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  • Question about using compression for sustain

    Posted by Jesse Lewis on at 6:07 am

    Hi Dana and MP geniuses!

    After watching Dana’s amazing zoom video on compression I’m feeling more confident but I’m still struggling to understand a concept about using compression that seems like it should be easy to get, but it’s really tripping me up! Could somebody please help me understand?

    Let’s take the specific case of wanting to make a long note feel more sustained and powerful. Maybe a bass part with very long whole notes that you want to make feel more powerful for the full duration of the note, or perhaps a singing guitar lead where the long notes feel like they fade away too soon and you want them to feel more powerful throughout the entire note.

    I feel like I understand the attack function on a compressor, if I want the note to have more transient or punch, I would go for a slower attack time to let more of the transient through before the compressor clamps down on it. But I’m not fully understanding the release. I get that it is when the compressor lets go and stops compressing but if I wanted a note to be long and powerful throughout the duration of the note, and I still wanted to hear the transient, would the correct approach be to have a relatively slower attack time with a short/fast release time? Or would I want a long/slower release time?

    My understanding is that with a shorter/faster release time (a faster release of the compression) the sustained portion of the note wouldn’t be compressed as much as with a longer release time. And then when applying make up gain, that portion of the note would be louder (actually and proportionately) as it compares to the initial transient or attack of the note…

    Is this the general right approach to getting the most sustain out of a note? A short/fast release?

    Another confusing thing is that when applying compression in this way, using a fast release and a slow release BOTH still seemed to result in a longer/more powerful/sustained note overall – I’m just having trouble determining, which one is more sustained.

    <b style=””>In summery: For sustain do I want a quick release or a long release time? 😂

    Compression is a hard effect to really hear and control for me…

    Thanks in advance for any help, fam!

    JLew

    Jesse Lewis replied 2 weeks ago 1 Member · 0 Replies
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