The Magical Release Knob 

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On a full drum kit, I think of the release knob as the “room” knob.

Tanks Joe! That was the clearest description of compression I've seen. The up-down-left-right analogy helps keep it straight in my mind.

Joe, I love your philosophy with music. Using simplicity and efficiency is the most powerful concept. I would love to see you make some production/composition centered videos, because that's a side we don't get to really see from you !

A great piece of advice I heard from another RU-vid mixer was to take a compressor and crank the input gain, max the ratio and then you can really hear how the attack and release are affecting the sound. Once you dial in the attack and release, then dial in the input gain and ratio.

Very strong ability to explain. I am getting everything you are saying. ❤

Konami Code compression method, by Joe Gilder. You made me laugh out loud and feel happy (and old!) with this reference - hehe. Great video, as always. Cheers!

Great video Joe. Release is the hardest setting to master

A really interesting, helpful tutorial. Another good one!

Interesting stuff. Up until now I'd just pushed the release knob into a middle position and hoped for the best. I will now start listening to the signal with different release timings.

very helpful explained! give tanx Joe 🤜🤛

Man, you read my mind. I was just looking for a video about shaping snares with compression and this was absolutely perfect!

I needed to hear/see this! Thanks, Joe!

Thanks for sharing this! 👍

Thanks for a more laymen's terms in describing what a compressor does. I've watched a bunch of videos on compressors alone and was like, "I'll get it at some point." I'm listening on M1 iMac on my work break. The speakers are ok at best. What I hear when you shorten the release time is not only volume, but the resonance of the shell and the actual snare wires themselves. Pretty cool demonstration.

Great video Joe. You make these things so easy to understand.

Thanks again Joe! Always helpful videos!

Great video!

Thanks Joe, great explainer.

Perfect explanation BTW!!💪🏽💪🏽

"Rockness". My new favourite word!

That was a really helpful vid

In case of vocal compression, sometimes I feel uncomfortable with the harshness that arises when I apply too much compression to the voice. However, sometimes the voice needs this type of compression. When I have a fast release, this "grit" appears a lot in the mix, such as: initial breaths, strange frequencies, etc. Wouldn't this be solved with a longer release, right? Where the voice would become smoother, in terms of things that appear in the front of the mix, but still quite compressed as I always wanted from the beginning. I feel like there's a "trend" among RU-vid producers to think that a long release kills the punch of the instruments. It's almost unanimous: want punchy sound? Slow attack, short release. But this is a very generic way to explain compression. Then you see countless songs sounding horribly dirty, especially the vocals. Quality content, man!

Great vid as usual Joe! Thanks. I had a bit of an epiphany just last evening with the release knob on the limiter on my output buss. Instead of paying attention to the level meters i was focused on the numbers just above the output slider. They were bouncing all over. Adjusting the release just right and they didnt bounce so much. I like to keep the output around negative seven leaving the mastering engineer room to work with.

Sometimes, the release knob help to sharp the groove in the track , on percussion, drums or others instruments and the nuance too. But technically its the speed to initialize the compressor, and I love to automate the release with some delay , and it make the snare fill bounce better... Thank your for explanation

I sometimes use a short release on the compressor, and then run the compressor in parallel with the source signal, adjusting the mix between the compressor and the source until it sounds like it fills out the song more. It gives the song a less hollow sound, filling what might have otherwise been emptiness in the sound of the song. And, to me, this glues the song together better. But it depends on the song. Having it in parallel means I can control how much of it I want to have.

great tips. I've definitely mutilated some snares turning knobs on a compressor

I'm getting the hang of compressors, but going over it again definitely is a help for me,

The release knob is there for a reason, for the compressors that have it. My SSL bus and G3 I'll probably use Auto, but I can dial in a faster release manually on my 2 bus to go with slow attack. 2:1 ratio, 30 (30 ms) attack, Auto or .1 (10 ms) release, threshold to get about 1 DB Gain Reduction. Nice Nintendo code, probably Contra.

Thanks Joe for all the help. I saw your video today talking about mixing virtual drums and was curious as to your pc setup if you don't mind.

I can listen all day to this guy… voice tone matters!!! lol 😂

Just add some nutmeg to that snare, it will mellow the Ph level... A very informative Video (as usual)

Thanks for the video Joe. If I hadn't watched this one, it would've taken me longer to realize that the fast release is actually to the right side of the knob. 😂

Going all "Konami Code" on us! Awesome!

This is the way

What I heard: Faster release preserved some of the "echo/reverb/tail" of the snap sound

Wow so educative. Please what mic are you using please?

Longer release time made the Snare sound more squashed. When the release time was shortened I felt like the sound of the snare was more open. Feels like the longer release time made the Snare sound tighter.

I have seen a lot of videos on compression, but none of them give examples of the desired result of compression. Can you tell us what is so good about it. How can it make our recordings more pro sounding?

Hi Joe, just wondering if you were going to keep posting on the recording revolution or not? Many thanks and been following for a long time!

PUMPING

@5'30'': When you move to 50ms I can hear much more harmonics or at least more treble, right? And it's a bit louder too.

If you use your comp on snare purely to shape the envelope (which makes sense), have you ever considered using a transient shaper instead?

Amazing explanation, but what about other instruments? I guess that for non drums a faster release gets the more natural results...

At 50ms the audio sounded louder and more sharp while the other 100ms setting the audio sounded softer and maybe more natural.

What about those mixer where you have a "one" knob compressor, it's kinda changing several settings at once. Does this mean those are "trash" or can you actually get decent result with these things ?

It's very important knob on compressor indeed. As important as attack, ratio and treshold.

When you speed up the release it sounds louder and I would guess that's because you're letting the sound out faster. It makes it slower release time feel almost gated.

I feel compress is the difference between talking outside in NYC traffic in the middle of the day and talking in a library

Short release caused the snare to preserve its tail while longer release caused the tail to be more contained and tight.

Joe! What is the zooming plugin or app you use? Haven’t been able to find anything like it. Please.

sustain

Brighter & longer ,less stifled Joe

The slower release time tightened the sound on the snare.

A "clean knob" is essential, especially when you're "pumping" those beats 🤭

Just wanted to say Joe... You are looking really good. looks like you have lost STACKS of weight. Good on ya.

It got louder, some rattle and grit came out and it felt like longer tail or sustain ( hope this makss sense and i am describing it correct)

I heard like the 50ms allowed some sort of short reverb, whereas 100ms sounded like a treated room.

Don't think I will ever ask you for directions joe

Legend!

Slower sounds like whaaaapt. Faster sounds WHAPT

I found your secret brawl stars channel. It’s so fire.

Im first!

I also use a compressor to skip levels in Sonic. 🙃

I think syncing the compressor to tempo can do wonders in electronic music. Rock/metal not so much.

To my ears, the shorter release time added some sound of the room. The longer releases made the snare sound more kind of blupp.

Hear more SPlASH/Ring w/short Release.

At 50ms it sounded louder and more bright.

We had a drummer that used hydraulic heads on his drums to me those were the best id ever heard. the ringing tones on some standard heads is not color i seek, most the time they are out of key to the music material.

Snare is more up front when it is released at 50ms.

A tad louder and longer decay

It's like a volume knob for the tail of the sound

The 50ms sounds snappier and louder

much longer decay time at the end of the snare lick

The sound was kinda sustained more at 50 ten the other setting

faster rekease = longer tail

shorter release, longer tail

50ms sounded brighter

When moved to 50ms the snare gets bigger.

50ms is louder and longer.

Contra...30 lives for 2 players

Im unsubscribing just for this dumb thumbnail, the shock trope🙄