Even out dynamics with a full compressor — threshold, ratio, attack, release, knee, makeup gain — plus vocal, master, and aggressive presets.
The compressor evens out the difference between the loud and quiet parts of a track. You get the full set of controls — threshold, ratio, attack, release, and knee — plus a makeup-gain slider to bring the level back up afterwards, and three presets (Vocal, Master, Aggressive) to start from. Everything previews live, and the export renders the same processing offline for a clean file.
Reach for it to hold a vocal steady so every word sits at a consistent level, to glue a mix together, or to add obvious punch. Because compression lowers the peaks, the result can sound quieter until you add makeup gain — level-match it against the original before deciding it helped, since louder almost always seems better at first. The full background is in what audio compression is and what dynamic range means.
Threshold is the level where compression kicks in — anything louder gets turned down. Ratio is how hard: 3:1 means for every 3 dB over the threshold, only 1 dB comes out. Attack is how quickly it clamps down once a sound crosses the threshold, and release is how quickly it lets go afterwards. Knee softens the transition around the threshold so the compression eases in rather than snapping on. Makeup gain then brings the overall level back up, since compression lowers the peaks.
Vocal is a gentle 3:1 with a fast attack — good for evening out a voice so quiet and loud words sit closer together. Master is a light 2:1 'glue' setting for a whole mix, tightening it without squashing it. Aggressive is a heavy 12:1 with a fast attack for an obvious, punchy, in-your-face effect. Pick the closest one, hit play, and adjust from there while listening.
Because compression lowers the loudest peaks by design — that's what evens out the dynamics. The makeup-gain slider is there to compensate: raise it until the compressed version is roughly as loud as the original, then compare. Level-matching like that is the honest way to judge whether the compression is actually helping, since anything louder tends to sound 'better' at first.
No. They share a name but do different jobs. This compressor works on dynamics: it turns down the loudest moments so loud and quiet parts sit closer together, and the length stays the same. It doesn't shrink the file; the size depends on the export format you pick. The separate Audio Compressor tool is the one that reduces file size, by re-encoding to MP3 at a lower bitrate, without evening out the levels.
Listen for the life draining out of the track: drums lose their snap, everything sounds flat and squashed, and breaths or background noise swell up in the gaps, often heard as pumping. Those signs usually come from a low threshold combined with a high ratio and a fast attack, as in the Aggressive preset at 12:1. Raise the threshold, lower the ratio, or lengthen the attack so the start of each hit passes through, then compare at matched loudness.