From the course: Audio Foundations: Compression and Dynamic Processing

Unlock the full course today

Join today to access over 22,500 courses taught by industry experts or purchase this course individually.

Applying attack and release

Applying attack and release

From the course: Audio Foundations: Compression and Dynamic Processing

Start my 1-month free trial

Applying attack and release

You might think that using the compressor's fastest attack and release times might be the best practice for compressing an audio signal. While sometimes this is true, very fast attack and release times have their own set of potential problems, and you will often hear the compressor's character more apparently using faster settings. Too fast of an attack time can make a signal sound dull and shave off its attack. The difference between a one- millisecond and a five-millisecond attack on a snare drum can be very apparent in the bite of the transient, especially with more aggressive threshold settings. (music playing) A fast attack can be a positive thing too. A super-fast attack can mellow out a signal's transients so that they don't stick out of a mix. Consider an aggressive pick rake of an over-strummed acoustic guitar. (music playing) A fast attack setting on your compressor can help tame the signal's bite and make it play nice with the other instrumentation. (music playing) Now…

Contents