One of the first things I learned about working with music on computers is that the most important effect you can use is compression. The next thing I learned was that it's the least understood effect. Lord knows I didn't understand it. I'm not entirely certain I do now, but I feel confident enough to blather about it in a blog post. I'm pretty sure that I know it well enough to describe it, even if my own application of it would make proper audio engineers point and laugh. But why worry? Nobody reads this blog. And if anyone ever does and they happen to know where I've gone wrong, maybe I'll finally learn!
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| Original, compressed and final side-by-side-by-side |
[1] Because of peaks, levels can only be increased so far using just volume controls.
[2] Compression squishes the peaks down.
[3] Now volume controls can raise the levels more effectively.
That's a quick overview, but I'm going to go into more detail about each stage. Read on, if you care.
