I was talking about compression to a Custom Mix
Tutorial students yesterday and to explain the ratio I used a simple phrase that's easy to remember.
"The higher the ratio, the bigger the squeeze"
A compressor is essentially a tone-bender that squeezes your waveform.
An easy way to understand compression is like this:
Everything that goes over the threshold gets "bent" by the amount set by the ratio. The attack and release dictate how fast those bends are.
If your ratio go so high it becomes "limiting" you're essentially snapping the tops of the waveform. At that point your tone-bender becomes a pair of scissors.
It's a simple way to think about one of the most important parameters on your compressors, but I hope you find it useful.
If you'd like me to break compression down for you and show you exactly how to use it to make pro-sounding mixes, my Compression Masterclass is this Friday and you can register for it here.
Hope to see you there,
Björgvin