Hey man!

Great question!

Compression isn’t as technical as what we think it is, it’s just about knowing the basics of how it all works, and what variables developers have available to us which can modify how a compressor reacts to the audio.

Some compressors give us different curves/slopes (some offer to adjust the curve of both the front end – the attack side, and the back end – the release side, like the Fruity Limiter!).

Depending on the setting you use on Pro-C 2 (“Classic” or “Bus”), I’d assume they just apply different curves or timings which give a different sound. And further, depending on if you’re aggressive or not with your compressor’s settings, it can further amplify that curve’s characteristics.. whether that be a much more noticeable pump, or something is more transparent.

Sometimes more aggressive curves, regardless or compressor settings, is hard to get that transparent sound (which is what a compressor that “glues the mix” does), but I’m sure you can achieve very close results, no matter what compressor type, by playing with threshold, attack, and release settings!

I think what you said summarizes it pretty good:

“is it a case if you.. know how to use any compressor properly you will achieve the same goal”

If you are looking to glue the mix in the mastering stages, a compressor setting that is naturally aggressive may cause the mix to pump in an unnatural way, and is very sensitive.. it will take a lot of tweaking, but I’m sure it can be done 🙂

But I would say, generally, you can get any compressor style to work, you just have to play around with the ratio, attack, and release to get it how you want.. in the case of mastering, that is probably less ratio, longer attack, and fine-tune the release to make it less audible, and “glue” the mix.

So, yes, different compressor settings are more aggressive than others. These compressor types accelerate at different types of audio (single instrument vs vocal vs overall song).. but if the compressor gives you access to its basic tools (threshold, ratio, attack, and release), I’m sure you can get it working how you want.. always playing with low threshold/ratios (-24dB.. 1.15:1..), and then doing the opposite by trying high threshold/ratios (-12dB.. 2:1..) and see what direction you want to go with the track..

Fair volume comparison is going to be your friend here 🙂

Here is a video live stream I did about Pro-C 2 and testing its compressor types.. (I don’t usually play with compressor types too much):