Audio Compressor What Does It Do

So you really should know what an audio compressor is and what it does.

Audio compressor what does it do. If you re just starting out with compression or have been using it for a while but not fully understanding what you re doing there isn t much point in spending hours and hours looking for a great compressor. What is audio compression. Studio recording and mixing boils down to how we capture this audio and then how process the signal in order to promote a pleasant clear listening experience. Stick around you ll be learning what everything does in a compressor and a limiter.

Applied examples some great audio compressors and resources. Whether you re using a hardware compressor or a plug in setting up works the same way. A compressor is a key component in balancing the varying amplitudes to remove some dynamics. Knowing what each knob and setting does is one thing but hearing their effects is where it ll really start to click for you.

But when you first start using a compressor it can feel a bit overwhelming. So what is audio compression and what can it do to help. It does more than just turn things up or down but i m trying to simplify it for teaching purposes here. How set up a compressor.

What is an audio compressor what does it do. Adjust the threshold until the peaks in the signal are pushing over the threshold and triggering the compressor. It s also one of the most important elements behind any good mix. And though it is a very useful tool you can easily harm your recordings with it if you re not careful.

The la2a which is an opto compressor uses valves. Basically compression reduces the dynamic range of your recording by bringing down the level of the loudest parts meaning the loud and quiet parts are now closer together in volume and the natural volume variations are less obvious. So in this article i hope to help you to understand what an audio compressor does and how to best use it in your recordings. This tutorial will walk you through what all of the parameters will do.

An audio compressor is one of the most important mixing tools. Insert the compressor on the channel you want to compress. If you re wondering how to use an audio compressor you don t need to be using a specific plugin to understand what i m talking about. Except instead of what would be a frantic panic it will be done with extreme precision.

So in very basic terms imagine compression as if someone has control of the gain knob and can turn it up whenever the sound gets too quiet or down whenever it gets too loud. What does audio compression do. Compression is one of the most misunderstood effects in audio recording. At its basic description an audio compressor is really just an automatic volume fader control.

Fire up your best digital audio workstation and use a plugin to get the hang of it. At this point all that s left for you to do is play with a compressor.