Compressor one setting to rule them all?

cuckoomusic · 2014-05-12T20:05:39.000Z

Hey all.
Is there a sort of “fool proof” “it just works” compressor setting that you could recommend for someone like me, who is not that accustomed with compressors? Most of the time I just want to glue it all together a bit, you know. Nothing crazy. I think it’s difficult to handle, and suddenly I’ve made it go out of control and don’t remember where it went wrong. Any simple and basic advice and experiences greatly appreciated! Complicated advice appreciate too

tsv · 2014-05-12T20:43:32.000Z

I posted this photo of a nice buss type compression in another thread awhile back.

compressor.jpg1280×473 153 KB

General guidelines for a gentle buss compressor are:

High Threshold
Low Ratio
Slow Attack
Medium to Fast Release

HPF to keep bass from triggering the compressor too much.

Use the blend control to mix the compressed vs direct sound.

Rely more on your ears than the gain reduction meter. It’s compressing even if you see no movement on the meter.

Avoid too much make up gain as it gets noisy.

It would be great to have a bypass other than turning the mix all the way to the left to A/B the compression vs direct. How about pushing the mix encoder?

t · 2014-05-12T20:45:26.000Z

What might work well for you is a little Motown-style compression (Google or use Wikipedia for more background information). Something like this:

image.jpg2592×1936 792 KB

tsv · 2014-05-12T21:27:12.000Z

Yep that’s a nice style too.

nirun · 2014-05-12T21:33:52.000Z

i was confused a bit too when I was using VST compressors, read up on all the terminology and it starts to become apparent how to use them with different sounds/sources.

Found all of these useful and take a slightly different approach in explaining which is helpful.

http://www.alphonsosoosay.com/audio-compressor-fine-tuning

B&H Explora

Glue Your Sound Together with Mix Bus Compression

When you look back at the last fifty years of sound recording, a timeline of trends, techniques, and equipment materializes. Tastes change over time, and while I’m not likely to ever use a gated reverb on snare drum today, you’d be hard pressed to...

Music & Audio Envato Tuts+

The Beginner’s Guide to Compression

Compression is one of those studio processes that is all too often taken for granted and not used to its full potential. Today’s producers think nothing of inserting compressors on every single...

I won’t copy and paste what’s in there, you’ll have to RTFM

the ubk fatso, elysia xpressor etc have quite a few videos online of what they can do to audio. Might be worthwhile to watch some reviews on them to hear what they do if that helps. Just some suggestions to illustrate what compressors do, because if there was only one setting to get it right we wouldn’t have all these products in the first place

cuckoomusic · 2014-05-13T07:00:45.000Z

Thanks a lot! Great tips! I’ll try it out later today.

Scannari · 2014-05-13T09:08:02.000Z

But… Does it pump like a 3630?

Thanx! Very interesting.

cuckoomusic · 2014-05-13T11:18:17.000Z

""tsv"":

…
It would be great to have a bypass other than turning the mix all the way to the left to A/B the compression vs direct. How about pushing the mix encoder?

Thanks for the advice. All hints like this will help me build a better understanding of the compressor.
As for the A/B bypass, it’s not precisely what you like, but if you press function while twisting the mix encoder it snaps between 0, half, full. It’s something.

cuckoomusic · 2014-05-13T11:22:34.000Z

""t"":

What might work well for you is a little Motown-style compression. Something like this:

Nice!

Least_Useless · 2014-05-13T11:40:24.000Z

@t and @tsv, thank for your input. Very helpful.

xidnpnlss · 2014-05-13T11:51:49.000Z

Yeah. Nice. Thanks guys.

t · 2014-05-13T14:30:06.000Z

In case you want to learn more about compression, I recommend starting with this Wikipedia article:

en.wikipedia.org

Dynamic range compression

Dynamic range compression (DRC) or simply compression is an audio signal processing operation that reduces the volume of loud sounds or amplifies quiet sounds thus reducing or compressing an audio signal's dynamic range. Compression is commonly used in sound recording and reproduction, broadcasting, live sound reinforcement and in some instrument amplifiers. A dedicated electronic hardware unit or audio software that applies compression is called a compressor. In the 2000s, compressors became a...

Schnork · 2025-08-04T20:27:57.151Z

The “buss compression” settings posted here are really good as a starting point!
Btw, if you quickly want to A/B settings, you can use scenes. I usually set a scene up as 100% dry, this way I can quickly check different compression settings against the dry signal.
Also works nicely on the Octatrack of course.

StuB · 2025-08-11T19:03:57.511Z

This is a useful thread, Im looking forward to giving those two settings a go.

You know how they say if you think you understand Quantum Physics you don’t understand it. This is me vs compression.

JCinvisible · 2025-08-11T19:08:35.294Z

I have friend who says “just f^&K everything through a compressor”

jm2c · 2025-08-12T15:39:59.090Z

Compression is a nuanced subject to be fair, and you can do many things with it. Add to the fact that many compressors do their own thing, which cannot be achieved with other compressors (like the famous dbx 160 smash, or 1176 all buttons in mode, not easy to replicate with other gear), and there’s a lot to learn…

matteblacksmoke · 2025-08-12T16:09:29.240Z

very sweet coming to this thread and seeing Cuckoo of all people posting such an innocent question at what appears to be the start of his electronic music journey

StuB · 2025-08-12T16:12:41.223Z

Yeah I didn’t notice the date at first and thought
It was weird. Haha