Finally Hear Your Compressor Settings in Full Focus (And Set the Perfect Settings Every Time)

[@sjkdhgalgci]

Just found you out and seems like you make perhaps the best Logic tutorials on youtube, and I’ve seen A LOT of them. I’m genuinely confused how these videos have so few views. As a beginner, I’ve already learned more useful methods from your videos than watching 100+ episodes of Into the Lair.

[@WhyLogicProRules]

Welcome to WLPR Puli Stäkki! Thrilled you find the videos so helpful. Sincerely, this comment means a ton to me. My goal is only to create the best material to help out! No worries on the views. I'd rather connect with the right people than tons of people :)

[@tisbonus]

Great job! You're giving away ALL the secrets. If you notice, your attack and release settings were 7 and 11 o'clock. Those are the best default settings, for the 1176, for acoustic instruments. Well done!

[@MrBryan90]

Finally a simplified explanation on the compressor... thank you so much.

[@fuzzy8mike]

Stav is a legend. His offbeat manner is interesting and encourages creative thinking. I like your stuff to. Thanks.

[@kolateralfuzz9250]

I´ve been a Logic user for years... ( I started with the Atari and Emagic´s Notator, ) just want you to know how useful your material really is and thanks a lot for all your hard work, keep on !

[@Gareth91Hill]

This literally makes so much sense! It’s so hard to get the grips of compression and this makes it easier to understand

[@mahkyb]

This one simple video just transformed a drum track I'm working on into something that actually sounds good and makes sense:) TY!

[@Truth565]

Great way to understand compression, especially the difference between threshold and ratio. This will help me in the future. Thanks

[@WhyLogicProRules]

Thanks for checking out the channel!

[@Gregorfriday]

One of the best Compression tutorials I've seen, Thanks!

[@joematsuki1154]

Thanks for this video, it really sheds a light on your process to hear what the compressor is doing. Keep up the good work

[@Landmaaler]

Love your video, and I must say, I love the book you’re referring to, of which I was introduced to about 5 or 10 years ago (time flies by). It was (and, indeed is) known as a ‘secret weapon’ for those, er, in the know, so to speak. There are some brilliant tips and methods in the book, and I particularly love his explanation of the difference between analogue and digital recording (without saying one is better than the other) by using diagrams and pictures of the Empire State Building! Honestly, it’s brilliant! Anyway, as with so many others, I love YOUR videos on this channel, so keep ‘em coming!

[@bassManDavis1953]

Thank you so much for all your videos, you put them across in a way that is enjoyable and easy to understand, I am new to Logic Pro X and with your help I'm totally loving it and not finding it so daunting!

[@garyjford1981]

LOVING this channel!

[@samayyatri]

The best thing i learn about Compressor Today. Dhanyavad..

[@ietrecords3119]

Thank you for this video. I have a new perspective about compression now.

[@spiderlab2526]

Haha Michael is a good friend and yes he is a little Woowoo but he's a genius with audio :-)

[@PavanSibal]

Best Logic Pro videos. Chris, Please do a couple of the scratch to finish.

[@APaclin]

The one thing that works for hearing the compression is turning the volume as quiet as possible and change the attack value. Try it 😉

[@dashmusic9454]

Stavs book is great. His approach is a bit Woo woo, but makes sense and is very passionate. Original. :)

[@trainwrecktammy]

excellent tutorial as always, Chris! you really demonstrate compression in a clear and direct way- eureka moments abound!

[@WhyLogicProRules]

Happy to hear this week's video was helpful!

[@trainwrecktammy]

they all are,@@WhyLogicProRules! great work :)

[@skinnyTheCat]

I agree with previous note!. Thank you so much for your effort on makin these wonderful & helpful videos. You’re the best!!

[@WhyLogicProRules]

I appreciate the kind vibes David, thank you!

[@OliFreke]

Yeah, that's a good book, and a great approach to compression. Thanks for the reminder to do it this way!

[@WhyLogicProRules]

You bet Oli, thanks for watching :)

[@deeverwaves]

Very Helpful Videos Thank You 🙏🏻

[@osagie2]

Brilliant Tip👍🏾🥇😎

[@GodsGiftStudio]

Chris, Would you please do a walk through of how you would compress vocals. Thanks so much for your help.

[@WhyLogicProRules]

Hey Mickey, absolutely, I'll add it to my docket of post ideas!

[@DarkPa1adin]

@@WhyLogicProRules send the link when you have made it :) thank you sir!

[@colinfitzpatrick4027]

Love these vids and this account so much. Truthfully I hate to admit but I still can’t quite hear the difference the compression is making... it seems quite subtle. Can someone help me out?

[@ManCalledMif]

great advice. very informative and understandable ❤️

[@VenAqui415]

Great tutorial as always, keep up the good work!

[@WhyLogicProRules]

Thanks so much!

[@NuffLoveProductions]

great tutorial

[@LaraSchilling]

I thought the name Michael Stavrou sounded familiar... I met the guy at a SMPTE convention as a baby-faced sound student around the time he released his Smart Console. He did some magic tricks for us, he used me for one of his card tricks and it blew my mind.

[@toddlask]

great vid man!

[@WhyLogicProRules]

Thanks so much Todd!

[@marin4311]

I often do the same with EQ. Pushing it towards something I can obviously HEAR and like, then adjusting the levels down.

[@pibayprodgineer5695]

Lost my copy of mixing with your mind -agreed it’s simple but so sweet.

[@marcobahon]

I Have learned a lot from this video but mostly from intuition and ear. Can you explain to me the meaning of ratio? Funny I grabbed the use but not the concept.

[@bealjimbo]

Marco Bahón the ratio is the relationship between the number of dB above the threshold and the dB reduction. A ratio of 4:1 means that for every 4dB above the threshold the compressor reduces the output by 1dB. For example, if you set threshold of -10dB with ratio of 4:1... A signal comes into the compressor of -6dB, so that is 4dB above the threshold and therefore the compressor will reduce the signal by 1dB and the output will be -5db. So... it’s the AMOUNT of compression for signals above the threshold. A higher ratio means MORE compression.

[@stuffnuns]

Great process. This will help me in my home studio. It’s too bad Mixing With Your Mind is $175, oy. That’s pretty dear.

[@walterearl6456]

Thanks for sharing amazing !!

[@TheBadFlowers]

Dude, that book is listed at over $400 on Amazon. Available from an Australian publisher for ~I was a $100. But ouch!

[@joeyf808]

Good job.

[@WhyLogicProRules]

Thanks Joey!

[@monkface]

I've had that book on my wishlist but yes it's expensive!

[@michaelkelly6583]

Brilliant!

[@qubs0n]

Man I'm trying my best to learn how to mix better, yet I feel I have no way to wrap my mind around compression. When you switch the compressor on and off for comparison, I genuinely hear no difference. If anything, I feel as if the compressor just made the drums slightly louder (which might not even be true), but I can't hear the kick drum being 'tucked in' at all. Any advice on tuning my ears?

[@LogicKidroy]

I have an important question, at 8:17 you bring the make-up gain down but, in another video about compressors, you mentioned this will affect the gain running into the distortion settings? I guess my question is, why did you not bring the output of the compressor down instead to gain/volume match instead of reducing the make-up gain? Would this not affect the overall tone you had just gotten?

[@KnzoVortex]

here, I think he was not caring as much about the color the compressor was giving the drums, but really just trying to glue the kit together, whilst also letting the compressor color the signal how it likes with the settings he put, but not stressing the exact amount of color.

[@roxammon5858]

Question, please. Should I have compression bussed out to an aux track [i.e. certain instruments be grouped for compression] or should each track have its own compressor according to the instrument being used? If each track has its own dedicated compression plugin then presumably this would impair CPU performance. Thanks

[@a.m.rodriguez2918]

Depends on what you want to use compression for... e.g. you could have one compressor on an aux buss for the drums as a whole, but you'd likely set that differently than you would if you wanted your kick and snare to have individual compressor settings. Not sure how taxing it would be on your CPU... I generally have quite a few compressors going depending on the project.

[@roxammon5858]

@@a.m.rodriguez2918 Thanks

[@australturf]

Google parallel compression

[@drbassface]

Looks like the snare is triggering the comp and not really the kick by the time you reach your settings...

[@alfievee1356]

Where did you get the book from?

[@WhyLogicProRules]

I had the good fortune of getting the book second hand from a friend at a studio I interned at years ago. But you can pick it up from the Mixing With Your Mind website: www.mixingwithyourmind.com/

[@christopherknox]

This is why I have always tried to impress upon people that RELEASE should actually be called RECOVERY. So many people teach that release is how long the transient is compressed before it is "released", which is patently false. I don't care where you turn the dial on the release knob, the release BEGINS at the same precise moment every time, which is immediately after the apex of the transient's compression amount is reached. It is always "released" immediately. the setting on the knob merely dictates how long it takes from the moment of release until the compression amount is fully recovered (back to zero compression).

[@sonnybrix77]

You did a video that showed a function that allows you to adjust the “gain” on all audio tracks. I can’t for the life of me remember how you did it. Can you please link me to the video that it’s in. If you didn’t do it, I’m so sorry. These tutorials start to run together. 😬

[@MrPajmej]

Search his video: How the lowly fader is your first defence against muddy mixes. The "normalize region gain" thing is around 2 minutes 50 seconds.

[@francisslam1457]

3:00-9:48

[@jasonaizkalns]

I like this approach but have you considered starting with a SLOW release first? If you start with fast attack and fast release, it’s too “short” to hear the extreme setting. So basically, all the same, but FAST attack and SLOW release and then dial things back.

[@WhyLogicProRules]

Love it! I like slowly introducing the release to hear how it changes the envelope of the sound. But do what feels right to you.

[@Quogmeyer]

Not sure if it’s my headphones, my ears or my brain but I hear little or no difference?

[@AnuragsMusicChannel]

Why do i hear no difference at all. Infact i feel the kick has got little bigger with compression(which might not be true) :(

[@russwilson2305]

I find it tough to make the mistake of too much comp in hard rock. Hell I can hear cymbals ducking in songs from the Beatles to Soundgarden.

[@marcinkozlowski2880]

👍👍👍

[@grahamtaylor6883]

You've got distortion on as well within the compressor, so it's not just the compression you're hearing. You should have used the clean digital option for this.

[@WhyLogicProRules]

Thanks for pointing that out Graham! I love the Soft Distortion on the Logic Compressor, so I set it as my default setting.

[@DarkPa1adin]

i'm really bad. I can't hear a difference... headphones or speakers

[@cire1606]

same bro I'm deaf af

[@benlast]

A useful video, but phrases like “tuck the kick drum a little” aren’t very meaningful or useful to learners. Of course, it’s difficult to talk about changes in how something sounds; maybe use the graph rather than the meter to show more of what the compressor is doing?

[@santoshpss]

Mind is not in the brain. Keep that in mind.