Old 07-30-2020, 01:45 PM   #1
babag
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so, this may have a linux relation but may only be about reacomp.

i tried setting precomp to 10 and attack to 0 and got bad clicking. backing off from 0, however slightly, gets rid of the clicking. is that just too extreme of a setting?

thx,
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Old 07-30-2020, 02:32 PM   #2
JamesPeters
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It depends on the audio, the compressor plugin, and the rest of the settings (including what you mean by "10", such as: is that 10 ms and in ReaComp, and what are the rest of the settings you're using and how much compression are you getting). But generally speaking yes, that might not be a good setting.

Some JS compressors don't handle fast attack very well, despite claiming to. It could be their knee shape or something else, I don't know. With the "weird knee" setting of ReaComp turned off though, I don't have a problem of this kind.
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Old 07-30-2020, 03:34 PM   #3
babag
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thanks, james. i think you've answered the question. and, yes, i was talking about reacomp. also, yes, 10.0ms precomp.

threshold -27.0db
precomp 10.0ms
attack 0ms
release 0ms
ratio 25:1
knee 0db
lowpass 20000hz
highpass 0hz
rms size 0.0ms

i tried the ratio at a wide range of settings and it didn't alleviate the clicking.

thanks again,
babag
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Old 07-30-2020, 05:12 PM   #4
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Threshold isn't really relevant on its own because I don't know the signal level you're sending it. Too much compression with a setting like that (instant attack/release with sharp knee) and you'll easily hear obvious clipping. It would also be worse with some audio than with others (with a snare drum track for instance I could slam the compressor hard with those settings, and it was still ok until I reduced the gain by over 10 dB).

Adjust any of the following (most important at the top, least important at the bottom):

-release (0 attack and 0 release means basically ReaComp is a clipper lol)
-knee (in reality, most hardware compressors have some kind of knee shape, not just "0")
-RMS (maybe adjusting this a bit would help, but the 2 parameters above are more important)
-precomp (you probably don't need to use any, and it adds latency, so only use it if you need to)

I'm guessing you haven't thought much about how to use compressors until now. It's kind of its own world. Beware a lot of the ReaComp presets have "weird knee" enabled since that was the old knee shape before it was reported that the knee wasn't quite right (and that old shape is still there in the plugin as an option to maintain compatibility). It's an interesting option since it helps maintain attack transients a bit differently from using a longer attack time, but when it's enabled you can't really just "squash" things smoothly without some of the attack sneaking past. So the ReaComp presets as they are, for the most part they're not very useful for me.
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Old 07-31-2020, 12:17 PM   #5
babag
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thanks very much, james. will bear this all in mind going forward.

looks like a typo in the release. should be 20ms. guess i missed the 2 in typing.

i use compression in pretty rudimentary ways, i think. just never run into this before, and it comes after moving to an exclusively linux workflow. added an extra layer to the question for me. sounds like it's more compressor than os, though, so that's very helpful, as is the knee info.

thanks again,
babag
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Old 07-31-2020, 12:54 PM   #6
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May not be related at all, but I used to have an RNC hardware compressor, and it's attack and release could be set so fast that it would compress each beat of a wavering bass string which sounded almost like sputtery cracking. I was used to using much slower reacting compressors, but after becoming aware that it can happen, I watch what I'm setting real close on the release side, depending on what the source material is.
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Old 07-31-2020, 12:55 PM   #7
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Glad to help. Compression is something that took me far too long to really grasp properly.

The release setting could be too fast still. That "auto release" button is handy. It generally helps avoid excessive attack/release cycles if the release is set low and then the compressor is triggered successively very quickly. A fast snare roll on a snare track for instance, with ReaComp set for too short a release time, it might "sputter", but with "auto release" checked it would let the compressor release time be longer during that segment of audio (and it'll sound smoother for compression during that time). Or you can dial in the release time longer of course.

Having ReaComp "fixed" with that knee change made it so much more useful for me. I like ReaComp a lot now. Oh also the new feedback detector option (pre-fader) helps if you're going for that kind of vibe.

Another thing I forgot to mention: depending on what's feeding the detector, it can affect the sound of the compression. If you're using "main input" for the detector though, I don't think that's going to be part of of the issue you're experiencing.
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