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Compression

Compression is easy to explain - A compressor is a little man in a box with a volume control.  If you get too loud, he turns you down.  When you're level goes back to normal, he turns you back up.  The big advantage is that he does this faster than any human being could possibly do it by hand.  It basically keeps things even.  It also protects your system from loud spikes in volume like someone screaming into a mic unexpectedly or maybe someone dropping a live mic, etc.

He draws a line called the threshold.  He can draw this line to affect only high volumes, or low and high volumes both.  Once you cross it, he can turn you down a little or a lot depending on how you've set him up.  The amount of, "a little or a lot" depends on your ratio control knob.  With a high ratio, he'll turn you down a lot.  With a low ratio, he'll turn you down a little.

dbx is a company that makes great compressors.  They have a wonderful document called Compression 101.  We have included it here for your reference.  It is completely authored by the engineers at dbx and they did a great job.  Enjoy.


Last modified: September 24, 2008
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