{"id":8473,"date":"2021-08-13T05:30:08","date_gmt":"2021-08-13T04:30:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/?p=8473"},"modified":"2021-08-13T19:25:06","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T18:25:06","slug":"tech-tips-an-introduction-to-compressors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/2021\/08\/13\/tech-tips-an-introduction-to-compressors\/","title":{"rendered":"TECH TIPS: Understanding Compressors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Understanding Compressors<\/strong><\/h3>\n
By John Dines – OE Product Manager<\/h6>\n

 <\/p>\n

As you\u2019re reading this article, you\u2019ll hopefully already know a little bit about the company. Specifically how we started out in 2012 with the Cali76 compressor pedal \u2013 a guitarist-friendly unit that emulated all that\u2019s great about the UREI 1176 studio compressor, in a larger-than-average stompbox. A lot has changed since then. For a start, the pedals are a lot smaller now and there are more of them (visit origineffects.com for details) but at least two things remain the same:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Compression is\u00a0awesome! It\u2019s just about the best thing you can do\u00a0to\u00a0your guitar signal \u2013 or any audio, for that matter.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  2. Many guitarists underestimate the importance of compression or misunderstand\u00a0what it\u2019s doing and how to use it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As compression nerds, we\u2019re rather baffled at how\u00a0this must-have effect flies under the\u00a0collective\u00a0radar of\u00a0the guitar community.\u00a0It\u2019s been on almost all our favourite\u00a0recorded guitar tones, perhaps not in the form of a compressor\u00a0<\/span>pedal<\/span><\/i>, but used at some point in the signal chain between\u00a0performance and mixdown.\u00a0Good compression can add punch, liveliness,\u00a0warmth\u00a0and help your guitar sit just right in the mix, so why aren\u2019t guitarists more excited about this cornerstone effect?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    A lot of it comes down to understanding.\u00a0There\u2019s a learning curve to compression and we six-stringers can be an impatient bunch when it comes to manuals, science and theory. So, in the name of making everyone sound better,\u00a0I\u2019m going to walk you through the basics\u00a0of\u00a0compression, demystifying all the\u00a0controls you\u2019ve probably seen but maybe couldn\u2019t get the most out of. I\u2019ll try to make it as painless as possible\u2026<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Put very simply,\u00a0compression makes\u00a0the quiet parts louder and the loud parts quieter.\u00a0More accurately, it turns down\u00a0the loudest parts of your signal, reducing its dynamic range\u00a0overall.\u00a0This might not sound that appealing at first, but stick with me as there\u2019s a lot more to it.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    First let\u2019s talk about threshold.\u00a0The threshold is a\u00a0chosen\u00a0signal level above which compression is applied.\u00a0As soon as your signal level exceeds the threshold level,\u00a0compression is applied to all the bits of your signal that have crossed the threshold. That is to say,\u00a0these loudest parts\u00a0of your signal\u00a0are turned down. The quieter bits, of course,\u00a0remain\u00a0unaffected.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a> \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The lower the threshold, the more of your signal\u00a0<\/span>will be compressed. High threshold settings<\/span>\u00a0will mean that just the very peaks of your signal are subject to compression and the rest remains untouched.\u00a0<\/span>Many compressors have a Threshold knob<\/span>\u00a0but, in<\/span>\u00a0older compressors\u00a0<\/span>like the\u00a0<\/span>UREI<\/span>\u00a01176 that our Cali76 compressors are based on, the threshold is fixed.\u00a0<\/span>You simply control it by feeding more signal into the input, pushing more\u00a0<\/span>of it past the threshold and compressing a bigger portion of the signal the higher you go.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/p>\n

    So, if the threshold\u00a0controls how much of your signal\u00a0gets compressed, then the\u00a0Ratio controls\u00a0how much\u00a0compression\u00a0is happening to that part of the signal.\u00a0To put it another way, when those signal peaks are turned down, how much are they turned down by?<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s imagine we set a ratio of 2:1. This means that if we exceed the threshold by 2dB,\u00a0this part of the signal will be turned down until it\u2019s only 1dB above the threshold.\u00a0A 4:1 Ratio\u00a0would\u00a0lower that same input signal down to\u00a00.5dB. Considering that the ratio controls on compressors\u00a0often go above 20:1, we can do some pretty dramatic things to our dynamics if we want to.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a>
    \nIf you haven\u2019t\u00a0<\/span>got bored\u00a0<\/span>already\u00a0<\/span>and\u00a0<\/span>decided to just go and play your guitar instead, you might now be thinking \u201c<\/span>all this turning down is just going to make my guitar quieter\u201d.\u00a0<\/span>That\u2019s why compressors have\u00a0<\/span>M<\/span>akeup\u00a0<\/span>G<\/span>ain, which is just adding volume at the output. With a bit of level added,\u00a0<\/span>we\u2019ve now got a signal where the peaks are just as loud as they were before<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0but all the quiet bits are louder<\/span>. This is where it starts to get good, as we can now hear all the\u00a0<\/span>interesting<\/span>,<\/span>\u00a0quiet<\/span>er<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>parts<\/span>\u00a0that would otherwise get lost in the mix, without\u00a0<\/span>the loud\u00a0<\/span>stuff jumping out and chopping your head off<\/span>!<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    So\u00a0far,\u00a0we\u2019ve\u00a0helped your guitar sit better in a mix, but what about making it sound punchy? This is where the attack and release controls come in.\u00a0Once our signal has crossed the threshold, the attack control\u00a0determines how long it will be until the compressor starts acting.\u00a0It\u2019s usually only\u00a0a matter of milliseconds\u00a0but that\u2019s enough to let some loud pick attack through at full volume, before the compressor clamps\u00a0the level down.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    The longer the attack time, the more open and lively the sound.\u00a0Shorter attack times\u00a0will catch all those peaks straight away and\u00a0sound super squashed, which can also be very cool.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    The Release control works on the same principle,\u00a0<\/span>controlling how long it takes before the compressor stops compressing.\u00a0<\/span>Short release times keep things percussive and bouncy, whereas longer release times will help increase sustain<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    \"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

    These controls\u00a0tend to work best in opposites.\u00a0Longer Attack and shorter release times for more natural\u00a0dynamics, or short attack and longer release for very obviously compressed sounds.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    These days, lots of compressors also allow you to blend in some uncompressed dry signal in parallel with the affected signal. All the compressors in the Origin Effects range let you do this and, while it\u2019s a bit beyond the basics, this parallel compression is a really popular technique, especially in studio situations. It can help balance more extreme compression settings by adding back in some of the natural dynamics of the instrument and its certainly worth experimenting with.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

    Like with all this stuff, there are no rules \u2013 if it sounds right, it is right.\u00a0Similarly, if it sounds wrong, it\u00a0<\/span>is<\/span><\/i>\u00a0wrong, and a better understanding of how compression works\u00a0should help you get the tones you want, without\u00a0getting stuck\u00a0going round in\u00a0circles.\u00a0Now go and play guitar, class dismissed!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Understanding Compressors By John Dines – OE Product Manager   As you\u2019re reading this article, you\u2019ll hopefully already know a little bit about the company. Specifically how we started out in 2012 with the Cali76 compressor pedal \u2013 a guitarist-friendly unit that emulated all that\u2019s great about the UREI 1176 studio compressor, in a larger-than-average…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":8492,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[74],"tags":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8473"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8473\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8492"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/origineffects.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}