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Topic: Audacity Compressor (Read 3251 times) previous topic - next topic
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Audacity Compressor

I have recently been experimenting with compressing the dynamic range of audio.  I am by no means an audio mixer, I'm just curious to how it is done.  I've read a lot into it and after looking at waveforms of a few compressed audio signals from artists such as Drowning Pool and the Red Hot Chili Peppers I noticed I cannot get my WAVs to look just like that (squared off).  The main thing I'm trying to avoid is clipping and I have noticed that if I try to avoid clipping that compression really doesn't work that well.  For instance I'll compress the signal with the compressor and then amplify it using the Amplifer effect as high as I can without clipping it and it sounds just like it did before I even applied compression.  However, when I use the "Apply Gain after compression" option in Audacity's compressor, the waveform is squared off and sounds louder.  Does using the Gain option in the compressor clip the signal?  Is all compressed signals clipped?  If not, how do they make the signal louder without clipping because I can't seem to do that unless I'm missing something.

Audacity Compressor

Reply #1 –
Waves L2
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Audacity Compressor

Reply #2 –
Quote
Waves L2

Right. You need a professional maximizer, like Waves L2 Ultramaximizer and BBE Sonic Maximizer.

The compressor in Audacity probably isn't professional-grade.

Audacity Compressor

Reply #3 –
Thanks for the replies.  I was just wondering what the pros use to compress audio.  Are these maximizers used to simply make the music as loud as possible or can they function as a normal compressor?

Audacity Compressor

Reply #4 –
A "normal" compressor is meant primarily for individual instruments, whereas these are meant mostly for final mixes (even though they can be used on indivdual tracks).
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Audacity Compressor

Reply #5 –
edit: double post
"You can fight without ever winning, but never win without a fight."  Neil Peart  'Resist'

Audacity Compressor

Reply #6 –
Quote
Right. You need a professional maximizer, like Waves L2 Ultramaximizer and BBE Sonic Maximizer.

Note: BBE Sonic Maximizer has nothing to do with dynamic compression, it's a phase delay and transient processor.