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all of this depends on the type of music being produced.

if you aren't using compression then you are probably making rock music.

Or noise...

because everyone knows music is for losers. And anyone who makes music must have talent. I despise people with talent! gwarghhh, talented people, gwarghhh!

noise is better than anything, gwarghhh! gwarghhh!

yeah... and, umm... Gwarghhh!

anyway, yuh, I don't think compression is that great. I only use it occasionaly, I was just like, dude wuts that big deal?

I got this awesome plugin fer Audacity that it's called Hyperexp, anyone gots that too? Well anyway, It's kinda like compression but totally kicks way more butt. It's so cool, it's like "gwarghhh" at compression you know? Here's what it do: (and btw this is so cool omg!) It takes yer sound, that, and levels it out by normalizing everything to a certain db. Dude, it's so "gwarghhh"...

Example: like, okay, you got this drumbeat riot>? Looks like bunch of hills in a row, So you do the hyperexp thing riot>? An when it does, it makes it! No more hills! flat, you now?

so gwarghh, it is so cool.

you should always all of you get it. it's in that ladspa pack of 90plugins for Audacity. audacitydotsourceforgedotnet, right? yeah...

gwarghhh!

hello_flowers

anyway, yuh, I don't think compression is that great. I only use it occasionaly, I was just like, dude wuts that big deal?

Well then you probably don't understand what is happening when you use it. The fact is, sometimes you need a little compression to tighten things up, sometimes you need a lot to control a really dynamic singer when that style isn't suiting the song. There's no magic formula to it, you just feel it.

LS
if you aren't using compression then you are probably making rock music.

Seriously? what makes you think there's no compression in rock music? Have you ever listened to rock music? I'm genuinely interested in what would make you say that...

There is compression everywhere in audio,
but not always...
That's simple to understand :mrgreen: ...

But an simple example can be useful for some newbee...

For instance I will use compression in Sound Forge
with an threshold of -6dB ,attack of 1ms, and release of 1ms:
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/2319/z4dt1.jpg
to this waveform:
http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/1183/z1qt2.jpg

Remember that for the basic waveform the RMS power of is is around -3dB,
and the result of compression is:
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/3285/z2kp8.jpg
and the RMS power is now around -5dB

So what we can do now is to normalise the sample:
http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/1831/z3hc3.jpg
now the RMS power is now around -2dB,
so what we have now more power in the samples(in normal case) ...

What is the magic in that?
Nothing else that stupid mathematics...

If we check the first waveform:
http://img171.imageshack.us/img171/8397/z5vv2.jpg
the trick is to divide(compress) the difference of level (variable H)
when the level is more higher than the threshold:
http://img455.imageshack.us/img455/3511/z6cd5.jpg
that's all...

About attack/release time that's again stupid mathematics,
if for instance you do compression
with attack=0ms and release=0ms,
(some programs like Sound forge remplace value to 1ms when you put 0ms)
the compression will be applicate at 100% of the time,
so in this case you will see that when you turn up compression
that's just make more distortions
So to solve that we will compress(distort)
for instance 0.002% of the time (attack=2ms and release=998ms)
because 2ms/1000ms=0.002% of compression per sec.
So in this case we can use an more bigger compression Ratio (>= 2:1)
without hear distortions (not totally true but can be ignored)

Wow, another great explanation! Thanks for the illustrated guide, HardPCM.

yeah, I kinda gave up on the VST bridge thing. It's in my trash can now. I use Renoise for VST's and stuff.

PS: My opinion stands that compression is no more useful than is equalization or HP/BP/LP filters. And that's not to say that they aren't , though.

This is a very useful thread. All I know how to use in audacity is to record my singing with background music XD

I too had doubts regarding compressor that is available by default in Audacity. But when Iread this post http://forums.techarena.in/windows-software/1457251.htm#post5586695 all my doubts were cleared. It really helped me a lot.