AvailableEffect

Compressor

A full dynamics compressor with a filterable detector.

@maru shared this effect so you can play it in your DAW, remix it or put it on your site.

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What it does

A stereo dynamics compressor with the controls a mixing compressor needs: peak or RMS detection, a soft knee, hold, automatic release, a ceiling on how much it may reduce, and a detector you can filter without touching the audio you hear.

The idea

Threshold, Ratio and Knee describe where the compressor is heading: how much quieter a signal above the threshold should become. Attack, Release and Hold decide how quickly it gets there and back. That is why a drum hit and a sustained chord react differently at identical settings.

The detector filters are the part worth learning. A high-pass on the detector stops a kick's low end from pulling the whole mix down, and a low-pass stops the compressor reacting to cymbals and sibilance. Neither filter changes the sound itself, only what the compressor listens to, and at the ends of their ranges they are switched off entirely.

Guide and controls

How it works.

Threshold, ratio and knee describe a static transfer curve, and attack, release and hold are the detector that decides how fast the signal travels along it. The curve is where the compressor is heading; the ballistics are how quickly it gets there, which is why a transient reads differently from a sustained passage at identical settings.

The detector is filterable and the filters are the point. A high-pass on the detector stops a kick's sub from pulling the entire mix down, and a low-pass stops the compressor keying on cymbals and sibilance - and neither one touches the audio you hear. At the ends of their ranges the kernel skips the section entirely rather than running it at unity, so Off means off.

Range is a hard ceiling on how much gain reduction may ever be applied, and it clamps after smoothing rather than before: the detector keeps its own state, and only the applied reduction is bounded. Auto-release derives the release time from the signal's crest factor once per block, so percussive material recovers quickly and sustained material slowly.

Mix is a graph-level dry/wet pair rather than a field inside the node, which is what makes a mix of 0 bit-exact dry instead of merely quiet. The node's own mix is pinned fully wet so the graph law is the only mix in the signal path.

What would you make with Compressor?

Describe what you want to make. Build it with the Studio agent.

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