DigiDesign DigiRack Plug-ins Manual page 76

An orange arrow on the Input meter indicates
the current threshold, and can also be dragged
up or down to adjust the threshold setting.
Threshold
arrow
Threshold arrow on input meter
The Dynamics Graph display also shows the
threshold as an orange vertical line.
Threshold indicator on Dynamics Graph display
This control ranges from –60 dB (lowest gain) to
0 dB (highest gain).
Ratio
The Ratio control sets the compression ratio, or
the amount of compression applied as the input
signal exceeds the threshold. For example, a 2:1
compression ratio means that a 2 dB increase of
level above the threshold produces a 1 db in-
crease in output.
This control ranges from 1:1 (no compression)
to 100:1 (hard limiting).
70 DigiRack Plug-ins Guide
Attack
The Attack control sets the attack time, or the
rate at which gain is reduced after the input sig-
nal crosses the threshold.
The smaller the value, the faster the attack. The
faster the attack, the more rapidly the Compres-
sor/Limiter applies attenuation to the signal. If
you use fast attack times, you should generally
use a proportionally longer release time, partic-
ularly with material that contains many peaks
in close proximity.
This control ranges from 10 μs (fastest attack
time) to 300 ms (slowest attack time).
Release
The Release control sets the length of time it
takes for the Compressor/Limiter to be fully de-
activated after the input signal drops below the
threshold.
Threshold
Release times should be set long enough that if
signal levels repeatedly rise above the threshold,
the gain reduction "recovers" smoothly. If the
release time is too short, the gain can rapidly
fluctuate as the compressor repeatedly tries to
recover from the gain reduction. If the release
time is too long, a loud section of the audio ma-
terial could cause gain reduction that continues
through soft sections of program material with-
out recovering.
This control ranges from 5 ms (fastest release
time) to 4 seconds (slowest release time).