The Role of Compression at Mixdown
First of all, if you plan to have your material professionally mastered, don't add compression at mixdown. A professional mastering engineer will have a better compressor than you do and they cannot remove the layer of compression you add. Just get the mix sounding great without compression, record the mix so it's top peak is several db below 0db. Let them make it louder, that's their job.
But if you are not sending the piece off for mastering, and aren't going to add a pass later through mastering processors, then, yes, patch in the compressor at mixdown or do a separate pass later with the mixed file.
On it's way to the recording device, you can patch a compressor/ limiter/gate. The Gate simply cuts out any audio below a certain threshold so that any hiss or noise coming from your synths or mixer is eliminated before the music starts. The limiter keeps your peaks under a certain fixed level and will not let them go higher. A Compressor is a volume slope applied to the audio material going through it. It can amplify the "valleys" and attenuate the "peaks". Essentially compression reduces the dynamic range we have just struggle to achieve in our mix. You might wonder why you would want that. In many circumstances, you don't want it. However, in the majority of cases you will find it useful, especially if you want your music to be "hot", "have punch" "be as loud as possible", or have the consistency of a radio mix. The stereo compressor also helps balance the song and give it a uniform character we are so used to hearing in commercial music. It essentially gives you the strongest and smoothest mix and calms down some of the 'jaggged edges' that might disturb the casual listener. However, it is also very easy to make a mix totally lifeless with a compressor and reduce its dynamic power. What started as a powerful orchestral arrangement can end up a wimpy piece of Mall Muzak so be careful and bypass it frequently to make sure you like what you are tweaking up. I think compression works well to attenuate that occasional peak that rips through the roof of a digital audio recorder and ruins the track. Also if you have the cash for a fine analog tube compressor. or even a high quality compressor plugin, there is lots of magic you can do at this stage.
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