3 Levels of Compression - NOOB vs PRO vs EXPERT

Let's cover the 3 levels of compression from noob, to pro to expert. By the end, you'll know how to gain true mastery over compression and make better-sounding music that sounds exactly the way it does in your head.

The key to compression is truly understanding the attack time and how it affects the transient of a sound. Release time is important too, but start by mastering attack time.

The goal is to get to the point where you can hear a difference of a few milliseconds in attack time as you apply a compressor.

--

--

--

Credits

[calebfudrums]

tbh i really liked the name musician on a mission

[Channel.]

For the first 2 years of producing, I rarely used compression as I thought it was sort of useless and would just use a limiter to lower the ceiling. Now, I have such an appreciation for compression - it is INCREDIBLY useful for shaping a sound beyond doing something like automating its volume.

[adamhope]

This is a really great tutorial on compression explained really well.

[Gimmestrings]

This video has seriously opened my eyes as to what to look for when dialing in my compressors. Great videos. Thank you!

[junguo]

This video has taught me about compression more than all other tutorials combined

[MNKIRA]

Thanks Rob. Really appreciate learning more about what your team offers and the wealth of technical knowledge your team can share. Cheers.

[lioneljudy]

Mute the track that we work on. That’s really giving the perspective what will we do with the track. Thankyou for the great explaination!

[romaroalte]

Good example of practical application of a comppressorr.

[iamjesuskno]

Those are BIG headphones my friend!
Great content!

[TejSinghMusic]

Thanks a lot for explaining in easy way. i like it how you said . with Right Guidance .. it will take less time (months) without it will take more time ( Years ) so true. Thanks for shring your knowledge.

[grungefire]

Love the way youre taking this further. I was at a place where I was looking to improve my compression ability and the tutorials/ video techniques that I could find that were useful were behind paywalls (eg. Puremix). This was free and was immensely helpful. Thank you so much for that. Now all I need is lots and lots of practice.

[cheintz]

great video - thank you! Subtle suggestion: have some changes without speaking - we can see the attack time changing and don't need the voice cutting in. This makes it easier to juxtapose between the two. Still - great and helpful video and thank you!

[totallykoolyeah]

Great real musical application of the effect. Cheers

[BathtubStillBill]

I really appreciate the description of what to (& you are) listen(ing) for. In my journey, I have asked this question, and many others, countless times to no avail. The response is always something along the lines of, "You'll get there." So it's either gatekeeping, or they don't really know what they're listening for either?

[jaybefaulky]

*Rob, sometimes I use a 'vocal rider' on say a bass track and THEN use a bit of compression* a vocal rider can smooth out some bigger problems before trying to use compression to sort it out.

[NBDY_SPCL]

Regarding the conga vs voice, the transients slam into the voice. The resonance coming up too high will do something odd harmonically, so a little is cool, but too much is odd. Also, it's not just the conga, but ride cymbal and shaker are in there as well and need to be balanced in decisions. Respect for the realistic perspective, and grounding. However, not to sound too gatekeeper, but there are some for whom this stuff will be easy for and then there is everyone else.
Most are the former. The latter can learn, but it will indeed take time, and unfortunately, some may spend so much time trying to learn that they really burn up time that could have been used doing something much more rewarding, like actually PLAYING MUSIC. It can be a tough call.

Good job explaining some of the shorter attack time stuff, I find it difficult to do so because I forget that most folks' minds are not consciously tuned to pay attention to such minute (but obviously VERY important) details in the sound. It's also hard to not sound woo-woo when explaining how those details can affect listeners on a subconscious level, and being responsible for some of that.

[Mandy-Lane]

i know alot but i still don't understand compression well... i often used to use only

[Childhoof]

I've been working in audio for many years & I'm pretty convinced that I'll never hear what compression is doing, unless it's ridiculously crushing the source. It's like I have colourblindness of the ears when it comes to that tool.

[kadiummusic]

I see you're using the SSL UC1 and UF8. As someone who's thinking about moving away from the mouse to more of a hardware controller method I'd love to see you produce a video about using these two controllers together and how it's affected your workflow. As yet I haven't been convinced that the advantage of being less mouse driven is worth the money it would need to facilitate this. 😎

[popdanish]

Looking forward to similar videos on threshold, knee, and release