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ive heard about this happening but im sorta unclear why this happens and what the outcome is...
i understand compression and use a few (alloy, ableton's compressor) to round out my sounds. what are some compressors that are known for their colour? i just downloaded a demo of the Native Instument's VC 2A and it definately has a sound to it, almost like it makes the sound a bit brighter and warmer but idk if this is a colouring effect or just the compressor bringing the mids down...

Waves compressors, TRack compressors, FET compressor, and if you have the money, of course any outboard compressor will give it a nice analog color. hope this helps!

A compressor only colours (changes) the sound (audio signal) if the compressor's attack and release settings are fast enough and the audio signal's gain (volume) is below the compressors trigger threshold.

'Colouration' happens because changing the attack and release transients of the input signal's waveform effectively creates a new waveform. The sound is 'coloured' because we're hearing the harmonic overtones of the new signal which is different from the original input signal.

To see this in action visually, either download s(M)exoscope (a VST oscilloscope) and run your signal through it or bounce a short clip of audio (a sine wave should work well) both uncompressed and highly compressed (with fast attack and release times + high amounts of gain reduction and an equal amount of make-up gain) and load the file into a wave editor.

Hope that helps?

Patrick

That isn't always true, is it? Analog compressors added coloration or could add it when you overdrive the output without ever really touching the compressing settings themselves. And digital emulations of those compressors add color too.

Genevieve wrote:That isn't always true, is it? Analog compressors added coloration or could add it when you overdrive the output without ever really touching the compressing settings themselves. And digital emulations of those compressors add color too.

Yea. This is also true. Certain parts of analog gear naturally cause a certain amount of distortion and this colors the sound. Also, many of them add a bit of white noise to the signal. Kinda like machine hum. In amplifiers I think this is know as true harmonic distortion or THD (it's a percentage, low is good, dunno how it's calculated).

Not a compressor, but check the SOS article on Slate Digital VTM...this explains it pretty well using tape machines as the example.

Genevieve wrote:That isn't always true, is it? Analog compressors added coloration or could add it when you overdrive the output without ever really touching the compressing settings themselves. And digital emulations of those compressors add color too.

You're right.

In theory, anything in the signal chain has the potential to color or otherwise alter sonic attributes. Sometimes it's desirable, more often it's a problem.

Compressors are no exception; given that there are different methods of compressing in both the hardware and software realms, there are different things going on depending on the particulars of the sound itself, signal path, and playback medium all in tandem with each other that will change the overall sound in ways ranging from subtle to drastic. Further, not everybody's ears are sensitive enough to hear some of the things happening, for instance if you have high frequency hearing loss like me.

You can A/B waveforms to better tell what's happening at both ends of the chain using both traditional FFT view as well as spectral analysis.

Had to be done

How's that NI comp sound? I'm in the market for a good comp and have been demoing the Glue. But I do hear good things about the NI one. I just keep forgetting to demo it when I'm at my comp.