User Manual

Compressor
The second set of dynamics parameters let you apply compression, which detects the
envelope of an audio signal in order to automatically change its level. Typically used to detect
and reduce the peaks of an audio signal so that the overall level can be boosted without
clipping, thus reducing the dynamic range of a given signal. Compression is often used to allow
voices to have more presence within a mix, and to smooth out changes in the levels of tracks
with too much dynamic range for the task at hand.
 Compressor: A button that lets you enable compression.
–
Threshold: Sets the signal level above which compression is applied.
The default is –15dB. The range is –50 to 0dB.
–
Ratio: Adjusts the compression ratio. This sets the gain reduction ratio
(input to output) applied to signals which rise above the threshold level. The default
is 2.0:1. The range is 1.0:1 to 10:1.
–
Attack: Adjusts how quickly the sidechain detector applies compression when
a signal exceeds the threshold. The default is 1.4mS (milliseconds). The range
is 0 to 100mS.
–
Hold: After the attack phase has been completed, the Hold parameter controls how
long this initial attenuation is maintained, before entering the release phase. Defaults
to 0mS. The range is from 0 to 4000mS.
–
Release: Adjusts how quickly or gradually the sidechain detector stops applying
dynamics when a signal goes back below the threshold. The default is 93mS. The
range is 0.03 to 4000mS.
 Send: Enable Send when you want to use the audio levels of the currently selected
track to attenuate those of another track using sidechain compression. For example,
you can turn on the compressor and enable Send for all tracks with dialog, in order to
use those levels to attenuate the levels of another track containing music.
 Listen: Enable Listen when you want to use the audio levels of tracks that you set
to Send to attenuate the levels of the currently selected track. If there are no tracks
with Send enabled, then the current track is compressed as usual, using itself as the
sidechain.
The following procedure shows how to set up a Compressor to automatically attenuate, or
“duck” a music track whenever someone speaks in clips on one or more other tracks of
the Timeline.
To use sidechain compression to automatically “duck” music in the presence of
dialog on other tracks:
1 Edit dialog into one track of the Timeline, and edit overlapping music into another track
of the Timeline.
Choosing the track header in the Fairlight timeline to add Dynamics
Chapter – 156 Mixing in the Fairlight Page 3256