eli5: how do compresors work? Audio related.

400 views

eli5: how do compresors work? Audio related.

In: 12

8 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Makes sounds ‘bigger’. Use it to level out sounds by reducing peaks and also increasing the quieter parts of the sound. If done properly you can get a fuller sound from your sample or instrument.

Having your sounds levelled out with a compressor also helps with mixing all your sounds together.

There’s a bunch of other uses too but this would be one of the main uses.

Anonymous 0 Comments

“The compressor is like your mother. Threshold: the level she asks you to turn the music down. Ratio: How much you turn down the volume after she shouts at you. Attack: How fast you react. Release: How fast you turn the volume back up as soon as she closes the door.”

Anonymous 0 Comments

A compressor reduces the dynamic range of an audio signal (reduces the peak to peak amplitude), which allows for a much higher average signal level without clipping / distorting the peaks.

Compression is why when you are watching TV, the ads tend to seem so much louder than your program material. The peaks are at the same level, but the average level of the ad is much higher. The tradeoff is in fidelity and loss of realism. In the ad, the difference in volume between a whisper and a hurricane is minimal. In a high quality recording, the average level has to be significantly lower in order to have sufficient headroom to accurately reproduce the extreme peaks when they occur.

Proper application of compression tames the most extreme peaks in a signal so that they can be reproduced without distortion while maintaining a reasonable average signal level.

The so-called “loudness wars” in recording describe a trend of increasing use of compression in order to record tracks at hotter signal levels, but with a consequent loss of emotion, realism, and dynamics.

Anonymous 0 Comments

I won’t get into the electronics of it. But compressors dereases the volume of louder parts of a recording to keep them from overpowering quieter parts. The goal is to make all the sounds roughly the same volume, which reduces gaps in audio when some sounds are quieter or the volume of a voice or instrument varies.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Imagine you’re snuggled up with your favorite stuffed animal watching Netflix late at night, but it’s hard to hear the quiet parts. So you turn them up. Then there’s an explosion and you rush to turn it down.

A compressor does that automatically, adjusting levels so that there’s less variation. This making things easier to hear (especially speech) but possibly making them less exciting if you overdo it.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Imagine your favorite song is pretty quiet except for one part in the middle. You could turn it up to an enjoyable level, but when it hits the loud section it’ll blow your speakers and the neighbors will bang on the ceiling. So you need to have your hand on the volume knob and as soon as you hear the loud part you turn down the volume until it’s over and you can turn it back up.

This is basically what a compressor does. It makes the loudest sections less loud so you can turn up the rest of the song.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Makes sounds ‘bigger’. Use it to level out sounds by reducing peaks and also increasing the quieter parts of the sound. If done properly you can get a fuller sound from your sample or instrument.

Having your sounds levelled out with a compressor also helps with mixing all your sounds together.

There’s a bunch of other uses too but this would be one of the main uses.

Anonymous 0 Comments

Imagine your favorite song is pretty quiet except for one part in the middle. You could turn it up to an enjoyable level, but when it hits the loud section it’ll blow your speakers and the neighbors will bang on the ceiling. So you need to have your hand on the volume knob and as soon as you hear the loud part you turn down the volume until it’s over and you can turn it back up.

This is basically what a compressor does. It makes the loudest sections less loud so you can turn up the rest of the song.