The service that Dave has been doing for the audio community is huge. Awesome person and definitely forward thinker.

You can't not love Dave Pensado. Thanks for this!!

I love how confused Dave gets at parts during his explanation haha, cos it really can get that confusing when talking about ratio's! Great tutorial!

8 years later and this is still one of the best explanations of compression I've seen

What a great guy.I think Dave Pensado and Graham from "The Recording Revolution" are two of the best online resources for mix engineers of any experience level.

Dave, I can't thank you enough for sharing so much of your insight in these videos. Even though I understand comp ratios, I never really stopped to think through what you just so eloquently explained; how to think about the effect of different compression ratios to various source material. Now I completely understand why my results sometimes don't work out as expected. I can't wait to apply these ideas on my next mix. Really great stuff, and thanks again for being so generous with your knowledge!

Yeah I watched it with my in-ear headphones and the vocals almost blew me through the roof.

If you complain about any of his videos stop watching then. He is a certified pro who gives us gems. He doesn’t have to do this. I would appreciate if you quit with the thumbs down and the unnecessary comments about a master engineer. He’s very generous for allowing us access to his mental vault.

Crazy that after every compression video I watched on ratios, this one made the most sense to me. Even the question of EQ before or after compression. Thank you!

High level approach.. modelling the intentionality of the lyrics with compression. You are the 6th Beatle ; )

To Dave Pensado i'v only been watching your videos for two days now. I am greatly inspired to one day reach your level of experience. Thank you so much for your lessons. You should teach at a tech school if your not already doing so.

Yes Great video....this is how to use compressors...to create energy and control it at the same time...instruments and vocals in great mixs sound uncompressed even though they really are...Dave demonstrated it very clearly and the energy is something that few beginning engineers think about while only watching meters

I love Dave, he's so god damn chill! Not to mention a genius

Though hip hop & pop isn't really my thing, just listening to how a pro operates, thinks and uses his tools is just so invaluable. What a cool cat!! Thanks Dave. Get some sleep

This is called 'teaching'...such a knowledgeable and yet humble dude

I love how he said "You guys can do some work too" haha :P

don't worry, son, I am. that's why i was here. you keep worrying about the levels on youtube tutorials it's a big help to us all

Only one professional full time world class , and highly sought after engineer producer in this discussion and he's giving the lecture. I'm going with his advice and being grateful for it!

Thanks dave. when i'm finally famous and on pensado's place i'll reference this comment; you really illuminated compression for me.

Love your insight sir and it's a lil privilege for us to get a snippet of the production encyclopedia that is your brain, keep them coming, much luv from Northern Ireland

I know Dave.., It's hard to explain with world, right? But I got it.... Love you for doing what you are doing for the community!

Wow! So many things to think about in this ITL. Fantastic as always! Also, it would be really cool to see Dave kind of take us through a tour of his home studio!

thank you i was struggling with compression for a while, but it finally clicked after watching this video

DAVE! Love your videos. I'm watching every single one. My mixing has exploded because of your wisdom. Thank you. I gotta ask though, we aren't you mixing you're own mic? A closer mic with some bass roll-off. A little 2.5:1 compression and a limiter at the top. And a volume that matches your examples... Your examples are way loud! Anyways, I luv ya dude. I hope to meet you face-to-face one day.

Great video, but did anyone else have a heart attack the first time he played he hit play?

thanks so much for these videos man. still helpful 4 years later to someone that is trying to delve further into production and engineering!

everytime i hear his voice like this, i want to blame the videographer because Dave is an excellent engineer lol

Hahaha..explaining compression ratio is alil tricky...I been watching you for years love your videos, keep up the great tutorials... Much respect

Good on you Dave. A kind and generous tutorial.

Useful info and Dave imparts gold that he doesn't have to. But do my ears deceive? Audio starts panned hard right and slowly moves to center? :) Bless the "hey guys, I'm not perfect. No one is.." aspect of Pensado's Place.

It's funny that on a video about audio compression that there is such a wide disparity in volume between the speaking and the music track. I had to constantly turn the volume up and down to get through this. Ironic...

These videos are awesome. Please never stop making them

I had a major breakthrough in mixing, and thought I would share it with everyone. I did live mixing back in the 80's, and have played as a musician in a few bands. I got back into mixing/recording around the year 2,000. Enough background, now onto the really simple mixing template that can get you into a great mix quickly. Place a compressor on all tracks, and have them all set to a 2:1 ratio... turn the threshold down while the track is in solo mode, pay attention to the 'feel' or 'vibe' of the track as you turn your compression ratio down. Do this to all tracks. place a second compressor on the final L/R output, and make sure it is set to limit, brick wall, at the last 1dB before clipping. Now start mixing. You may end up with something completely different (more or equivalent compression) as this, but this start point mixing template will have you experiencing a good mix quickly. Once you have something that sounds relatively decent, and you are about 30 minutes into the mix, render that mix. A really important vibe will be captured, and you can use this as reference when you're into your 3rd, or 4th hour of mixing.

Dave thank you so much for taking out the time to do this for us. It really does help out a lot!

Great as always. The thing about Dave is he makes me feel like I can do it just as easy...even though I can't.....

well explained! this has always been really confusing to me

True there's so much to learn and experience!!!

I heard your mic move from point A to point B at the start of the video. It sounded like panning. Lol.

These are the important things about compression and not to always get the newest fanciest plugin. Great videos Dave thank you!

Dude, you've got AWESOME videos, and you do a great job of explaining things. I've been making music for years, but never bothered with mixing/mastering .. largely because I didn't understand it. You're really helping me understand it, and I'm totally hearing the difference in my tracks. ... I'm watching other vid sources too, but yours are some of The Best!! Thank you! =]

This was actually a good ratio & threshold tutorial for beginners

Excellent teacher.

Really appreciate your videos Dave. Thank you for sharing your wisdom!!

Dave, you're the best.

Thank you so much for taking your time to do all these tutorials Dave, your the best!!

I feel like a person that finds Pensado's found something that will weather. I have never met Dave but I like Dave.Thanks again KPM

Thank you, Dave 👌🍀

Thank You Mr. Dave Pensado 🙌🙌Ver Helpful Video🔥🔥.

I like to think of ratio as gravity and threshold as the ground. Any signal above the threshold is pulled back down to earth (the threshold) by gravity (the ratio). The higher the ratio, the stronger the gravity.

I love my 160 XT, specifically on kick and rap vox, and dave makes me appreciate it more!

Thanks for doing these series of videos....

"Anyway, look it up! You guys gotta do some work, too!" - Apart being a funny thing to say in such a video, this is probably the best advice one could get anyway- go and do it. Lol. I like his mind.

How come such a genius like Pensado can be so funny....!!!! for a moment made me think... mmm are you sure? jajaja! but I know... You are the Best! Bless!

Stillwell-audio made MajorTom, which was modelled after the DBX160. I love that compressor. They are the company that made Rocket & vibe-eq.

i never really understood ratio on compressors. now i do, thanks for that!

wow, as long as I have been using compressors by ear, I finally GET the ratio better. Low ratio can bring UP the lower stuff and make the higher stuff tame. When you take the threshold higher, it starts to even the whole thing out into one dynamic range...I can picture small and capital letters all starting to become capital letters as the ratio is increased...or i'm just retarded,,,lol anyway..thanks Dave!

you're great Dave. thanks so much.

Finally! Been waiting for these to come back!

Thank you for this great video friend. Just bought softubes native VC bundle and dbx 160 from waves cheers.

If you guys compiled all "into the lair" episodes together ... You gonna get a great 3-4 hour lecture video of bit and pieces regarding all you need to know about audio mastering ... For those enthusiasts or beginners, this is a real source of your research and a great start to improve your skill further. If you are pro, well stuff that Dave said will teach you a thing or two even more. :)

Subtractive EQ goes before compression; additive EQ goes after compression. The logic is that you don't want to bring up (through compression) something you don't like (the offending frequencies). Once you've cleaned up the sound and made it coherent and "tight" (through compression), you can safely boost your frequencies of choice.

Dave, dave, dave.....Awesome guy . Character

That make sense to me, different applications would require fundamental differences in design. Thanks

You're the man Dave, awesome lesson, thanks so much!

Bravo sir, fantastic explanation!

@radioloud I recommend you record some automation with the channel volume fader first and get the general volume to sound even that way, then you can send the output if that channel to a bus (group) and put the compression and other effects on that. It is very useful for fine tuning odd words that may be a little too quietly recorded too

Limiters are designed to have a faster and more transparent attack time in general where as classic comps are designed to produce a specific shape

As always, brilliant!!

i like how this guy is all about mixing and engineering and then the audio is only in the right speaker

Cheers Dave. Informative and encouraging as usual.

This cleared up alot for me! Thank You

So it was that simple huh....wow! thanks man!

thank you Dave and the Gang this is a great tutorial .....i've again learned a lot here

always a little worrying taking advice off a guy on sound who cant get video sound right...

Awesome video Dave, but I have to know - was the surprise volume a real world demonstration on why compression is important?

Wow it took my 2 year to get this down but yes the rule of put in an EQ before the compressor, for the simple fact of the environment hose the Peaks where the recording is happening so tame those environmental Peaks are priority for more direct sound

Dave is awesome!! "Infinity to 1, or is it 1 to infinity? Well look it up, you guys gotta do some work yourselves" He is in my top 3 fav engineers.

RIP earphone users when the song comes in

Amazing. Informative and encouraging, thank you.

Great Video!

GENIUS.... SHEER GENIUS!!!!

Awesome. Love your videos

Thanks for the more in depth explanation! :)

great video! still helpful

thanks Dave, you're the man!

man, thank you for this vid! I always have a really hard understanding exactly how a comp works. I think you gave quite a bit more info into the situation.

The ITL's are Dave's break from mixing ;-) Great video Dave as always...Many Thanks :)

Thank you!

No, a ratio of 3:1 means that if your input is 3 dB over threshold, the output is 1 dB over threshold. Your level is knocked down 2 dB. So if, at a ratio of 3:1, you set your threshold at -30dB, and your signal hits -12dB (18dB above threshold), you divide 18dB by 3, giving you 6dB, so your final output is -24dB.

A ratio of 1:Infinity would be gnarly lolol

Thank you sir

Thank you.

great video.

Also, what an epic chair you got there man! ;)

Audio in the beginning of the video is coming out my right speaker only. I also heard the engineer click something that stereo'd the audio mix of this video soon after. What happened there?

The ratio went waay higher than I expected before it fully lost the feeling. I thought about 10:1 but, to my ears, complete squash happens around the 50:1 mark

You should do an ITL on using the outboard gear in your setup. For instance how do you capture some bricasti verb on a track. Take us through that process. Its always about stupid plugins. Or even just give us a studio tour of your outboard and tell us what you use what on etc. All this ITB ITLs and NOTHING ever about outboard! :)

compression is one of the hardest things for me to hear im just starting out mixing but i will get there. its really easy to hear on drums but on other instruments like guitars i swear i can hear it doing anything

You're my favourite man

If you look behind the computer screen you can see a main monitor. Could be a replacement for the KRKs and NS10s.