>>66172041
Very carefully

>shits too loud and all over the place
>squash it to death with compressor
>magical shit sounds good now

there u go

>>66172121
Basically, but over-doing this can "sausage the fuck out if it" and that squashed sound can be worse than just turning the levels down, eqing properly, and automating your instrument and mix channel volumes in the first place. The first step to good production is to never be lazy.

we just don't know

>>66172101
this

>>66172041
First understand what it does.

A compressor literally compresses or squashes the dynamic range of the input signal - in other words the difference between the loudest and quietest volumes is decreased.

This is usually done to make elements which are dynamically too varied easier to mix, as if their volume is more constant they will not get lost in the mix.

With this in mind, the basic functionalities of a compressor should be made clear. For instance - ratio is the degree to which the compressor squashes the dynamic range. Turning this up will make the dynamic range more uniform. Why use this? To make sure that your compression is not so overdone it completely destroys all dynamic expression. Threshold will affect the volume at which the compressor begins to compress the dynamic range. Why use this? To make sure unwanted signal elements such as amp noise are not being unnecessarily amplified. Output is to compensate for any lost volume. The rest if obvious enough.

Never do anything just because. There should be a reason to use a compressor, if and you're not sure why you're using it, don't use it.

>>66172041
>in specific though..
I am not really sure what some of those controls are intended to represent "analog" and "punch" .... BUT for starters, a good way to use a compressor is this:

1) set ratio to max (sometimes labelled as infinity)
2) set attack/release to minimum, or if you notice clicky sounds, reduce to low/medium, this all depends on how the compressor was designed but it should be most useful with short attack and short release...
3) set threshold at maximum...

now as you hear the sound, roll the "threshold" lower and lower, as you raise the "output" higher to compensate the volume difference. this should simply shave the unwanted peaks and imperfect microphone placement out of the track without ruining the dynamics...

>included "mix" control
this is a godsend actually, basically this allows you to really tweak the comrpessor, and then you A/B it against the dry sound and sometimes you feel like the unprocessed sound has something better, well you can simply blend that back in with the mix knob!

>>66172352
>>66172352
make it "pump" in time with the music and beat. the pro-c fabfilter compresser has a cool visual that shows the compressor kicking in during playback which helps a ton with understanding attack and release

>>66172041
just a little bit to smooth out the sound. Over compression is a very easy mistake to make

JUST USE SAUSAGE FATTENER BRO