
  12. it has a lot of uses. in my early years, I actually found compression extremely
  13. tricky to understand, and most people do.
  14. And the reason for this is a lot of tutorials kind of dumb down a compressor.
  15. And the thing is, when you dumb something down so much, sometimes it's actually even
  16. harder to learn than if someone just told you straight up, you know, what it is and
  17. how it works, you know. I'm gonna break down in this episode, you know, how a
  18. compressor works, you know, best practices in a sense of how to kind of set up a
  19. compressor to get it going for you.
  20. just to let you know, I also have a course on compression too, okay?
  21. Because the thing is, you know, when you're kind of new to producing, you you know,
  22. you watch the all these tutorials about you know they're showing you how to use a
  23. compressor and stuff like that.
  24. the reason why I created this course is specifically as like a beatmaker, like how
  25. we beat makers can use compression in our beats, you know, creatively and you know,
  26. in our everyday uses, okay? So the course is called Why We Producers Use
  27. Compression. And again, on my website, I offer a membership, it's just $10 a month,
  28. or you can do a lifetime membership, it's just a one-time payment, or you can just
  29. purchase the course just by itself, okay?
  30. I just want to also give you a little update about my microphones, the shotgun
  31. microphones, okay. So I got them shipped in off of Amazon there.
  32. and again, the reason why I wanted the shotgun microphone is because I wanted a
  33. high-quality audio. I want a microphone that picks up my audio directionally,
  34. because now I have a green screen and I don't want you guys to see the microphone in
  35. the course. I want to be able to talk with the green screen without the microphone
  36. and you know high quality and stuff like that.
  37. So I purchased two microphones..
  38. I wanted to try in between them, and I was going to return one
  39. So it was the Sennheiser MKE600.
  40. And then the other one was an Audio Technica AT 897.
  41. And I actually like the Sennheiser better.
  42. I just felt that like the actual build quality of the Sennheiser just felt better.
  43. I believe there's kind of like a German company, you know, made in Germany.
  44. Anything made in Germany is just amazing, right?
  45. But obviously the sound is what really matters, right?
  46. So when I actually compared it, they both sounded pretty good in terms of you know,
  47. it picked up my voice very naturally, but I found that the audio technica was quite
  48. aggressive on my S's. so therefore I'm gonna be going with the Sennheiser MKE.
  49. I'll be returning the Audio Technica.
  50. but and the reason for that is because you know, when I'm editing videos and stuff
  51. like that, if I always have to focus so much on like the S's and you know, I that
  52. means I have to always DS. And it's just really, really annoying to always focus on
  53. that. Like, you know, you want high quality audio and the Sennheiser, I was very,
  54. very happy with it, okay? So again, that's the Sennheiser MKE 600, if you want to
  55. check it out, okay? Okay, so let's get into the actual episode.
  56. So, you know, again, like I'm saying, so a compressor is probably one of the hardest
  57. tools that you're gonna have to learn as a producer.
  58. You're gonna hear this all throughout the industry, and you know, so what you have
  59. to learn about a compressor is first of all, you know, how it works in a sense of
  60. yes, the threshold ratio, attack and release, which we'll cover in a moment, but
  61. then you also have to train your ear to know what you're listening for, okay?
  62. And one of the trickiest things for me when I was starting up, you know, watching
  63. tutorials and stuff about you know what is a compressor, what's the point of a
  64. compressor, how does it work? was really understanding, you know, what does a
  65. compressor even do? So there's actually different uses of a compressor, okay?
  66. So, you know, you could be using a compressor for volume balancing, but the easiest
  67. way to think of a compressor is just like an automatic volume knob, okay.
  68. So imagine you know, you have this vocal and you can just simply use volume
  69. automation instead of using a compressor.
  70. And typically it's probably better to use volume automation because it sounds more
  71. natural. a compressor can actually bring negative artifacts, such as like you know,
  72. bringing up the sound of your room.
  73. for example, if you have like your computer fan, or you can even just kind of sound
  74. kind of just squashed, you know.
  75. That's probably the best way I can describe it is if you're too aggressive with a
  76. compressor. whereas volume automation, you can use that, and that's probably like
  77. the best way to start with a vocal is to use like volume automation, and there are
  78. even like plugins out there which can do it for you automatically.
  79. So, anyways, so you you can use like volume automation on this vocal just to you
  80. know kind of make those quiet words a little bit louder, make it more consistent,
  81. therefore, you know, all words are audible in the mix, and then you could be using a
  82. compressor creatively, which is you know for molding and shaping, okay.
  83. So the two main ways of you know how I use a compressor is first of all, you have
  84. like leveling, okay? So making audio track, in this case the vocal, more consistent.
  85. So all the words are consistent in the mix.
  86. The next way is to use a compressor as a sound design tool.
  87. Okay, so when you have the actual attack and release knobs, you can actually mold
  88. and shape a sound. And this is where a compressor actually gets really, really fun.
  89. If we talk about like a kick drum, for example, so a word that you'll hear a lot
  90. when dealing with a compressor is what's called the transients.
  91. And the transient is like the beginning of a sound.
  92. So if you think about like a snare hit or a kick drum, it's just like the the actual
  93. initial hit. And with a compressor, you can control and manipulate this transient to
  94. either emphasize it or to kind of reduce it, and that's just with the attack, okay.
  95. So, for example, with the attack, if you open it up, you're allowing the transient
  96. through. And if we talk about a kick drum, for example, so you are actually allowing
  97. the transient through. So you're allowing the kick drum to kind of hit you in the
  98. chest. That's kind of how I like to describe it.
  99. But if you are aggressive on your settings, you know, your threshold and ratio,
  100. you're actually gonna be clamping down on the body.
  101. So, what that means is that the kick drum might hit you in the chest, but it doesn't
  102. have its body anymore, it doesn't have its length, its tail, and typically, you
  103. know, your kick drum is gonna get lost in the mix.
  104. If you make a faster attack, you're actually gonna be squashing the transient and
  105. you're gonna be making the kick drum actually longer.
  106. Now, for a more advanced approach, you could actually be using like parallel
  107. compression, you know, if you want to kind of help that actual kick drum kind of hit
  108. you in the chest a little bit more, kind of treat it like a transient shaper, or if
  109. you want to actually kind of squash it to make that kick drum sound a little bit
  110. fuller, that approach is available, but it's just a little bit of a more advanced
  111. concept, okay. So let's just talk a little bit about you know how a compressor works
  112. in a sense of you know, your threshold, your ratio, your attack, and release, okay.
  113. So, how a compressor works is it will not turn on until your audio actually goes
  114. over that threshold, okay? And then you will not have gain reduction unless you have
  115. a ratio amount set. Now, this is where people dumb down a compressor, and this is
  116. where it kind of, you know, because they dumb it down so much, it makes it hard to
  117. understand, okay? So, just to keep it simple, let's say we have our threshold, okay?
  118. And the thing is when it comes to a compressor, it's like you I can't just give you
  119. numbers, and you know, they're gonna translate to you know any piano sound or any
  120. guitar sound.. And the reason for that is because you know, every recorded signal
  121. has different levels, okay So, for example, if I say, you know, put your threshold
  122. to minus 15, it's like, well, it's all relative to the actual audio that's being,
  123. you know, ran through that compressor, okay.
  124. So just to keep things simple, you know, let's say we've you know adjusted our
  125. threshold, and let's say our audio goes over by 10 decibels, okay?
  126. If we set our ratio two to one, now in theory, we should have you know only five
  127. decibels that go over that threshold, which means that our gain reduction meter also
  128. has five decibels, okay. Now, this is the thing where it's kind of confusing to
  129. somebody because now when we have our attack and release settings, this is what
  130. dictates how fast or how slow your compression actually starts to happen.
  131. And to take it even further, I think it's the attack magazine.
  132. you know, you can check them out on Google.
  133. they're a pretty popular you know, web I guess, website.
  134. I don't really know too much about them, but I do remember reading this article, and
  135. they're they are the only place where I've ever read this information about a
  136. compressor. And that article says something about like two-thirds of your actual
  137. desired ratio, and I just always found that interesting because I haven't read that
  138. anywhere else. But to keep this simple, okay, so again, if your audio goes over the
  139. threshold, then we have a two to one ratio, okay?
  140. Now your attack determines how long it takes to get to like that desired ratio,
  141. okay? And the thing is, if your audio goes over the threshold really, really fast,
  142. then your compressor may not have time to clamp down hard enough, okay?
  143. So you may never really get to that desired ratio amount.
  144. You know, you know what I'm saying?
  145. So, for example, if your audio goes over that threshold by 10 decibels, but it
  146. happens really, really quick. and if you have a you know slower attack, you may
  147. never really get that full amount of compression.,
  148. So, you know maybe you want to dial in you know higher ratio.
  149. Okay, so again, now your attack just determines how fast or slow your compressor is
  150. going to actually you know reach that desired amount, and then again, you can get
  151. creative with this attack knob because you're affecting like the transient.
  152. Now, here is how the release works, okay?
  153. So it's kind of tricky. So the release doesn't kick in until your audio actually
  154. goes back under the threshold.
  155. Okay, what's happening is your audio is still being compressed depending on your
  156. release timing. Okay, so if you have a longer release, that means that once the
  157. audio actually goes under the threshold, your audio continues to compress, but it's
  158. slowly going back to its original volume.
  159. Sometimes it can like bring up like the actual sound of the room.
  160. and on some compressors, a lot of compressors nowadays they have it like programmed
  161. inside of it where you can't get distortion by having too fast of a release.
  162. But some compressors, if your release is too fast, you can actually get distortion
  163. because from just from my readings and stuff like that.
  164. what happens is the compressor starts to follow like the single cycles of these
  165. waveforms, and it just starts causing like oh you know, distortion.
  166. so if you're getting distortion, just increase your release time and it'll go away.
  167. when you have a longer release time, you know, you just kind of have a little bit
  168. more control over that audio. you know, so these are these are even things where I
  169. even have to train my ears and learn more as well.
  170. but just in general, that's kind of how a compressor works, okay.
  171. So you know, you have your threshold when the audio goes over your threshold,
  172. depending on your ratio amount.
  173. You know, I just think of you know, do I want to be more aggressive?
  174. Do I want more control? And then I also think about you know what's the purpose of
  175. me using this compressor on this sound?
  176. Am I wanting it to actually kind of balance out that sound?
  177. You know, like you know, do I want it to be more consistent in the mix, or do I want
  178. to be creative with it and kind of play with that transient or bring up like the
  179. room sound, or you know, and that's just to do with like the attack and the release,
  180. okay. Now I'll also mention the knee, okay.
  181. So this is gonna be a little bit hard without actually seeing a visual.
  182. But so when you have a hard knee, it's just more strict, okay.
  183. So when your actual audio goes over that threshold, then your compressor actually
  184. kicks in and it starts working.
  185. When you have a soft knee, so for example, let's say we're talking at minus 15,
  186. okay. So if we had a hard knee at minus 15, then that means that your audio actually
  187. has to go over minus 15. Let's say one to minus 10.
  188. Yes, your audio, yes, your compressor is gonna kick in.
  189. Now, let's say you had a soft knee, okay, and again, our threshold at minus 15, but
  190. a soft knee actually starts compressing even before minus 15.
  191. So it would be you know, maybe like minus 18 or even a little bit lower, so you can
  192. actually be getting compression happening even though your audio isn't going over
  193. minus 15 with a soft knee. And the reason for this is you know, some people think it
  194. sounds a little bit more natural because it kind of gradually builds up.
  195. So, again, that's just kind of how a knee works.
  196. And some compressors have like kind of a hard knee option and a soft knee option.
  197. Some actually allow you to have like a variable knob so you can kind of dial in the
  198. knee that you want, okay? So that's kind of cool.
  199. So I want to talk to you about two of my golden rules, which I've discovered
  200. producing music over these years, okay.
  201. So, with a compressor, it's really important that you level match, and this isn't
  202. just with the compression, it's with EQ and other effects too.
  203. And so the thing is when something sounds louder, typically we think it sounds
  204. better.. Okay So, you know, for example, if you're mastering a track and you know,
  205. you listen to the one that's a little bit louder, typically, you know, you lean to
  206. the one that's louder, you know, it sounds more you know energetic, but that doesn't
  207. mean that it it is actually better, okay?
  208. So when it comes to using a compressor, you want to make sure that you're setting
  209. your volume. So, for example, when you have gain reduction, you have to be making
  210. sure that you use makeup gain.
  211. And sorry, I didn't talk about makeup gain with a compressor, okay?
  212. So, again, let's just go back for a second.
  213. So, we have our threshold, you know, our audio goes over.
  214. we have our ratio. Let's say we had five decibels of gain reduction.
  215. So now in theory, you should be, you know, having five decibels of makeup gain so
  216. that your actual you know compressed track is the same volume, but now it's just
  217. balanced, okay. But the reason why I say in theory is because just because you have
  218. five decibels of gain reduction doesn't mean that you actually want to have five
  219. decibels of makeup gain. because when you actually go to turn the compressor off and
  220. on, this is what's gonna dictate the actual makeup gain that you want to set.
  221. Okay, so what I mean is so let's say we put a compressor on a vocal, okay?
  222. We're listening to it, and so now yes, it's turned down the volume.
  223. So now what you want to do is you know increase your makeup gain.
  224. Let's say the gain reduction meter said five decibels.
  225. I might start with maybe let's say 3.5 to 4 decibels of makeup gain, and then I'm
  226. gonna turn the plugin off and on, and that's gonna give me a fair volume comparison,
  227. okay? So I want to listen for before and after that the that they are the same
  228. volume. Now, you don't want to spend tons of time with this, you know, especially
  229. like you know, if you're mixing a track, you don't want to spend tons of time
  230. because it's you know you're gonna waste time.
  231. Mixing's all about you know your the speed and flow, you know, you know, it's a
  232. process, right? But if you're just doing this just to learn, so when you turn a
  233. plug-in off and on, try to get as close as you can.
  234. That you know, that fair volume comparison.
  235. The reason for this is now you can actually accurately compare the before and after,
  236. okay. And an awesome way to learn a compressor is just to be a really aggressive
  237. with it. So with a compressor, your ratio, so you know, if we go like two to one or
  238. four to one, those are typically you know good starting points.
  239. Four to one's getting a little bit aggressive, you know, eight to one's even getting
  240. way more aggressive, and then you know, again in theory, anything over 10 to 1 is
  241. you're getting into like a limiter, okay.
  242. So a limiter is pretty much the same thing as a compressor, except it's way more
  243. aggressive, okay. So to train your ear, you know, be aggressive with this
  244. compressor, you know, put it to the to that 10 to 1 ratio, you know, bring down that
  245. threshold, but just make sure that your volume you know is the same when you turn it
  246. off and on, and you'll actually be able to start training your ear for what you're
  247. listening for, okay. Now, in in a real world practice, you know, this is what I
  248. would do even when I'm mixing a track, and again, it's just gonna allow you to make
  249. more accurate decisions in your mix because now you can actually get a fair
  250. comparison to the before and after.
  251. Like, is your compressor actually benefiting your music?
  252. Because a compressor is actually such a powerful tool.
  253. you can suck the life out of like you know, your actual music, you can bring up
  254. unwanted noise. okay, so you know, a compressor is really powerful, but you just
  255. want to make sure that you're having a fair volume comparison.
  256. Now, the next golden rule that I always like to do with when using a compressor is
  257. using the A and B comparison, okay?
  258. So most compressors, not all, but for example, like Fab Filters Pro C or in FL
  259. Studio, the Fruity Limiter, it has an A and B comparison.
  260. So instead of turning the plugin actually off and on, you can actually compare
  261. against two different settings.
  262. So for example, let's say you know you had a high ratio, okay, but your threshold
  263. doesn't come down very low. So, in other words, any audio that goes over that
  264. threshold, you know, you're compressing it quite hard, but not much audio is going
  265. over, okay. So, again, that's kind of like a high threshold, high ratio, okay.
  266. And then maybe you want to also approach it maybe like a low threshold.
  267. So, in other words, you go down like minus 24, minus 30, but then you have a low
  268. ratio, okay. And when you go A and B, you you can compare between them.
  269. Again, you want to make sure it's a fair volume comparison and you can hear, you
  270. know, are you actually benefiting the music?
  271. Are you giving it a different sound?
  272. Is it the way that you're wanting to go?
  273. and many times I'll try like both ways, you know, I'll be aggressive with one, or
  274. you know, when you're working working with the attack and stuff too, like you can
  275. start dialing that in. So, for example, you can have like a higher ratio and a
  276. longer attack, or you can have like a faster attack and like you know a smaller
  277. ratio. these are just things to play around with and be creative with.
  278. So by level matching, making sure that when the plugins off and on, that is a fair
  279. volume comparison, and then also comparing between A and B, these are awesome ways
  280. for you to make more accurate decisions in your mix, and these are these will
  281. actually be decisions that you're gonna keep and keep moving with, okay, rather than
  282. you know, kind of soloing out a sound.
  283. that's kind of like another golden rule that I always talk about is mixing in solos
  284. very dangerous, okay. So, for example, let's say there's that piano and you just
  285. can't get it to stand out, you're like, oh Oh, well, I'm gonna put a compressor on
  286. it, right? Now, again, you want to make sure that you have like that fair volume
  287. comparison.re that you But if you' gonna actually solo out the sound, it's very,
  288. very dangerous because anything're processing, you know, with that piano, and let's
  289. say you spend you know five, ten minutes with it in solo, you know, now you're gonna
  290. bring it back into the mix. It's like, how do you know that what you just did to
  291. that to that piano is actually gonna flow with your mix, okay?
  292. So you always want to reference back and forth between you know, if you like the
  293. thing is you can mix in solo, but you have to do it quick, okay.
  294. So if you take that piano, you solo it out, you put some you know compression on it,
  295. you want to bring it back into the mix and you just want to reference back and
  296. forth, okay. Again, turning that plugin off and on, listening for am I actually
  297. benefiting my music, okay. Now let's just talk about you know some kind of like
  298. advanced forms of like compression.
  299. And typically when you hear you know someone say, Oh, put a compressor on it, what
  300. they're actually talking about is what's called downwards compression, okay.
  301. So any audio that goes over that threshold, you're actually reducing its volume,
  302. okay. And then in your gain reduction meter, then you use makeup gain to bring that
  303. volume back to where it was, but now your actual audio is more consistent.
  304. In the case of like, let's say we're doing volume balancing, not so much like the
  305. molding and shaping, right? But still, even the molding and shaping, when people
  306. talk about you know a compressor just in general, it's typically downwards
  307. compression. But the more advanced forms of compression is what's called like
  308. upwards compression. And instead of actually turning down the loud parts, you
  309. actually bring up the quiet parts.
  310. And it's just kind of a different mindset.
  311. It's very, very interesting. And in all honesty, it's very, very confusing when you
  312. want to go dial in these settings for like the first time.
  313. a really awesome plugin is by Fab Filter, it's called Pro MB.
  314. I'll actually leave a link for you in the resource section for this episode.
  315. and it allows you to use like upwards compression and stuff like that.
  316. And again, it's just it's a very, very unique way to look at audio.
  317. And when you were dealing with more advanced concepts, many times this is what you
  318. know these mastering engineers are even using as well.
  319. and it's very, very beneficial because you can still get like those peaks, you know,
  320. within like your music, but you're now you're bringing up more like the body.
  321. Okay, so it you know that that's very very creative if you're if you're not aware of
  322. it, okay. I think that's this episode on you know compression again.
  323. If you want more information about you know how to use a compressor with some real
  324. kind of audio examples, you know, starting points and you know what to listen for.
  325. again, just check out the course.
  326. It's called why do we producers use compression?
  327. And I break down again from a beat maker and producer standpoint of how we actually
  328. use a compressor in our everyday lives, you know, making our beats, mixing our music
  329. and everything that pertains to compression with you know making beats.
  330. So hopefully you guys like this episode.
  331. Hopefully, you learned a lot. If you have any questions, always feel free to reach
  332. out to me. And I will talk to you guys in the next episode.
  333. Thanks for checking out the episode.
  334. If you had any questions, visit it's gratuitous.com slash podcast, select an episode
  335. and submit your question at the bottom of the page to the contact form.
  336. If you'd like to take my FL Studio courses, see my current studio and podcasting
  337. gear, read my books or are interested in lessons.
  338. Visit the link it's gratuitous.com slash learning.
  339. That page will redirect you to more info and resources.
  340. I hope the best with your productions.
  341. I'm gratuitous, and I'll see you in the next
  342. episode.
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