The fundamental controls of compressors

The best professional mixing engineers are typically also the best professional lazy people. Instead of having to manually ride faders constantly engineers decades ago invented an automatic volume automation tool and called it a compressor.

In this tutorial, Fab Dupont explains the most essential controls on this powerful and often confusing studio staple.

Fab explains what each knob does and gives you easy-to-remember tips that will simplify the process of dialing in your own compressor settings.

Compressor controls covered:

• Threshold
• Ratio
• Make-up gain
• Attack
• Release

Learn how to set your compressor to gently kiss the peaks or rudely slap around the input signal with Fab's detailed explanations and clear audio examples.

Compression has a signature sound to it - once you hear it and understand exactly what's going on you can truly be in control over the tone, level and speed of your tracks.

Be sure to check out Compressor Controls Part 2.

Plugins Used:

• Avid Dyn3 Compressor/Limiter
• Universal Audio UAD 1176LN

This video is part of our ultimate compression bundle. Check it out!