How Attack & Release Works in a Compressor

hey guys joey here and in today's video i'm going to cover how to set the attack and release on your compressor last week i covered when to compress and how to set the threshold in ratio make sure to watch that video before you watch this so that you understand all those concepts attack and release are pretty simple settings that totally change how compression works the attack is how long it takes to apply compression after a signal crosses the threshold the release is how long it takes for the signal to return to its original volume after going back under the threshold to understand how this works on a compressor you need to know the basic parts of a waveform so let's jump into it there are four distinct parts of a waveform the attack the decay sustain and the release the attack is the start of any sound more specifically it refers to the time that it takes to go from silence to the loudest part of the signal in the world of rock and metal this is usually the transient sounds with fast attack like a snare drum have a lot of impact and sounds with a slow attack have an audible fade in a synth pad that swells is a great example of what slow attack sounds like next is the sustain this is the majority of the waveform i like to think of it as the resting point of a sound if you hold the note on the guitar the pick scrape is the attack and the actual note is the sustain now that i've explained sustain let's go back to decay this is the time it takes for a waveform to go from peak to sustained volume this is much more noticeable on ascent with a loud attack and a low sustained volume the last part of a waveform is the release this is the time that it takes to reach silence after the sustain on a synth this would be how long it takes to fade out after the note is stopped not all sound sources have obvious adsr drum shells are mostly attack and release since there's really no sustained notes they go straight from transient to release electric guitars have sustained but it's hard to hear the decay practice listening to different sources to try and identify each part of their waveform now let's get back into compression [Music] the attack is how long it takes to apply compression this is mostly going to affect the transients i'm going to use a vocal to demonstrate check out how much the sound changes just by adjusting the attack [Music] with the attack at zero compression is applied instantly it's got a super audible brick wall effect that kills the transients this might be useful if you're trying to push a vocal into the background but most of the time it just sounds dull the super long attack time leaves the vocal with almost no compression this is because the signal ducts back under the threshold by the time the compressor can react setting the attack at a medium level gives the transients time to pop but keeps the body of the vocal at a controlled level this is usually where i'd start for a lead vocal [Music] now let's try the same thing on the snare drum with the attack at zero the drum is totally flat-lined it sounds weird because what we think of as a snare sound has two parts the transient and the body the transient is that crack that gives a snare impact and the body is the sound of the drum ringing in the room by applying all the compression instantly the transient is at the same level as the body this can be useful for making a special effect but just keep in mind that it's making the hit softer just like the vocal a super long attack doesn't affect anything other than the tail of the hit this is pretty hard to hear and often means that no compression is really being applied setting a fast attack that isn't instant will let the transient through and keep the body in check this is going to have tons of transient impact a quick tip if you're only letting the transient through on close mics you can set a near instant attack on an overhead or room mic to bring some body back into the shell sound this gives you a lot of options when balancing the transient in the ring of a drum shell okay cool now let's use these same examples to explore release you can get a lot out of a track just by adjusting the release time this setting can determine how smooth the compression sounds and how loud the overall track is let's go back to that vocal chemicals they're gonna make me lose control with the release set at zero the compression stops instantly when the signal dips underneath the threshold in most cases this is going to result in a pretty jarring jump in volume setting it at a medium level will let the signal smoothly return to its original volume and when it's set way too long it doesn't give the compressor time to return to zero before compressing again this means the track is just gonna stay reduced by the ratio amount release is pretty interesting on drum shells check it out when it's set too fast the ringing comes back in before the next transient this has a really weird ducking sound that might fit in an affected drum part but usually just sounds off a really long release reduces the impact of the next hit since the compressor hasn't had time to reset the gain reduction by setting a release that fully decays before the next transient you can design the feel of each hit don't be afraid to automate this for different sections of a song [Music] setting the attack and release gives a lot of control over the excitement and movement in a track i like to keep the performance in mind when setting these values if i want the transient to cut through i have to make sure that the attack is long enough if i want the track to return to its normal volume before compressing again i have to make sure that the release is short enough the specific numbers are going to be totally different for each track of each song let's go through a few examples so you can see what i mean [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] your compressor may also have a knee control this determines the timing of the compression or the compression curve a hard knee means that the compression is applied instantly after the attack a softer knee means that the compressor reduces the gain a little more gradually after the attack so basically if a signal crosses the threshold with a 10 millisecond attack and a hard knee the compression will be totally applied 10 milliseconds after the threshold is hit if the same thing happened with a softer knee then the compression would gradually be applied after this 10 millisecond period it works the same way with release once the signal goes back under the threshold the compression can either go away gradually or all at once depending on the knee and the release settings let's take a look at a quick example to explain this [Music] and that's it by adjusting the attack and release i was able to have complete control over the consistency and excitement of these tracks the key point with these settings is to keep the performance in mind release in particular can be very tempo dependent if there are longer sustained notes with a lot of space they'll be able to have a longer release setting than something like rapid fire drums make sure the right part of the signal is being compressed for the right amount of time and you'll be set and that's all for now this is the starting point for understanding compression and if you have any questions on compression concepts make sure to drop them in the comments below thanks for watching and if you like this video hit that subscribe button don't forget to check the links in the description below and tap that bell to get notified whenever we upload new videos until next time happy mixing you

Channel: Joey Sturgis Tones

Views: 8,700

Keywords: home recording, audio production, mixing tutorials, what is compression, Joey Sturgis, Joey Sturgis Tones, how to set basic compression controls, when to use compression in mixing, audio mixing walkthrough, audio plugins, raw audio, compressed signals, Chemicals Conquer Divide, attack and release, attack sustain decay release

Id: hWNgXOdREPE

Length: 9min 24sec (564 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 10 2021