Somebody told you the attack and release time on a compressor is the amount of time it takes for the compressor to kick in, which impacts the transient or the sidechain or blah blah blah. And while thatâs true, it only tells you half the story because instead of thinking of it as a duration, attack and release are like a speed limit. And while speed and duration are related, an important distinction is that this is not just the time it takes for the compressor to kick in.
Instead, what weâre talking about is how quickly the compressor responds, whether itâs engaged or not. In other words, this needle moves as a function of the ratio and how far above the threshold we are. And the one rule you canât get around is if you want a lot of gain reduction, youâve got to be way over the threshold.
In which case, itâs not always how long, but how fast. Which means even in sections with heavy gain reduction, there are still signals that can outpace the speed of the compressor. And if the recovery speed is a police cruiser, it still has to go faster than the car itâs pursuing.
Itâs a nuance to take, but Iâm guessing whether youâre new to this or not, you probably know someone who belongs in a big kitchen residency. Kindly share this post.
