Compressor
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A plugin with adjustable settings.
While this page will show what each control surface does, it will not show you how to use a compressor. See for more information.
Looking at the effect window itself, there are two main components.
The background, which shows the compressor input, output, and effect.
The control panel, which allows you to control compression parameters.
The view panel itself can be zoomed over by scrolling. Its size can be zoomed from 96 dB to 3 dB, but the default is 36 dB of visibility. It can show sound in the range of -96 dB to 0 dB.
The view shows the input audio in grey, gain reduction of the compressor in red, and the output audio in white, as audio passes through the effect.
There are two sliders on each end of the panel, In and Out respectively. Each slider has their own volume control and balance knobs. The channels that the balance knobs allow you to balance between depend on whether MID/SIDE mode is enabled.
It should be noted that the background curve will reflect the value or result of many of these controls in real-time, helping you visualize and measure what the compressor is doing.
MIX: Controls how much compression is actually mixed into the wet output of the effect. Ranges from 0% to 100%.
You may find better results using the compressor MIX knob instead of the effect chain W/D knob for parallel compression or automation, since the MIX knob takes lookahead latency into account if it is enabled.
Delta: The square headphone icon, when toggled on, allows the user to listen to the compressor's delta signal. The UI name of the toggle is "Audition".
THRESHOLD: Controls the compression threshold. The effect uses dBFS as a unit of loudness. Ranges from -60 dBFS to 0 dBFS.
RATIO: Controls the compression ratio. Ranges from 1:1 to 20:1.
ATTACK: Controls the compressor's attack speed. The effect uses ms as a unit of time. Ranges from 0.005 ms to 250 ms.
RELEASE: Controls the compressor's release speed. Ranges from 1 ms to 2500 ms.
The AUTO knob of the RELEASE knob controls the release value based on the crest factor. This tends to be the common desired behavior, so it may be preferred to keep it at maximum by default.
KNEE: Controls the gain reduction curve around the threshold. Ranges from 0 db to 96 db.
RANGE: Controls the maximum gain reduction the compressor can perform. As range goes further into negative values, there is less and less of a limit on how much gain reduction a compressor can do. Ranges from -240 dBFS to 0 dBFS. 0 dBFS would mean the compressor would not perform any compression.
LOOKAHEAD: Controls the compressor's lookahead function when toggled on. When toggled on, the lookahead length knob ranges from 0 ms to 20 ms. It applies a constant overall latency of 20 ms that means lookahead can be automated with no issue.
FEEDBACK: When toggled on, uses the compressor's output as the sidechain input.
HOLD: Controls the delay between attack and release stages. Ranges from 0 ms to 500 ms.
∞ RATIO: There is a toggle button that can switch the compressor's functionality from a COMPRESSOR to ∞ RATIO. Infinite ratio on a compressor will behave functionally similar to setting the maximum ratio on the ratio knob. The audio will not necessarily be kept below threshold. This is NOT a brickwall limiter switch, despite the UI toggle name.
AUTO GAIN: When toggled on, automatically adjusts the compressor's makeup gain based on THRESHOLD, KNEE, and RATIO.
MID/SIDE: This toggle can switch the compression channels between LEFT/RIGHT and MID/SIDE channels. Depending on the mode used, the BALANCE knobs under the input and output fader and the LINK BALANCE knob balance between the L/R or the M/S channels.
TILT FILTER: Contains the tilt EQ settings of the sidechain trigger signal of the compressor. The control group houses two knobs:
GAIN: This knob controls the sidechain signal bias. -6 db is lowpass, 6 db is highpass. Ranges from -6 db to 6 db.
FREQ: Controls the frequency of the sidechain tilt filter.
Peak Mode: This is a toggle button that can switch between whether the compressor uses the absolute value or the RMS value of the sidechain signal.
When using RMS compression, the SIZE knob, upon increasing in value, reduces the speed at which the volume measurement can change.
LINK BALANCE: Controls the channel balance of the output. Which channels it balances between depend on whether MID/SIDE mode is enabled.
Stereo Link: This is a radio toggle list where you can choose the stereo link mode of the compressor.
UNLINKED compresses each channel separately.
MAXIMUM compresses based on the loudest channel. This is the default mode.
AVERAGE compresses based on an average of both channels.
MINIMUM compresses based on the quietest channel.
BLEND uses a combination of the compression modes listed above controlled by the BLEND AMOUNT knob. It ranges from 0 to 3 where 0 is unlinked and 3 is minimum. It allows for decimal values so the mode can be fine-tuned.
The AUTO knob of the ATTACK knob controls the attack value based on the . Higher transients cause faster attacks. This tends to be the common desired behaviour, so it may be preferred to keep it at maximum by default.
