Compression Effects

[Don Tillman]

   From: Plinio  Barraza <plinio at mail1.orientation.com>
   Date: Mon, 29 Nov 1999 12:57:49 US/Eastern

   When I work in the studio, I have gotten used to 
   boosting the high frequencies after compressing.  
   I'm not sure if this is a good aproach though.

Most instruments put out more high frequency energy when they're
louder.  A classic example is a guitar or bass string -- it starts
with a loud complex transient and fades out to something similiar to a
sine wave.  And drums, saxes, trumpets, pretty much every instrument
we listen to behaves this way.

Since a compressor makes loud things softer and soft things louder for
a living, it's not surprising that compressing a signal would reduce
the high frequency content averaged out over time.

  -- Don