Compressor Attack?

[fuzzybuckets]

Hi Phil. You don't know me but I was a lurker over at MP for years.

 

Anyway

 

I like to keep things kind of short and sweet so here goes:

 

How the heck do you use the attack setting on a compressor? I completely understand what it does but I'm at a complete loss as to it's application.

 

Let's put it this way:

 

Why WOULDN'T you want a compressor to kick in immediately? Can you give me some kind of scenario?

 

thanks a bunch,

 

fuzzybuckets

[Kiwiburger]

Until Phil gets back to you with the real explaination, this is what I believe ...

 

A compressor compresses - in other words makes things smaller. Usually Make Up Gain is applied directly afterwards to make it loud again, but strictly speaking that is a seperate process.

 

So - sometimes you want to make a signal "punchier" by boosting the transient portion. (Maybe the 'stick' part of a snare, or the 'pick' part of a guitar).

 

By setting the attack slower, you can set how much of this transient goes through before the compressor clamps down on the signal. Try it on a snare sample - you'll be able to adjust the size of the stick very dramatically if you have a low threshold and a high ratio.

 

Also - if your compressor is very fast, and if your bass notes are very low, a fast compressor can start chewing into your bass fundamentals, distorting them.

 

Or you might want to use your compressor as a relaxed, slow auto volume control, rather than agressively attacking everything.

 

My 2c.

[where02190]

Well said Kiwi!!!!

[rog951]

Yeah Kiwi, that was a great explanation. I was going to say "cuz a fast attack can make the signal sound extremely crappy, or at least extremely unnatural" but I like yours much better!

 

Try recording some stuff with a fast attack and see if you like it. If you do, great. Maybe that's what you should use for that particular sound. But, especially on things like drums, the initial transient will tend to close down the comp hard and will then distort the rest of the envelope. You can get wacky "volume swelling" effects and pumping if you're not careful. Capturing different sounds requires using different compressor settings...that's why they gots all them thar knobs...

[Phil O'Keefe]

Until Phil gets back to you with the real explaination, this is what I believe ..

 

What was wrong with YOUR reply?

 

Kiwi, I'm just a guy who happens to engineer for a living. I know a bit, and I share what I can when I can, but the forums here are really about everyone, and certainly not just about me. If you know the answer to someone's question, by all means, feel free to speak up.

 

Anyway, fuzzybuckets, thanks for lurking. Kiwi's correct - you might want to slow the attack down to let more of the initial attack of the note go through uneffected. You get more attack, more impact, more "punch" that way.

[fuzzybuckets]

Kiwi, I did just what you suggested. By varying the comp attack on even a snare sample you really can adjust the size of the stick. I really have a lot more to learn about this though. It just seems like such a subtle effect to me and I kind of need to be beaten over the head sometimes before I can really get it. I guess it's all the little subtle things that add up to one big thing (a great mix).

 

thanks again to all of you for your input

 

k

[fantasticsound]

As Kiwi explained well, "attack" on a compressor is all about the transients. And that is absolutely key.

 

I don't remember the actual numbers, but a lot of information about a sound is communicated in a tiny fraction of a second, in the transients that begin a sound. Compressing this section of a sound fundamentally changes the timbre. This can be used for effect, but most of the time people want the timbre of an instrument to include the transients.

 

You're already experimenting. That's how many of us learned how to use the tools we have at our disposal. Put a signal through a system and mess with it until you get something you (or your clients, as the case may be) like.