From the course: Music Production Secrets: Larry Crane on Mixing

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Why compress?

Why compress?

Compression is one of the subjects that many recorders get bogged down in when they first start recording. I remember some friends bringing over a compressor to my home studio a long time ago. We were just turning knobs and listening, I don't think we had the slightest idea of what we were hearing, and whether it was helping the audio or harming the audio. I'm going to show you a few simple things to kind of wrap your head around. I don't want this to be a tutorial where we're talking about all the knobs and explaining how the compressor works, and then leave you hanging with no way to use it. This is going to be a little bit of application, and just some simple examples to help you wrap your head around compression, and see how you might be using it in a mix. Think of it as a limiting amplifier, that's what they earlier compressors were called. It limits the peaks of audio coming in and then re-amplifies it back up. So, a compressor essentially, is taking your audio and kind of…

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