Setting the Attack Time of Compressors

The attack time of a compressor is the amount of time it takes for the compressor to activate after the signal has gone above the threshold level.

Most compressors allow you to adjust the attack time from about 1 millisecond up to about 150 milliseconds. I frequently use attack times between 1 and 35 milliseconds.

When it comes to the attack times affect on the human voice, it’s a good way of regulating how much of the transient sounds poke through before the compressor squashes them. The beginning of hard consonants is a good example of this – T’s, K’s, B’s, P’s, etc.

Some audio will sound better with more transients remaining unaffected, and other audio with harsh transients will sound better if you squash more of them.

It all comes down to taste, and it also depends on the voice, the mic, other processing, etc.

For instance, if you’re processing a voice that was connected using Skype, sometimes it’s good to have a longer attack time because Skype limits/crushes the audio quite a lot which can sometimes cause dulled transients.

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