The Secret Audio Sauce No One Ever Told You About

Tom Buck and acclaimed Audio Engineer Marcus dePaula show you how to get a punchier more direct sound or a smoother more inviting voice by mastering these very simple pro-audio compression tricks.
If you're like most content creators, you're probably just turning the knobs until everything sounds right. And like everyone else, you kind of understand the basics of compression-but not really. You know it's something that you should do, but you're not sure why. No one has really shown you the giant impact that mastering compression can have on the content that you create. And no one told you about the secret sauce that takes your audio from just sounding good to sounding pro-level great.
Watch as Marcus and Tom give you an easy-to-follow hands-on tutorial that shows you how to master your compression threshold, ratio, attack, release and makeup gain.
Chapters:
0:00 Introduction
0:37 Question
1:12 What is compression and why use it?
2:37 Threshold (where)
4:13 Ratio (how hard)
5:08 Attack and Release (when)
7:03 Output or Makeup Gain (what)
7:18 Recap
8:10 Ending
Ask the Audio Engineer is the new show brought to you by Earthworks Audio and Marcus dePaula to help make exceptional audio accessible to all content creators by answering your questions about audio and video equipment, software, recording, editing, and troubleshooting. We're here to help you tell better and more impactful stories!
Follow Tom Buck at himynameistom.com and subscribe to his KZbin channel at / @tombuck .
Marcus dePaula is an audio engineer who spent the early 2000’s at Clair Global touring with musicians like Jars of Clay, Amy Grant, Creed, and Michelle Branch, and then the past two decades installing professional recording studios, producing podcasts and live streams for clients, and providing consulting services.
Equipment and software Marcus used in this video:
Earthworks Audio ETHOS broadcast microphone
Custom low profile Mogami XLR cable made by Marcus
Elgato Wave Mic Arm LP
Sound Devices MixPre-6 II
Fujifilm X-T4 with Sirui Night Walker 24mm f/1.2 and 7Artisans 25mm f/1.8
Atomos Ninja V monitor recorder
Two Neewer 960 bi-color LED video light panels with soft boxes and grids
Glidegear TMP100 teleprompter
Davinci Resolve Studio 18.5 running on a MacBook Pro 16” 2021 (M1 Pro) with LG Ultrafine 4K display
Softube Console 1 channel strip effects with American Class A gate, Chandler Limited Zener-Bender EQ and saturation, British Class A compressor, Weis Deess, Tape saturation, Drawmer S73 and Weiss Gambit Series limiter.
iZotope RX 10 Advanced (Voice De-noise, Mouth De-click, Phase rotation, and Loudness Control) and Ozone 10 EQ+Maximizer
Melda Production’s free MCompressor was heard only during the demo with no other effects except the Weiss limiter
Adam Audio A7V studio monitors on IsoAcoustics ISO-155 stands and Ultimate Ears UE 18+ Pro in-ear monitors
Download the free MCompressor plugin Marcus demonstrated in the video at www.meldaproduction.com/MComp...
Website: earthworksaudio.com/
Instagram: / earthworksaudio
Facebook: / earthworksaudio
Twitter: / earthworksaudio

[@lee.isaac.richard]

Man this was the perfect answer to the perfect question… literally spent 8hrs the other day fiddling around to find out what you explained in less than 10m 👏🏼props

[@tombuck]

Thank you again for all the help! This really helped me to understand the nuances of compression.

[@meonlylouder]

So glad it helped! You already sound (and look) great. Any refinements to your compression settings are just icing on the cake. 😁

[@PureGlide]

Very useful, thank you!

[@jumabannister]

Grabbed my headphones as instructed! Very good. Great refresher as I get into editing my podcast.

[@JeremyLeech]

Its my boy Tom! He's the man!

[@EarthworksAudio]

He sure is!

[@RobKristjansson]

Thanks for this. I was immediately playing with the compressor settings in my mixer/interface as I was watching!

[@meonlylouder]

I love it! Turning those knobs to try things out is how we improve our sound. 😁

[@Zenvo-uu9tm]

Actually the compression starts instantly when threshold is exceeded, the attack settings tell the compressor how much time to achieve full range compression, a curve steepness rather than a time delay (Also with softer knees compression starts gradually even when signal approaching threshold) i.e. soft knee, relatively fast attack and slow release = smooth envelope riding Thanks for video

[@savethefails]

i came here to say the same thing. 99% of people who explain compression completely misunderstand atk/rls and why it's actually critical. I thought it was funny because he said "To really use a compressor like the pros do we need attack and release..." then immediately stated its mechanic incorrectly. to be fair, I've heard him speak before and he really is a solid engineer. but it just always irks me when pros get that one aspect of compression wrong over and over and over again.

[@BlackPodcastersAssociation]

thank you. this helped me to understand ratio/attack & release better.

[@BlackPodcastersAssociation]

how do you determine when you want a punchy or smooth sound? Is that a preference of the editor/engineer?

[@meonlylouder]

@@BlackPodcastersAssociationIt’s definitely a personal preference. I let the content dictate whether it needs more energy or needs to be smoother and laid back. I personally almost always go with punchier and more energetic for speech since we don’t want to put people to sleep with a “sound pillow.” 😁

[@BlackPodcastersAssociation]

@@meonlylouder gotcha. I'm going to be paying attention to this more when I listen to people's content. Thank you as always!

[@DannyBrownPodcasts]

Great video, Marcus, and always good to get the Buckisms on show, too. :)

[@meonlylouder]

Thanks Danny!

[@tombuck]

"Buckisms" does sound a bit like a medical condition. 😁

[@DannyBrownPodcasts]

@@tombuck It's good for what ails ya!