The Compressor Visualizer shows your audio’s dynamics as they happen. You can make precise adjustments by clicking and dragging with your mouse or by using your computer keyboard. It’s an easy way to see what abstract compression settings do.
All of this is available in one interface including wave form history, live meters and transfer curve. As you adjust the parameters you’ll hear it right away.
How to Use the Compressor Visualizer
Centered around this is a graph of the static transfer law. By dragging the orange handle left or right you set the threshold level. Pulling the green handle up or down adjust the compression ratio. As you do so, the graph are updated automatically to reflect the mapping of input to output levels. Where gain matching applies it’s shown as a dotted orange line.
It shows how overall gain reduction, attack and release interact. At the bottom of the graph is the compressor’s routing and timing controls. A slider for soft knee width is followed by one for attack clamp and another for the release valve. The soft knee width is measured in decibels, while the attack clamp and release valve are in milliseconds.
Makeup lift brings back any lost volume from the compression. Wet route mixes dry and compressed signals together. With these controls you can shape the rate of the compressor’s response to sudden sounds.
There are three selections for your test source on the right-hand side. The kick piston delivers a hard percussive punch. The bass plucks deliver a more sustained low-end texture. Then there are voice-like bursts that mimic how vocals is phrased.
There are detent settings for compression ratio to make quick presets too. The start button begins playing back the sound once the chamber has been pressurized. Pressing it again acts as a stop as well. Race Fast or Slow recovery button allows you to momentarily change attack and release times to compare.
Live pressure telemetry appears on the meter stack. Gain reduction, output level and input level is represented by three vertical bars. Input refers to the raw signal as it enters the compressor. Output is signal that has passed through the compressor with any makeup gain applied. Reduction reflects the amount of gain being cut.
Below these, a graph of the input and output history is drawn on the scope under the meters. The output is orange and the input is green. You can see the decay and sustain visually.
The monitor trim slider finetunes your mix by controlling master volume so it doesn’t get clipped. Gain-match lets you compare an uncompressed signal and a compressed one in a fair way. Choose a reference crest level, hit the trim button and it will show you exactly how much makeup gain is required to achieve it. It gets the loudness out of your ear’s decision making process when setting things up.
The route around compressor button bypasses effect completely to let you do some A-B testing.
The interface can be navigated rapidly using just a keyboard instead of a mouse. To start, click on the transfer graph to focus it so that you can control it from the keyboard. The threshold handle is #1, the ratio handle is #2. Move the highlighted handle by pressing one of the arrows. Holding Shift while doing this will cause bigger jumps in value. The knee width goes up/down when you press K. To vent/ open the audio chamber, hit the spacebar. Press R to run or stop the recovery race, and press G to apply the gain match. These shortcuts speed up the tweaking process.
For example, try exaggerating the ratio to eight to one for drama. Set the attack time slowly to allow the initial hit to punch through. Next extend the release so that it takes time for the meter to recover between hits. That maintains the rhythm but controls overall level.
Experiment with the voice-like source to add effects like a vocal chain. Bring up the threshold so that the gain reduction meter rides smoothly. Don’t push the makeup gain too high or it will bring in noise. Use the bypass button often so you know you’re adding clarity.
You can visualize complex signal processing. The visualizer makes the process of setting attack and release times easier. There’s no more guessing. You no longer have to imagine what the curve might look like. Now, you can just watch as it reacts and bends based off your audio source.
Seeing is believing; and now you know exactly how much energy being removed. And you can see how the makeup gain brings back the perceived volume. That’s a direct feedback loop that will help you make better mixing decisions.
Begin with hearing the defaults, pushing the pressurize the chamber button. Next locate the sweet spot by dragging the threshold handle left-right. Observe the response of the reduction meter. Run through the recovery race and notice the difference between slow and fast release times. Keyboard shortcuts allow you to adjust the ratio for precise control. Take a moment to watch the scope to see how it shapes the envelope. Soon you’ll have the ear for controlling dynamics.
Have fun experimenting with the parameters until you discover what sounds best for you.