Guitar Compressor Attack

In mixing sound what are compressors, gates and attack etc?

and how do I use them to best advantage? Usually have keyboards, electric and bass guitar, lead singer, backing vocals and drums in a church worship band. Thanks.

Compressors even out the dynamics of something. Basically, if something is louder than X, it turns it down by a factor of Y. One side effect of this is that little things come out in the mix, stuff like pick attack sounds or little scratches. It’s also useful for vocalists who are all over the place in terms of volume.

You can also get a little more creative with it. For example, you can put a compressor on the bass guitar, but trigger it off the kick drum. Then, whenever the kick drum hits, the bass ducks out of the way, allowing the kick to take a more prominent place in the mix.

Gates basically cut out any sound below a certain level. They are really useful if you’ve got a noisy guitar or microphone. You can also set them to really high levels, automate them, or trigger them off a different instrument to get some interesting effects.

Attack… well, I don’t know what that is. Gates and compressors usually have an “attack” control, which adjusts how fast they kick in, it’s also a very basic component of an envelope, but there is no component or piece of gear simply called an “attack”.

I recommend you pick up the book “Sound FX” by Alex Case. It’s a very thorough book written in very simple terms. It’s excellent for a beginner.

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