Audio Processing: Exploring Dynamic Range Compression

Now that we have heard clean compression on acoustic guitar it would be useful to hear it on other instruments.  This will illustrate how compression affects different tonalities as well as how the transient vs. consistent nature of an input signal can affect compression.  Below is our FFLog compressor applied to our other two pieces of sample audio: a male vocal and a drum track.  Note that the compression settings for these examples are exaggerated to make clear the effects of the compression.   If you can hear the volume reduction but are struggling to hear the compression, try these tips:

• On the uncompressed vocal, listen to the difference in volume between the first word or two of each phase and the last few.  Compare this to the compressed vocal.

• On the uncompressed drum, try to visualize the 'space' between the thump of the bass drum and the crack of the snare.  Now listen to the compressed version, how do they compare?