Automatic Release Control for Compressor

[ivanschrago]

Has anyone tried to make ARC (like Waves plugs etc.) on Compressors?
How should I start? Is it pssible?

[ivanschrago]

No one replies?

[Disco_Steve]

waves have done it - therefore it is possible.
btw the waves one doesn't sound that great imo

think hard about what it should do
make a fixed attack compressor and play with it for hours and hours and learn what it is about the input that makes it sound best at a particular setting.

write it all down, analysing the input to learn it from how the DSP sees the signal. think really really hard, then work out a cheap way of analysing the signal and modifying the release characteristics to sound as you feel best.

whalla.

ARC

[oddson]

Caveat: I don't have a lot of experience with compressors... so this is coming from my limited experience and is almost entirely based on my sketchy theoretical understanding of compression.

From what I understand an automatic setting makes the release time dependant on magnitude of the signal in some way. I would assume that means longer for louder signals or longer for higher levels of signal reduction (which should be more or less the same thing).

A fixed release time has to have an adjustable slope (in effect) to go from a given gain reduction back to zero gain... so making the slope fixed (still adjustable but fixed for any given setting) will make the release time dependant on the signal level.

Alternately a low-pass filter on the envelope will take longer to approach zero gain when starting from a higher amount of signal reduction (but not a linear fixed slope).

So in fact the stock compressor -- because is uses the low-pass within the envelope follower that elsewhere has been criticized for being non-standard -- gives this behaviour now.

Can any audio-heads correct me on this?

[MegaHurtz]

I guess.. The release should be longer when theres a bassy part, or a long lasting note. so that the release is inaudible. And the release should be short if theres a lot of attacks going on so that the material gets compressed io attenuated. But in my book anything goes so long as it sound fat. Take the Sonalksis Uber Compressor (TBK3)