Dynamic Processors

Hi!, I am Mathias Hernandez, greetings from Lima Peru!, For this assignment I am going to talk
a bit about Dynamic Processors, of course, we are going to talk about the general and basic
aspects of these, because nowadays there are a lot of possibilities of dynamic processors out
there that give us lots of different colors to add to our music.
Dynamic processors, as their name states, manipulate the dynamic range of a signal. This
mean, that talking very basically they can modify amplitude and/or our perception of loudness.
They are usually Compressors, limiters or expanders and can be found analogically or
nowadays more commonly as Daw Plug-ins.
Let me give you an example of what a dynamic processor basically do. When you are driving
along and you hear a song you like, you rise the volume, however after a couple of seconds
maybe someone speaks to you and you lower it so you can hear what the person is talking.
However when te person stops talking you rise gently again. Here you are controlling the
volume of the song (audio signal), in order to dramatically balance the sound of your
surroundings to your audible confort zone. A dynamic processor does exactly the same, it
makes the louder quite and the quite louder or vice versa.
This is great news!, because usually when you record not everything is in a perfectly exact
volume setting. Singers for example sing words in a different volume, due to the natural air
pressure they need to reach notes. So here dynamic processors come in, they help us to
balance the performance and finally to make it more clear and stable within the whole mix.
But how?. A dynamic processor accomplishes this with 4 main function:
I will use the Logic Pro X plugin compressor named Vintage FET for the examples.

Threshold
I like to think of this as the on/off button. This is a customizable feature that allows us to set where the
whole dynamic process (in this case compression) will happen within a specific amplitude of an audio
signal. In other words the threshold property tells the plugin at which specific amplitude (volume) to kick
in.
For example if you set a threshold to -10db you are telling the plug in to attenuate everything over -10db,
or actually to start working at -10 db upwards.

The Threshold usually goes

from 0 db to - 50 db in this example
its set to -25.5db

Ratio
Now that we have set the threshold to where we want the plugin to start working, we need to think in the
amount of gain we want to reduce. This is what ratio does. It is showed as a input to output ratio because
here is where you select te actual amount of gain you want the threshold to filter. for example if we set it
to 1:1, the compresor is doing nothing, but if you set it to 10:1, the compressor will turn the input of 10 to
an a output of 1 (reducing it 10 times) and acting more as a limiter, because it sets up like a wall along the
threshold.

Here the Ratio is showing a 10:1

selection

Attack and Release

These are, in my opinion, two very important parameters, because they can work not only to get a better
sound, but also they can help as to create some cool effects while producing music. We already know
when the plug in will act, and how much will it act. Now we need to now how fast. For example if we are
ridding a fader, (manually lowering the volumen of a signal when it gets high and increasing its level when
it gets low) we are concise of not only how much to reduce it, but also how fast to move it downward and
upwards again, this is the basic concept of attack and release.
Attack: How fast the plug in reacts in lowering the audio signal (as if was lowering the fader)
Release: How fast the plug in lets go and allows the level return to it original volume.

Attack and Release are measured in ms, because it

is an actual time measurement.

Knee
This Compressor in particular as many others nowadays have a KNEE setting, which can be said to
modify the Soft or Hard parameter of the Compressor. When the signal passes the threshold serves as a
type of softener in order for the change in gain not to be so abrupt.

Here you can see what Knee Does, graphically it

increases the curve in the threshold point, in order
to soften the transition

Knee is measured in a scale from 0

to 1.0, being 1.0 the greatest softener
option

These are the basic ways in which a Dynamic Processor works. Limiters, Expanders and Compressors,
all share these 4 main characteristics, although what changes is mostly in some of them you can not see
them as a custom setting, but trust me, they are there. What I have personally learned is that this type of
processors not only help us go over the limit or make a stable volume but also with a bit of creativity
we can make them do crazy effects and even help us emphasize some points in a given recording.
Hope you enjoyed this review!