You use it if you find yourself changing volume on a particular sound all the time when you monitor your mix. And if you feel that particular sound is not sitting good in a mix then you use it. 80% of the times you don't need compression, people overuse it too much.

@@nickepic1863 good comment. can you elaborate on when it may be a good time to compress something ? Say maybe after you’ve added some processing . And now it’s raised the gain and the shit redlining. Would I compress then?

@@whostroubled It really depends, most probably using limiter is good enough. Maybe just a little compression with a limiter, it is really hard to answer in YT section. What if you want for that sound to be a phat? Or you want just to lift transients and not unnecessary mud? You can use different things to achieve particular sound, learning and experimenting on your own is thebest thing you can do. Don't be afraid of experimenting, in two days you will figure out everything on your own. And reverse engineering is amazing for learning how professionals do it. I do it all the time, I take section from a song and try to figure out how they done it, most of the times you don't need some crazy processing or whatever.

@@nickepic1863 cheers g

Facts💯

Really?

He doesn't ask me to subscribe in the first 5 seconds, so I'd call this a good tutorial

Bot

I think 1&2 are just oversimplifications in the video. He does say that setting the ratio to infinite will get you "what we're talking about", which is chopping off. In this case, he should have started with the ratio though, because starting with "chopped off" might give the wrong impression to someone who's only half paying attention. I think he should have used the word shrinking instead of chopping. That would have been a more accurate visualization.

Yeah this is more correct

I came here to make exactly the same reply. This is incredibly misleading. If you are a beginner looking for an explanation of compression look elsewhere. Audio being chopped off? That's clipping, and the fact that someone would even think of saying that is compression is not oversimplification it's just misinformation.

@@DMurdock Even that would not technically be correct, as most compressors with an infinite ratio will in fact not limit as they lack a lookahead. Meaning An itsy bitsy will always pass through, which is enough to destroy whatever you're trying to achieve at times. As I said, I understand the video is meant to simplify, but there is a thin and delicate line between simplifying and giving wrong information and it's dangerous. If you take wrong information for granted, you might not learn as quick or efficient because you base new input on wrong assumptions. Simplified information allows you to build upon once more advanced information comes along. Wrong information has to be knocked out of your head first before advanced information can be processed.

Yeah, "chopping" is definitely the wrong imagery. Essentially compressors _dip the volume in real-time_ by reacting to whatever crosses the threshold. How many dB a sound is above the threshold (and the ratio) will affect how far it dips, while attack affects how quickly it dips, and release affects how quickly it fades back to full volume.

This is really what I took away from this video most. I've spent two decades looking up what settings to use on different instruments, and I've always struggled with compression, but I've just spent 5 minutes experimenting and probably got some of the best results I ever have.

How have you been producing for 7 years and never used a compressor.

@@balls261 I’ve used them, just not the ones you need to configure yourself. Take RVox for example

@@balls261 Right?🙄

The future is now old man. Compressors are becoming less and less popular to achieve volume change over time.@@balls261

calling cap. 7 years... and you can't even spot that there is a bunch of misinformation in the video. it's true that 7 years isn't even that long when it comes to music production, but in your case, I must wonder what you have been doing for 7 years to lack behind this much?

Honestly, from what I've learned, you want to be really really careful putting compression on stuff during the mixing stage, because you can hammer all the subtlety and transients out of the music and make it very "brick walled" by the end product. It's best to use compression over the whole track during the mastering process to preserve dynamics and give the song a sense of cohesion

@@tanner.mackey.mp3 at the moment I only compress the guitar I record and sidechain bass with kick, and compression on master, so not too far of what you are saying I guess!

@@huber-lofiandchillbeats7693 good! Yeah that sounds like it'll be a nice clean mix :)

@@tanner.mackey.mp3 hopefully 🙏

There is a link of his Ableton Theme in 'About' section on channel

@@jamfellamusic thanx

Unironically the visual readout on Image Line's maximus explained everything to me. I had no idea what was going on until I could actually fuck with my own knee.

Glad it helped :)

It is!

Deep

That makes 2 of us 😢

Had that as well in this vid, anyways, you could improve your skill to hear these kinds of sounds with training, at least that's what I've seen. And ofcourse upgrading your audio setup might be good

@@hinkeltwister7311 ok. Thanx