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14. Customising compression for consistency

We can make a sound much more powerful and consistent with compression – but it’s all too easy to go too far. To avoid this, pay careful attention to attack and release times: set the attack and release times too fast, and the compressor will pump under the heavy load, and may even distort when compressing material with prominent bass frequencies. A more sensible approach is to use a medium release time (start with 50-100ms) then tune it until the sound is smooth and consistent. You can also switch in your compressor’s sidechain high-pass filter to prevent bass frequencies triggering gain reduction, helping avoid excessive ‘pumping’ or ‘breathing’ side effects.