which compressor attack lenght is useful?

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Until my new compressor I thought a compressor attack to 120ms, the maximum lenght of transients, is useful. But the new one has an attack lenght from 0.1 to 10 ms! is 10 ms really enough? This is just the beginning of a transient...

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You use a compressor to make loud things quieter. Usually, that's the transient part.
If you're looking for something that makes quiet parts quieter, try an expander or a gate with "range" control.
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At 120 ms you're pretty much dealing with strums, and not transients. But I agree that 10 ms seems pretty weak.
How does it feel using it though? Whatever number you see on it, you can't judge it until you've experimented with it a bit :) And what compressor is it? Because various compressors aims at different types of usages...

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Depends one what you're trying to do I would think. Boosting the body of a snare, 10ms might be too short. Killing peaky drum transients or smoothing out a bassline, might be just right.

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Tarekith wrote:Boosting the body of a snare, 10ms might be too short.
Makes no sense to me.
If you want to bring the body up because the transient is too loud, then you want to bring the transient down first and boost the overall volume with the make-up gain. Fast attack times are ideal for that, 10ms might even be a little slow.
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crazyfiltertweaker wrote:Until my new compressor I thought a compressor attack to 120ms, the maximum lenght of transients, is useful. But the new one has an attack lenght from 0.1 to 10 ms! is 10 ms really enough? This is just the beginning of a transient...
One thing to be concerned with is transparency.
Ideally, you really dont want to hear the compressor working.

The attack time can be helpful here.
Some times a short attack can be more transparent.

For example, on a high hat, a quick attack and moderate release maybe the right setting.

Compressors are some of the most powerful tools in getting a professional, "radio friendly" mix.

Experiment with the attack time, never use the same settings for all tracks.

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I tested for bass at some time, and found to be able to be transparent needing about 40ms or so.
Guitar usually get away with 30ms.

So up to those times are useful or needed in my view.

But attack is not all, it also matter how the knee is shaped - hard to soft knee, or even able to design the knee. A hard knee, short transition to the new level affect more.

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PatchAdamz wrote: One thing to be concerned with is transparency.
Ideally, you really dont want to hear the compressor working.
? depends which era you're recording in. many applications use compression explicitly for the pumping and "unnatural" augmentation of timbre which modern ears have been accustomed to for some time.
you come and go, you come and go. amitabha neither a follower nor a leader be tagore "where roads are made i lose my way" where there is certainty, consideration is absent.

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xoxos wrote:
PatchAdamz wrote: One thing to be concerned with is transparency.
Ideally, you really dont want to hear the compressor working.
? depends which era you're recording in. many applications use compression explicitly for the pumping and "unnatural" augmentation of timbre which modern ears have been accustomed to for some time.
Thats why the quote reads, "One thing to be concerned with is transparency."
Pumping is not so much an era thing as it is another technique that has been heard since the beginning of compression.

It can be the result of excessive ratio, long release time, too hot a signal, etc.
It is not strictly tied to the attack time by any means.

Compressors that have a "smoother" control of dynamics have always been the most sought after tools.
This is because transparency is most often the desired goal when controlling dynamics.

Excessive pumping can result in dulled tracks, phase issues and other unwanted artifacts.
It is a technique best used sparingly and has little to do with "modern" ears. 8)

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sparingly it defines whole genres.
you come and go, you come and go. amitabha neither a follower nor a leader be tagore "where roads are made i lose my way" where there is certainty, consideration is absent.

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If you're using the compressor as a limiter, a faster (shorter, smaller) attack time is preferable. If you set it too high, it will let the quick steep spikes (transients) through and they won't be limited.

I usually start with the lowest settings for attack.
If you use a lookahead limiter it will be really fast.
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